Jase Hawkins: The important radio philosophy Kyle Sandilands taught me

Sarah Grynberg with Jase Hawkins. Image: LinkedIn

Nova 100’s Jase Hawkins has opened up about the axing of his former KIIS Breakfast show and the important radio philosophy Kyle Sandilands taught him on the latest episode of Sarah Grynberg’s A Life Of Greatness podcast.

In the lead up to the demise of the Jase & Lauren Breakfast show on Melbourne’s KIIS 101.1, Jase says that he, Lauren Phillips and Clint Stanaway were being told in meetings that they weren’t good enough – or funny enough.

Of that experience, Jase laughs “Honestly, it was like being on the set of The Office.”

“The thing that killed me when the show blew up on KIIS, was that that was Clint and Lauren’s impression of radio. And they were like ‘This industry’s cooked, mate. This is so nasty what you guys do to each other.’”

“Because I LOVE radio. “And I’m like ‘Guys, this is NOT radio.’”

Radio was all Hawkins ever wanted to do.

Growing up in Brisbane, he listened religiously to B105’s Morning Crew every morning before school.

“If the Black Thunders were in the area, I’d beg Dad to drive me down to them,” he says.

A shy kid, when he finished school, Jase sent letters to every radio station in Queensland, asking if he could work for free.

“Eventually, Triple M Brisbane replied and said ‘Look, you can come in and answer the phones for two weeks.’ And I did that. And then they said ‘Look, you can just keep coming in if you want.’”

“So I did, and I think just being around that environment and earning my stripes, I think I started to gain a bit more confidence, and that eventually brought me out of my shell.”

Then Kyle Sandilands took over the night show.

He and Jase didn’t have the smoothest of introductions.

“I’ve said openly before, there was one night I stuffed something up and he threw a CD across the room and was like ‘What the f*ck are we paying you for?’ and I’m like ‘You don’t pay me. I’m a volunteer.’ Everyone in the building thought I was paid. Because I treated it like a job.”

Jase says Sandilands and the others on the show then campaigned for any bonus money to be paid to him.

When Sandilands moved to Sydney to work on The Hot 30 with Jackie O, Jase went with him. They shared a house together and bonded over radio.

“We’re just two radio nuffies,” says Jase, who was just nineteen at the time.

What was living with Sandilands like?

“Yeah, fine,” says Jase. “He never left the house. He would just watch Law & Order and drink two litres of Coke.”

Jase credits Sandilands with teaching him the importance of making the radio team a little family.

“I remember every Friday night we would all go to his house. Everyone who worked on the show. If you were a production guy, answering the phones, a stunt person – whoever you were – you were invited. Your partners were invited. And we’d all go to his place. Jackie (Henderson) would run murder mystery games. We’d order in pizzas.”

“The philosophy was: You make everyone feel a part of it, they’ll work harder for you.”