Taking an opportunity in Public Relations after more than ten years as a breakfast radio super star *cough* in regional Australia, I wondered if my skills would realistically translate.
I suspected some would i.e. knowing how to get people talking about a topic and knowing how to deal with newsreaders who’ve been up since 2:30am. But was PR all buzz words, cool suits and cocktail parties? Just like in that movie I watched that one time…actually, was The Devil Wears Prada even about PR?
Was I going to become a ‘corporate jerk’, as I’d been labelled by a former radio co-host? Was I even capable of traditional work hours? (I learnt pretty quickly that PR is not 9 to 5! #fail)
I can safely report that, after two years of public relations life, I’ve found the skills learnt in breakfast radio transfer brilliantly:
Understanding a brand and target audience,
Sourcing great talent (or making okay talent sound great!),
Keeping content short, sharp and to the point,
Knowing the media landscape,
Making quick decisions, and
Being able to work with people from all walks of life.
As well, to get the blood flowing, all our creative, innovative and effective PR content needs to be rolled out at speed across multiple platforms including social media.
To make it work, you have to be media obsessive, researching trends and current hot topics daily, inside and outside the office.
Another great crossover: in breakfast radio, you’re told to keep the talk breaks short (under two minutes in a perfect world). If you nail this one objective every single time, you win radio surveys.
Same goes in public relations: you make the most of every second to create content that excites and engages all sorts of audiences, from podcasts to videos and everything in between.
So, maybe there’s a little less gossip and giveaways in PR but it takes just as much imagination, resourcefulness and momentum as producing a top-rating timeslot!
...if you think working in radio is really good fun, it’s not. You need to double how much fun you think it is and then double it again.
Nige, 104.7
Nige, Radio Breakfast Show Host.
How did you get to where you are now?
It was a combination of things. I got half way through year 12 and didn’t know what to do, but I knew I didn’t want to go to university ‘cause I was tired of studying. A girl I knew at school had an uncle who was a journalist at 104.7 back in the day. I met him, he introduced me to the night time announcer who was on Kix 106.3 and we kind of became friends. He mentored me, taught me how to operate the panel, what a talk break was all about and how the whole industry worked - he essentially taught me through to the end of year 12.
Then I won a radio contest and went in to the station to record a winners promo and I got it right first the first take. The guy who was working at the time said “Man, that never happens. Normally it takes 35 goes but you got it first time.” He then introduced me to his boss who was looking for someone to do some part time work and I just fell into it from there.
TLDR: I got trained by my girlfriend’s uncle, then won some money on the Radio and got a job out of it that way.
Why did you become a radio presenter? You just kind of fell into it…
Two things I really enjoy are talking to people and music. My grandfather once said to me (I know its so clichéd but it’s true) “Nige, if you can find something you enjoy doing and find someone who will pay you to do it, you’ve succeeded in life and everything else is gravy on top of that”. And he was right. I did, and I am and it’s all true.
What do you love about your job? Besides talking and music.
I love that it’s not a “Normal” job. Every day I go to work something different happens. It’s not always good, but it’s never boring. I get to talk to Rob Thomas, chat with Jared Leto, I got to interview Destiny’s Child. The people you meet and the things that you learn on an everyday basis are just so much fun. I would go mad working in an office, I would last 10 minutes. This is a crazy job and its good fun.
Has there been a significant moment in your career?
One of the biggest things that ever happened in my job was the Canberra Bushfires in 2003. We had dealt with bushfires in different states (and locally to a smaller degree) but nothing like that, nothing like the firestorms that happened.
All the announcers arrived at the station, we got together and organised 6 hour on air shifts, we were live 24 hours a day while that bushfire was on which is unheard of, we normally had live announcers during the day but never overnight. That was hectic, it was eye opening, it was scary and I learned a lot of valuable lessons about contacts in the industry and making sure you have a good relationship with mobs like the Emergency Services Agency. We built a lot of strong relationships in those days and have kept them going since.
To be at the front of a disaster like that and have people call up looking for guidance and help and information and advice was intense. Up until that point my job had been pretty fun, I’d play some songs and give away some prizes and that was all there was to it. Dealing with people and tragedy at the forefront was a real eye opener. It was a weird time.
Would you still choose this career knowing what you know now?
Yes I would, absolutely.
If I could go back and teach myself a few things and say “don’t do this” or “do that” I would, but on the whole I wouldn’t change a thing.
Looking back at where you were when you started, winning the competition, where did you think it was going to lead you? Did you think it was going to get you a position in radio?
You know what, I never really thought about it that hard. I never imagined myself doing anything other than maybe working at a station like 2XL in Cooma, which was the first station I ever got a full time job at - but I certainly never saw myself doing the breakfast show. That’s always been, as far as radio shifts go, the top of the hierarchy. The breakfast show is right up there. I never really considered myself good enough to be at that level, nor did I want to get up that early. My boss did say to me that he wanted me to start doing breakfast radio and I shut him down probably 4 times saying there just isn’t enough money in the world to make me get up at three in the morning every day. But our old breakfast show team left, Scotty talked me into it and here we are eight years down the track. I thought maybe I would do it for a year, then I realised that breakfast radio is just like normal radio, but twice as much fun.
What do you wish you knew starting out? You said you wished you could go back to your younger self.
The biggest piece of advice I can give to anyone who is thinking about getting into this business is that, however glamourous you might think it is, it’s not. You need to take whatever glamour levels you expect, halve them, then halve them again and then you get somewhere in the vicinity of how glamourous this is not. By the same token, if you think working in radio is really good fun, it’s not. You need to double how much fun you think it is and then double it again. That’s the upside to it. It’s more fun than you’d think it would be.
If you’re thinking of getting into radio to make really big money, think again. People like Kyle Sandilands and Hamish and Andy, yes they are on big dollars, but at a local level you’d make more money being a low to mid-level public servant than you will in radio. It’s not a fancy rich industry, you really do have to be Kyle Sandilands or Hamish and Andy to make that sort of money, but it’s so much fun that it’s worth it. Do it.
What advice do you have for students wanting to get into the field?
This is probably not the answer you’re looking for but my answer would be, don’t study.
Study things like English and Mathematics and all the basics, learn to speak well, learn to write well, you should do that no matter what line of work you’re in.
You can study as much as you want, you can have as many bits of paper that say you know how to be a radio announcer, but you don’t until you’ve done it and you’re in the job and you’re actually in amongst the people who do it.
What we do for a living is not the sort of thing you can learn in a classroom. No disrespect to the courses mentioned ‘cause you can learn some things but the real skills you have to learn on the job.
You have to really want to do it, too. It’s one of those jobs that will very quickly sort out those who want to do it from those who don’t.
Early on in your career you’re going to work long hours and earn rubbish money, but I think a lot of people expect to walk in off the street straight into a capital city breakfast show job.
That’s not gonna happen.
You need to pay your dues somewhere out in the bush. I did 12 months in Cooma. You’ve got to cut your teeth and learn your skills somewhere else.
If you’re in Canberra and you want to get into radio, come to 104.7 and volunteer as a Black Thunder driver. I did it way back in the day that’s how I started. You’re in amongst it all on a daily basis, meeting and talking to all the people who work in the business.
If you can get your foot in the door, meet the right people doing something like driving Black Thunder, you’re in the right place, you’ll know the right people and a job will eventually come up if you’ve got the skills and the ability to do it.
Who do you look up to in your field?
One of the people I admire the most would be Mick Molloy. He and a bloke called Tony Martin use to have an afternoon show, similar to what Hamish and Andy have now but 15 – 20 years ago.
The things I respect about Mick Molloy are, one; He is an extremely good announcer and very natural on air, I could listen to him all day. Two; He doesn’t get bogged down in the circus that radio can often become.
There are a lot of very well payed older guys in fancy suits who sport buzz phrases and try and tweak things to tap into specific markets, whereas Mick Molloy never fell into that, he always kept it real and said what he actually thought and will quite happily stand up at conferences these days and say “look, the bosses don’t always have it right, sometimes you need to break the rules to get things done and there is no formula for what should be.”
There is no such thing as doing it wrong in my business, there’s only doing things differently, which is often conceived as wrong. That was the thing with Mick Molloy, he always stuck with what he believed and would stand up and be counted for that. I’ve seen him speak at conferences and do keynote speeches and tell the god’s honest truth about how the industry is and he is one of the few people who actually does. It can be really shallow at times but Mick is one of those real people who genuinely love what they do and will tell the truth all the time.
What helps you get through your day?
Coffee, and a genuine love and respect for the people I work with.
I’ve known Scotty going on 20 years now, Joe our producer he is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for either of them. Knuckles is amazing, she’s great fun. The guys I work with on a day-to-day basis are awesome people and we just work well together. Seeing them everyday and getting to work with them every day is a privilege. That combined with coffee helps me get through my day.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
If you want to work in Radio, do it, its awesome. The money is rubbish, the hours are long, but it doesn’t matter because it beats the hell out of working for a living.
If you live in Canberra and surrounds and want to listen in to Scotty & Nige for breakfast tune in to 104.7 from 6am. @ScottyandNige @1047Canberra
Follow sunrise around the world and listen to Global Breakfast Radio 24 hours a day
Put aside your cynicism a moment, this is a very nice thing
Global Breakfast Radio lets you feel like you're having breakfast in Lima, Nepal, California, or wherever morning happens to be happening right now.
GBR features 250 radio stations, including at least one for every time zone on the planet, and the site even tells you what the weather's like in the place you're listening to.
It's a lovely little reminder of how big and varied the world is.
It's also the closest we're going to get to time travel any time soon, so pretend you're Doctor Who and make the most of it.
