Power FM’s Julia Zass is hanging up the headphones

The end of an era is fast approaching at Ballarat’s 103.1 Power FM, as a station favourite prepares to say goodbye.

After 13 years and seven co-hosts, popular breakfast presenter Julia Zass is hanging up the headphones.

Julia – a Melbourne girl and self-confessed gym junkie who decided to settle in the local area with her husband – tells Radio Today family reasons are behind her decision to leave.

“Returning to work after welcoming my daughter in 2021 was a big juggle. I was finishing the show and racing home to look after her before my husband would start his workday.”

“Ultimately, I couldn’t give everything I wanted for my daughter or for the brekkie show.”

While she might not miss the super-early starts, Julia was never really fazed by them.

“I’d be lying if I said getting up at 4.45 in the depths of Ballarat’s winter was easy, but as long as I have that daily afternoon power nap, I’m usually good to go for the rest of the day. That and coffee, who knew?”

Julia’s radio journey started back in her university days. Whilst studying Visual Merchandising, she signed up as a volunteer at community radio station SYN FM.

“I ended up loving it so much, I did away with Visual Merchandising and signed up to the Post Grad in Commercial Radio at Swinburne Uni, studying under the great Jim Barbour.”

Julia says there have been many highlights over her 13 year journey with Power FM, from turning Ballarat pink for Pink Day to tossing tuna at Tunarama.

But one memory perhaps stands out more than most, and for all the wrong reasons.

Julia must surely take the prize for radio’s most extraordinary baptism of fire, and it was all thanks to a farting cow.

“We were in the midst of a promotion where we went out and did random jobs each day of the week. I was allocated the dairy farm job and not only had to milk a cow, but also had to check a pregnant cow, which – as fate would have it – involved me arm deep up a cow’s rear.”

“It was already a very surreal (and gross) situation, then the cow had the audacity to let one rip on me! Safe to say I haven’t been back to a dairy farm since!”

Julia will finish up on air on Friday, September 30.

And Power FM General Manager John Fitzgibbon tells Radio Today she’ll be sorely missed by the listeners throughout Victoria‘s Central Highlands region who’ve come to enjoy her company each morning.

“What I love about Jules’ story, besides the longevity in a brekkie shift, is that she is a Melbourne girl who has met her husband and now started a family and settled here.”