When radio was like cowboy country: Wendy Harmer opens up to 2GB’s Phil O’Neil

For Wendy Harmer, to still be able to make money from what comes out of one’s sometimes addled brain is quite an achievement.

“I have been able to make a living off my wits for all these years,” the radio legend marvels in her recent wide-ranging chat with 2GB and 4BC Overnights host Phil O’Neil.

“And there have been people who’ve variously loved me, hated me, indifferent, don’t care … oh, is she dead yet? I’m still here, kickin’. I reckon that’s not bad.”

A force to be reckoned with in the FM space, Harmer was the first woman on Australian radio to command a million-dollar salary, long before the likes of Jackie Henderson.

During her eleven-year tenure (and often 16 hour days) co-hosting 2DayFM Breakfast with Paul Holmes and Peter Moon, Harmer consistently blitzed the ratings, winning 84 out of 88 surveys.

Harmer fought hard to maintain a strong voice in the days when commercial radio was like ‘cowboy country.’

“Whatever you reckoned you could get on air and say – and that included dumping on the bosses – once that door was closed and the red light was on, away you went,” she says.

“I’m not sure that it was quite the same as Kyle and Jackie O thesedays, but certainly there was a very free and easy way of being able to present yourself on air, and you didn’t really feel the weight of management on you.”

Wendy had a free hand in all the hijinx.

There were promotions she declined to be a part of – including giving away free plastic surgery for female listeners.

Though Harmer did preside over an on-air promotion in which the contestant had to eat a cockroach in order to win State of Origin tickets.

“We had these giant, burrowing Queensland cockroaches (which were) spread with peanut butter,” Harmer recalls.

“I will never forget the crunch on air as someone ate one of them. I felt so bad for the other cockroaches, I actually took them home in a terrarium for a couple of years.”

Harmer started her media career as a journalist at the Sun News Pictorial, considered the biggest newspaper in Australia at the time.

One day she was asked to cover a story on alternative comedy. Harmer took herself off to a venue in Melbourne, where Steve Vizard, Richard Stubbs and Gina Riley were among the stand-up performers.

“I just sat there and thought, Oh my goodness, this is best thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life.”

Inspired, Harmer started going out to more comedy venues. A month later, she announced she was quitting journalism to become a comedian.

She had no idea how she’d go. She simply knew she had to have a crack.

For Harmer – who was born with a cleft palate – being up front in the spotlight was an opportunity to confront her demons.

“I’d been picked on and teased so much all my life – part of me was ‘Look at? I’ll give you something to look at !!’”

Today, at the age of 70, Harmer feels genuinely content with life.

“Happiness and contentment isn’t a thing that drops out of the sky,” she says. “You have to really work on it.”

“As of this moment right now, I’m happy with who I am.”

Images supplied.