Love, lockdowns and a radio station for tradies, why Archie is home

After a 2-year stint working in radio in the UK and making the “30 Under 30 Class of 2021” (UK), Archie Arenson is back in Australia hosting breakfast in Townsville on Power100.

“After living through 4 lockdowns and enough overcast weather to last a lifetime, the opportunity to come back to Oz and do breakfast radio while living on The Great Barrier Reef was just too good to be true,” Archie said.

What prompted you to move to the UK? 

I moved to the UK for love! As a very romantic gesture, I decided to head over to England to pursue a relationship – leaving in March 2020 right as the pandemic started to get insane and I feared with international borders closing I wouldn’t make it. Thankfully I did make it and reminding my girlfriend Lucy that I moved across the world for her *during a pandemic* has become something of a running joke that I like to remind her of daily.

I was fortunate to have secured a job in UK radio before I left, however, my employment was paused immediately on my arrival as covid had shut the entire world down. I began working in June 2020.

My decision to move back came after I was approached by Grant Broadcasters about hosting a new breakfast show in Townsville in early 2022. My partner and I had discussed the idea of moving to Australia together in 2022 and when the offer officially came it was too good to refuse and the timing felt right for both of us to move to Oz as borders had finally come down and I could get my British partner a visa.

Where in the UK did you work?

Fix Radio. An independent commercial radio station for tradespeople.

Is there any difference between commercial radio in Australia and in the UK? 

I feel that musically there is a lot more variety in UK commercial radio with more genres available to the listener. Some stations like Absolute Radio allow listeners the ability to listen to one breakfast show but have the choice of 9 different genres of music playing between talk breaks (70’s, 80’s, 90’s, etc) which blows my mind! Brands also have dedicated spin-off stations like Heart Dance, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s.

Their competitions are run slightly differently to Australia as well, with premium text mechanics a common form of entry – charging listeners to enter. It means major stations are giving away upwards of AUD$30k a day pretty much all year round.

Archie was the workday announcer on 98.1 Power FM for 2 years before moving to WA to work with SCA, presenting shows on both Hit and Triple M out of the hub in Bunbury.