“It’s the people in this business who really matter to me.” Steve Ahern on 30 years of Radioinfo

When Steve Ahern first pondered the idea of publishing a radio industry newsletter, he visualised it as a printed magazine.

It was the mid-nineties, but Steve’s wife Serena – a teacher and librarian – was already ahead of the curve.

Serena suggested an internet publication was the way to go.

Steve had been working at the ABC, and – as he shares on The Quarter Hour podcast – “They were trying very hard to ignore the internet at the time.”

“But I’ve always been interested in technology!”

Starting its life as the AMT radio industry newsletter in 1996, the trade publication changed its name to Radioinfo in 2002, and has been chronicling the evolution of Australia’s radio and podcasting industries ever since.

This month, Radioinfo will celebrate its 30th birthday.

Of his early vision for Radioinfo, Steve says “I just thought there was a need.”

Growing up in Sydney, Steve caught the radio bug early. His school just happened to be situated across the road from the studios of 2UE.

“So I was one of those kids who would bother them,” he smiles. “I learned the craft from a lot of great people there and got some casual work.”

It was the early days of community radio. Steve was enjoying his involvement in the sector when his mum suggested he’d need a ‘real job.’

Completing a teaching degree, Steve says “I went out to the bush and taught primary school in Brewarrina for a few years. And just down the road – now when I say ‘just down the road,’ I mean 100 kilometres of red dirt road – but just down the road was Bourke with a new community station called 2WEB and I volunteered to do weekend shifts there.”

After a few years of teaching, 2WEB offered Steve a full-time job.

Steve looked forward to the days when the Monday edition of the Sydney Morning Herald was delivered, heading straight for the radio column.

“I thought, there’s got to be some better way of reporting what’s going on in this industry all around Australia, rather than waiting for some newspaper person to report it.”

Steve was interested in the business of radio, and how it was changing.

His Radioinfo publication followed the newspaper model. Job ads. Classifieds. Display ads. Advertorials.

Companies like RCS have been there from the very beginning.

“I had to work hard,” says Steve. “I had to learn about selling. I don’t really like it. I prefer reporting! But when you’ve got to run a business, you have to do it.”

Then the readers came. Steve said the job ads just kept falling from the sky.

“Because, all around Australia, people could just read it in real time, not wait for two or three weeks for something to be mailed.”

He ended up charging for job ads. There was enough money to pay for it and make some money as well.

What does Steve consider the biggest news story in Radioinfo’s 30 years?

We’re living through it now.

You guessed it: the collapse of the Kyle & Jackie O Show.

“But when you’ve lived through the 30 years, you see the significance of it,” Steve adds. “So, yes, this is the biggest story, but what was it – more than a decade ago – the biggest story was also Kyle and Jackie O leaving 2DayFM to go to KIIS. Then the big stories before that were other personalities leaving, like John Laws leaving one station and taking his audience with him and Alan Jones doing the same.”

“It’s a story about when personalities get bigger than the station brand.”

And the one that got away?

“John Cleese was very rude when he was at the ACRAs and he declined to do a full interview,” Steve recalls.

He did offer a couple of words – (think ‘bugger off.’)

Steve has worked all over the world, but says at the end of the day, “It’s the people in this business that really matter to me.”

“I love the connection, big or small, with everybody who I’ve written about.”