Radio milestones for Newy 87.8FM’s Darren McErlain

Drive presenter and journalist Darren McErlain has been entertaining local audiences across Newcastle and the New South Wales Central Coast on Newy 87.8FM for more than 1000 consecutive days.

Since May 2020, Darren has broadcast from his humble studio in Sydney’s west, the same studio that hosted close to 700 Drive shows on AirFM in Penrith from 2017-2019.

Now, Darren has a couple of big milestones to celebrate.

On February 2, Darren will present his 1000th show in Newcastle.

He also recently filed his 2000th story for Australian Independent Radio News (AIR News).

Darren began is radio journey at a very young age.

“I started off in community radio WOW-FM in Penrith back in 1991 when I was just 16.”

“I still have my first broadcast on audio cassette tape that set the standard of what awful sounds like!”

Photo: Darren and fellow Newy FM host Paul Rothapfel.

Darren says radio can be a competitive market with audiences very spoilt for choice – if the content on the AM or FM radio isn’t your cup of tea, you can always click on an internet radio station streamed from the other side of world.

“An alternate option is to sit in silence. This is only okay until your own mental podcast kicks in and starts doing laps inside your head. That is probably not the entertainment you are looking for,” says Darren.

“The inner-voices are your own material based on your own life, and that is not the perfect escapism; let radio do the hard work for you to take your mind off things.”

When Newy 87.8FM streams on newy.com.au, the loyal fan base online continues to grow. It is here the audience can make a connection with a regular voice.

Newy 87.8FM has ROX the piano man singer Paul Rothapfel hosting afternoons 1-4pm weekdays, Tamworth radio star Diana Lampard does Weekend Start 9-1pm and station engineer Rod Breis (pictured in above photo with Darren) reports on the traffic often during Darren’ Drive home from 4-6pm.

Darren says “I always put myself in the audience’s shoes to help make that quick personal connection. Everyone has a different size and style shoe so I create the illusion I am sitting next to them in the car, and pump out that next song before they explore the choices out there.”

Darren has notched up 32 years of corporate/television voiceovers, as well as 20 years as a primary school teacher.

“It will be a year to pop open a few bubbles, in a radio kind of way.”

Catch Drive with Darren McErlain on Newy 87.8FM and newy.com.au 7 days per week, 4-6pm (AEST) and his AIR News stories on various stations across Australia.

Follow the show on Facebook @drive426