Megan Smith: Mortifying moments and why it pays to have a thick skin in radio

Megan Smith. Image: Instagram

Radio can be a breeding ground for mortifying moments. We’ve all had them. It’s what we do with them that counts.

Megan Smith’s mortifying radio moment was more spectacular than most. But hers is a story how a truly awkward situation turned into content gold.

As Senior Producer for Gold 101.7’s Jonesy & Amanda, one of Megan’s jobs is to book guests for the show.

As Megan shares with Serena Ahern in Radioinfo’s Wisdom of Women in Media series: “We had a segment called Mystery Footy Tipper where we would get someone in like in a footy superstar and they would do their tips for the round of footy that week.”

“They wanted Fatty Vautin, so I got Fatty’s number from the Bible, which is our Excel sheet with everyone’s number in the industry.”

Megan typed in Fatty’s number. Or so she thought.

Unbeknownst to Megan, she was texting Hollywood actor Rachel Griffiths.

“Hey, it’s Megan from Jonesy and Amanda. We do this segment called Mystery Footy Tipper. The guys would absolutely love to have you on …”

“I thought I was texting Fatty and he replied saying “Who is this? How’d you get my number?” says Megan.

“Someone said to me that he apparently doesn’t like it unless you call him Fatty. So I texted back an apology: “Fatty. I thought it was appropriate to call you by your first name … I’m so sorry.”

“The reply came back, “So now you’re calling me fatty? Is that what you get paid to do?”

“I felt like I was dying and then I thought, this has to be the wrong person.”

Megan desperately wanted to apologise and explain to Griffiths that she had the wrong number. But she’d been blocked.

“Then I thought I’m going to get sacked!”

Then came a message to Jonesy & Amanda’s Instagram page.

“[It was] from Rachel Griffiths, saying ‘Your producer called me fat’ and other stuff,” Megan says.

“When I heard I thought, Oh, my gosh. I called Rachel Griffiths fat. She’s blocked me so I can’t explain the misunderstanding. This is horrible. The worst. I’m going to get fired.”

“I remember people at work were laughing because they knew it was an accident.”

“I thought, Jonesy and Amanda are going to kill me.”

“We decided to tell Jonesy on air what had happened because he really wanted Fatty Vautin and I felt too petrified to message another person called Fatty.”

So Megan went on air and told the story. The snippet was posted on TikTok.

It went viral. Within eight hours, there had been 7 million views.

“It was literally me saying ‘Please don’t fire me. I screwed up.’”

It was raw, authentic radio. And it resonated with every other person who has screwed up at some time in their life.

To message somebody by mistake is to be human, no matter how old we are.

“I know my mum has messaged the wrong person and young people have messaged the wrong person,” says Megan. “People thought it was hilarious because Fatty Vautin is a well-known footy icon and Rachel Griffiths is a well-known icon in film.”

But this particular screw up turned out OK. Better than OK. In fact, the segment ended up being nominated for an ACRA.

The lesson here? That the best content is created when you are your authentic self.

Megan – who previously co-hosted the Radio Today Podcast – says when you work in radio, it also helps to grow a thick skin.

“A thick skin is important in this industry because you’re going to be told things you don’t want to hear. You’re going to be told your idea is basically shit.”

“You need to be able to take that feedback and learn from it.”

More stories from Radioinfo’s Wisdom of Women in Radio series here.