Sam and Ant: The radio pairing that was meant to be

We all know that great on-air chemistry is one of the hallmarks of a successful breakfast radio show.

But there’s never any guarantee that on-air partners will end up being great mates outside the studio as well, which is why Samual Mansfield and Anthony Johnston make a formidable team.

Better known as Sam and Ant, Breakfast co-hosts at Goulburn’s 93.5 Eagle FM, the duo clicked from the moment they first met.

And when you chat to them both, this quickly becomes apparent. They are funny, easygoing and very much at ease in one another’s company.

Sam was already part of Eagle’s on-air line up and flying solo when, in September last year, Ant arrived at the Capital Radio Network station to take up a new job as an Announcer and Operations Assistant.

Ant’s timing couldn’t have been better. Sam – who’d recently been through a break-up – had been on the verge of calling it quits.

“Ant man has kind of been my saving grace,” Sam tells Radio Today. “I was like – OK, I’m ready to chill out for a bit and go and do something easy.”

Hosting a radio show demands that you not only give yourself, you give one hundred percent, and Sam was no exception.

“I’m sure you can understand – it can be very tough and very taxing on your personal life. It sort of becomes your entire life,” he says.

“But Ant came along and he was hungry and he was keen.”

Sam decided to give it another crack, and so began their journey together as an on-air team.

Ant tells Radio Today “It’s actually surprised me how well we get along. We’ve gone to a few festivals and stuff outside of work.”

“We’re very close now.”

Sam wanted his radio co-host to be somebody he could go for a beer with afterwards. In Ant, he hit the jackpot.

“He’s a great bloke.” Sam smiles. “We get along really well.”

Sam says that if he or Ant is having an ‘off’ day at work, they pull each other up.

“I said before we started ‘Look, there are going to be times that we hate each other, but as long as we’re respectful and we get through the day … if you can only give 20%, then I’ll give 80%, and vice versa.”

Ant agrees. “There are days we bicker. We call them weekdays,” he says, and they both laugh.

“As Sam says, if one of us might be feeling a bit sick or something like that, the other person will sort of step in and take the lead on a couple of talk breaks.”

“I think we complement each other really well.”

Radio had long been on the radar for Sam, who grew up in Adelaide.

“I pretty much always wanted to be a radio announcer since I was a young buck,” he says.

Around the age of twelve, Sam remembers sitting in the car, pointing to the radio and saying to his mum “I want to do this.”

“So it’s always been in the pipeline,” says Sam.

Ant – who hails from Normanhurst in Sydney’s northern suburbs – always dreamed of working in the entertainment industry in some capacity.

“My parents were really supportive,” he says. “Radio was always something that I was really fond of and thought I could do well at it.”

“So I gave it crack. And I’m very happy to be here now.”

Sam’s radio journey started taking shape at Adelaide community station Fresh FM, where he produced the Loz and Thomo Breakfast show.

He also studied radio under the guidance of the Australian Radio School’s Sean Craig Murphy.

Ant did an online course at AFTRS. Then an opportunity to get his foot in the door emerged.

“My friend Tom – who works in sales at Nova – got me into the Street Team there,” Ant says.

As well as co-hosting a community radio show in Hornsby, Ant did everything he could to upskill during his time at Nova.

“I got a part time job there in promotions. Then I saw this job pop up for Goulburn.”

Ant applied for the position and soon, he was packing his bags for the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales.

The rest is history.

Heavily involved as they are in the local community, this Friday (April 4th), Sam and Ant will DJ a party at The Empire Hotel in Goulburn to raise money for the Children’s Cancer Institute.

As for what lies ahead in terms of their career, Sam says “I’m pretty keen to keep us together and see where we can go.”

“We’d love to go to one of the big dogs where they have free muffins and free stuff,” he laughs. “That’s the ideal plan, but we’ll see how we go.”

Ant’s goal is similar.

“Sam and I are very keen to market ourselves as a duo. The end goal is to be able work at one of the capital cities at one of the major stations in Australia.”

“We obviously know there are a lot of steps before that. But that’s definitely the end goal for us.”

That, and putting smiles on people’s faces.

“I think our ethos for what we’ve put out on air is to keep it light, keep it fun, and make sure whoever we have on (the show) is having a good time,” says Ant.