Myf Warhurst: “Radio is relentless. You never clock on and off.”

“Radio felt a little wild, a little reckless, a little dangerous. I’ve always been attracted to that.”

Myf Warhurst opens up about her foray into radio – and the challenges of hosting Triple M Breakfast in Melbourne – in her new book Time Of My Life.

Having initially worked in print media, Myf admits radio hadn’t been on her radar.

“I’d gone from thinking I would become an art curator of sorts, doing a bit of writing on the side, to flipping the tables completely and choosing my new love, radio.”

In the late 90s, Myf was heavily involved in the Melbourne music and arts scene. She volunteered at public radio station 3RRR and – through her comedy connections – landed her first big break.

Then-triplej hosts Merrick and Rosso asked Myf to provide a weekly entertainment report on their show.

Myf jumped at the chance.

“Radio seemed to be everything that print was not. Sure, you had to prepare in advance, but it was immediate, both in output and connection with the listener. That was a rush.”

Myf started doing mid dawn shifts on triplej and was then offered her own show on Saturday nights, gradually moving on to host the lunchtime and breakfast shifts.

Myf says “I don’t listen to triplej much anymore, because it’s not for me. It’s not meant for me. I am way too old and I should be uncomfortable listening at times because I am not the demographic they’re aiming at. Rusted-on triplej listeners sometimes find this hard to grasp.”

“It becomes pretty obvious when you’re too old for the Youth Network, and by the time I left, at the age of thirty-four, some around the building considered me to be positively geriatric.”

“It was time to go. I was being courted by a commercial network, Triple M, with an offer to work with my friend and talented, so-naturally-hilarious-it-hurts comic Pete Helliar in a breakfast radio gig in my hometown, which was far too good to pass up.”

The pair started at Triple M in January 2008.

“Pete and I were sent in to replace an outgoing and long-serving, much loved breakfast show. We knew it would be an uphill climb from the start but remained unfazed and prepared for it. We had jokes about the band Nickelback ready to go …”

“Our first year was tumultuous. Our ratings were flailing and we were struggling to juggle the commercial with the creative. By the end of the year we were feeling very uncertain about our jobs, the show and our future at Triple M.”

Myf pays tribute to Richard Marsland, the late comedy writer and presenter who became not just a workmate but a very dear friend.

“After the final show of the year, we had lunch at the pub next door to celebrate the fact we’d made it through.”

Ever the gentleman, Myf says Richard helped bundle her into a cab afterwards.

“I will never forget the certainty with which he said to me that day ‘Goodbye, Myf.’”

Richard took his own life the following day, sending shockwaves through the industry.

Myf says “Radio has been the place where I’ve experienced some of the greatest highs and lows of my career. It’s where I’ve put all of myself in, because it’s impossible not to. When you do a radio job you never clock on and off, it’s relentless. You’re always working and looking for content.”

“It’s my great love and my great frustration, because it never feels like you will ever get it right. And that’s the point. It’s perfect in its imperfection because it’s delivered by a human, not an algorithm.”

“The show with Pete limped along after Richard’s death but we both knew the day was coming. By July 2009 it was over. But my radio career wasn’t. Years later, I was happily living in London when Australian radio boss Meagan Loader approached me to return to Australia to help start up a radio station at the ABC.”

That station would be called Double J.

Excerpts from Time Of My Life by Myf Warhurst. Published by Hachette Australia.

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