“You realise there’s a whole new world out there.” Mike Byrne on life outside the radio bubble

This time last year, Mike Byrne wasn’t entirely sure if he’d ever work in radio again.

But there was one thing he did know for certain.

After his CD role with ARN Sydney was made redundant, retraining in a totally different field was exactly what he needed at that stage of his life.

In November 2024 – mere days after steering Sydney’s WSFM (now GOLD 101.7) to #1 in GfK Survey 7 – the radio industry was shocked to learn of his axing. It didn’t make sense.

Byrne copped it on the chin.

“You serve yourself much better by maintaining an air of dignity,” Byrne tells Radio Today. “It’s better for the people around you. And then for your mental health, going and doing something different is good.”

Driving buses for a living was a deliberate choice.

“I knew I had the best job in radio, with the best team, and I’d had the most success I’d ever had in my career. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to replicate that immediately,” Byrne says.

“I made a very conscious decision to go and do something completely different.”

Now, after a thoroughly enjoyable stint as coach captain for Port Stephens Coaches, gap year is officially over, with Byrne heading back to the lion’s den of commercial radio, appointed Group Content Director for the Super Radio Network.

In his new role, Byrne will be based out of SRN’s Newcastle offices, overseeing 46 stations in 25 markets, including Taree’s 2RE, where he started his radio career back in 1989.

Well-liked within the industry, Byrne lives by the motto don’t be a d**khead. Treating other people in the way he expects to be treated is a life philosophy that’s served him well.

“I’ve had a relatively long career in an industry that’s notoriously fickle,” he says.

“I’ve always gone with the idea that you roll with the punches. You treat people well and they hopefully treat you back well. And sometimes when they don’t, you just have to move on.”

Byrne is very much a glass-half-full kind of guy.

“I think I’m an optimistic person, and I know it’s a cliché, but I do look at things like a redundancy or a departure from a role as ‘What’s the next opportunity?’”

Byrne will tell you there’s a lot to be said for having the courage to tackle a something completely different career-wise when you’re in your fifties.

“To go and retrain in an entirely new industry that is totally unrelated to the one you’ve been in for thirty-plus years was very good for my mental health. It was good for my relationship. And I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.”

“And actually, going back into radio was something I was very reluctant about, because I’ve had such a good time doing it.”

“It doesn’t work for everyone. But I didn’t want to be that guy getting up every day scouring the radio gossip sites and Radio Today for job ads and moving around the countryside and all of that stuff … which we all do in radio, particularly when we’re younger.”

“I wasn’t doing that. I wasn’t doing it for me. I wasn’t doing it for my partner, or for anybody around me. I thought, nup – I want to go and do something different.”

As luck would have it, Byrne already had a heavy vehicle licence, but had barely used it.

“I actually got that in a radio stunt back in the early nineties in Nowra,” he laughs. “I just had it in my back pocket all this time.”

Spending time out of the radio industry has certainly given Byrne a fresh perspective on life.

“Radio really is a bubble,” he says. “You get out of it and you work with other people who aren’t in that bubble and never have been, and you realise there’s a whole new world out there. I know everyone says it, but it’s absolutely true.”

Now, he can’t wait to dive back in and get his feet under the desk at SRN.

“This is probably the unicorn role for me, in respect to the scale of the job,” he says.

“For Rhys (Holleran) to approach me about this – and knock together a very enticing job description and interesting remit – I was like … yep! I did think about it long and hard.”

“I think there’s a huge amount of opportunity there to effect some change for the better.”

“I’m actually super excited about the challenge ahead.”