About me
For the greater part of the past 20 years my work has involved talking to people, most recently as a radio announcer on Adelaide's FIVEaa.
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For 9 years, until February 2020 I was host of FIVEaa's overnight talk-back radio program.
Being an 'open-line' talk format I spoke to people from all walks of life on all manner of topics. From the heavy political stories of the day through to the lighter side of life. From people sharing their memories, or those who just wanted to get something off their chest.
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The focus for me was always to find each person’s unique story, a story that will keep people listening to the radio.
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I applied that approach regardless of whether the discussion at hand was about the latest political or social development, favourite songs and movies, or even callers who just wanted someone to talk to.
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The point is, everyone has their own perspective and their own experiences regarding any issue, which makes what they have to say unique.
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The best way to achieve this I found, is to listen, to ask questions and then to paraphrase back to the caller what I have understood to be their story. This clarifies what they have spoken about so that I and the listeners to the radio station understand their story.
I learnt a lot about communication during my time as a volunteer telephone counsellor with LIFELINE in Adelaide.
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In 2000 I undertook Lifeline’s comprehensive training course that equips telephone counsellors with the skills to work in the phone room.
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The course covered a range of social and other issues callers to Lifeline raise and, importantly, it taught us high level communication skills such as active listening, open and closed questions, paraphrasing, conflict resolution, and other interpersonal communication.
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Following the completion of the course I spent 2 years as a volunteer telephone counsellor learning a great deal about listening and talking to people and understanding their reason for calling.
These skills became indispensable in what was then my future work in radio.
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I was a volunteer broadcaster at Radio Adelaide, back when it was operated by Adelaide University, then in 2005 I secured a staff position as presenter of the breakfast program. This was a news and magazine style of show put together by a team of volunteers, many of them journalism or media studies students.
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My role included managing the breakfast program team, facilitating training as required and working with them to plan and then broadcast each program Monday to Friday.
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The style and focus of the program meant I was interviewing politicians, musicians, artists, academics, sports people, doctors, in fact the program covered just about every topic conceivable.
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The common factor – everyone had a story to tell, and it was my job to uncover that story.
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I remained with Radio Adelaide until December 2010 when the opportunity arose to move to FIVEaa and host the weekday overnight talk program. In January 2020 a network decision was made to end the local live overnight program, making my position redundant.
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My working life has been long and varied, beginning in 1979 with an apprenticeship as a Printing Machinist at The Advertiser. Other printing jobs over the years included with The Courier Mail newspaper in Brisbane, a book printer at Griffin Press and a wine label printer at Collotype Labels.
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I’ve also worked as a fruit picker, courier driver, telemarketer and labourer.
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In other media work I have been a copy writer and provided voice overs for radio and television commercials, training and promotional videos and messages on hold.
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During 2019 I began examining the various skills I’ve learnt through my working life, with a view to determining future opportunities. I concluded that with my broad life experience as well as skills and experience in communication, public speaking and creative writing I was well suited to become a Civil Celebrant and began studying for a Certificate IV in Celebrancy.
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As a Celebrant I have decided to focus on funeral services as I enjoy learning about people and their lives and enjoy the creativity in planning and writing a service that pays tribute and honours a person and their life.
