CHASING MY "ON AIR" DREAM 

"FOUR DOUBLE G ON THE GOLD COAST -WITH GREG NEWMAN!" 

It was a weeknight in early 1979. I sat on the opposite side of the studio broadcast desk watching my friend, with envy as he went through the paces of his evening music shift on the local commercial radio station in Surfers Paradise on Queensland's Gold Coast. Greg had already logged up radio dj stints in Ballarat in regional Victoria, Hobart in Tasmania and at a station in Melbourne, the Victorian capital. Greg had arrived on the Goldie in 1978 to work for 4GG. Someone told me Greg was a committed Christian so I introduced myself to him at a community fair where he was doing live crosses to the station.

    We soon became good friends and I lived with him for several months in his rented flat on Chevron Island in Surfers Paradise.

As I sat in the 4GG studio watching Greg, how I longed to be in his place, with my own radio program. Since my early teens, I had dreamed of becoming a radio announcer on a commercial station. I was an avid listener to all the commercial radio stations within range of where I lived and picked up others in more distant towns late at night.

    I visited two of the local stations to watch announcers in action and took the opportunity to observe them at work when presenting their music shifts from mobile caravan studios at shopping centres and at the beach. 4GG also had two "satellite studios," small glassed enclosures permanently located at Sundale Shopping Centre in Southport at the northern end of the Gold Coast and one at Tweed Mall, Tweed Heads at the southern end. Fortunately for me, my dad had three photographic and music stores, two of which were at these shopping centres, so when I was working there, I could see the announcers when they did their music shifts from these studios.

  

 But along with my heartfelt desire to make it into radio on air as an announcer, there was also a sense of frustration. I knew that my right-sided facial paralysis, from birth, which affected my speech (as well as my appearance) would present a major hurdle to the realisation of my dream.

    I would often record 'mock' programs on my reel-to-reel tape recorder (hey, I'm showing my age) at home, feeling excited that I sounded just like the announcers I listened to. When played back, however, the realisation was that the problems in my speech were quite pronounced.

    When I became a Christian at the age of 16, my desire for radio did not wane. However, I completed Grade 12 two years later and radio had to take a lesser priority in my life as I ventured into the world of employment.

    Initially, I undertook hospital-based general nursing studies in Sydney and Brisbane before working in my father's three shops on the Gold Coast for six years in the seventies, interrupted for two years by my attendance of Bible college in Lower Hutt near Wellington, New Zealand.

While in New Zealand for those two years, my desire for radio resurfaced - this time with the dream that I might work in a Christian radio station.

    New Zealand had a group of people with a vision to establish a permanent Christian radio network. At that point in time, their first permanent licence had not been granted, however.

    The vision for Christian radio in New Zealand was championed by Richard (Dick) Berry, who, in 1960 as a young man in Christchurch, had been healed by God of severe back pain. He told the Lord that he would commit his life to fully serving Him in whatever direction He would lead him. The Lord birthed in Richard the vision to establish Christian broadcasting in New Zealand, at a time when the only radio stations across the nation were government-owned and operated. There were not even any non-government commercial stations at the time.

    Returning to Australia at the beginning of 1978, I again found work in my father's business. My radio aspirations were fuelled by a 30 week (one night per week) radio/TV course conducted by local media professionals in Brisbane. The principals were Jim Iliffe, well-loved for his television kids show "The Channel Niners," and commercial radio veteran, John Knox.

    At the end of the course, I sent applications with recorded "air-check" tapes to a number of country commercial stations in Queensland and New South Wales. Some of the replies were encouraging but the 'big break' eluded me.

Did I ever fulfill my dream of becoming a radio announcer? To find out, tune in.....oops, I mean keep an eye out for the next instalment in my "Chasing My On Air Dream" blog posts.

In the meantime, why not check out www.vision.org.au This is the website for Vision Christian Media in Australia, home to Vision Christian Radio based in Brisbane reaching over 800 big cities, towns and small villages across every state and territory in Australia. the number of stations is growing all the time. If you live in Australia, they may well be broadcasting in your area, and you don't even know it. Mostly contemporary Christian music, teaching programs and news and current affairs programs from a Biblical perspective. Well worth checking out!