CHASING MY "ON AIR" DREAM
Part 2

When Greg Newman came to 4GG (pronounced 4DoubleG) on the Gold Coast, someone told me that the new announcer, Greg, was a committed Christian. As stated in the first part of this blog series, I soon was able to meet him at a local fair, and we soon became good friends.

One day, while working at my father's photographic and music shop in Surfers Paradise, I received a phone call from the program manager of a commercial radio station at Kempsey on the New South Wales mid-north coast. He had heard from another Christian friend, Don Gillespie, also from the Gold Coast, but at that time working in Christian media in Sydney - that I was seeking to break into radio. The program manager was a Christian and was hoping to hire more Christians for the staff of what was otherwise a secular commercial station.

He contacted Greg Newman also the same day, encouraging us both to send tapes of our announcing. With Greg's help, I recorded an 'aircheck' in the production studio at 4GG and the two of us drove down to Kempsey to the radio station, 2KM, to meet this man personally.

Greg and I having a bit of fun in the production studio at 4GG

To say I was excited would be an understatement! I felt sure this was the break I had been waiting and praying for. After all, when would a secular commercial radio station normally contact someone unknown to them with the possibility of a job offer? This had to be it, I thought.

The program manager took us into one of the studios not being used, and proceeded to thread my tape on the reel-to-reel tape deck. He played it through the large studio speakers. After a short time, he stopped it, rewound it and said nothing. After a pause, he asked Greg for his tape. After listening to Greg's tape, he asked Greg if he would like to take up an announcer position with them. Greg declined the offer, as he really wanted to stay on the Gold Coast.

About two weeks later, I received a letter from the program manager at 2KM, bluntly telling me he thought I had a major speech problem. I felt deflated, to say the least.

Did I ever realize my dream? When I applied to join Radio Rhema in Christchurch, NZ in 1981, they had been on air for over two years. Initially they too rejected my application to be an announcer, stating that they were potentially a network station, and did not consider my announcing to meet their standard. They did, however, offer me a full time off-air position.

Although again disappointed at first, after praying for God's direction and receiving encouragement from Pastor Alun Davies, one of the lecturers at Commonwealth Bible College in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, where I did a third year of study in 1980 - I accepted their offer and took up my position with them in Christchurch in July 1981.

For the first eighteen months at Radio Rhema, I was employed as a "studio operator," my main role being 'carting' music. For those unfamiliar with the workings of radio stations of that era, this meant recording song tracks from vinyl records onto continuous loop cartridge tapes for airplay using specially designed studio cart machines. I also had to load the carts with tape initially, transferring the tape from large "pancake reels" to individual cartridges to facilitate recording tracks of varying lengths. T This work was carried out overnight, with me working from 9pm to 6am the next morning, as the studio was used for program editing during the day. Mostly, I enjoyed this work, as I had the satisfaction of knowing I was helping the station to transition the use of carts on air, a more practical means of presenting music than the tedious task of having to cue every music track on record turntables.

The first and the last BE cart machines

With help from a professional speech and drama teacher, and lots of practice, and with God's working, after eighteen months, the station manager, Dudley Scantlebury made a decision to give me some on air music shifts. Towards the end of the eighteen months I had been carting music at night, I was getting a little disillusioned, and losing heart that I might never be allowed 'on air.' Thankfully, the encouragement from other announcers helped me to keep the vision alive of being on air, and with their encouragement, I made another demo tape of my announcing, Dudley was impressed enough with the improvement in my speech to give me the break I had been praying and hoping for, for which I was extremely grateful.

I believe the Lord honoured my faithfulness in serving Him working all those months at night on my own, and seeking to do the task at hand to the best of my ability, as unto the Lord.

For the next five years at Radio Rhema, I was on air five, and sometimes six days per week with the network starting to grow with the establishment of relay stations in Nelson in the South Island, and Wellington, the nation's capital in the North Island. At times there were also short-term broadcasts in Auckland, the largest city in NZ, and Invercargill in the deep south of the South Island.

One of the highlights for me during this time was the privilege I had of presenting a weekly song request program on Saturday nights for prisoners and their families, reaching into a number of prisons in Christchurch and Auckland.

The program, called "Someone Cares," was initially hosted by a much-loved older lady announcer at the station, Anita Wilkinson, with support from Prison Fellowship ministry in Christchurch. When Anita was unable to continue, I had the opportunity to become the regular host, linking prison inmates and their families on the radio with song requests and greetings received at the station by letter.

My dream to become a commercial radio announcer was never realised. But I believe that God placed that desire in my heart originally because He knew that one day the door would open to radio in His service.

Glenfield Crescent on air studio, Mairehau, where I first went to air in Christchurch

Yours truly on air at Mairehau studios sometime between 1983-85

On air at Birmingham Drive Radio Rhema studio, 1986-88

My friend, Greg Newman has had a stellar radio broadcasting career, starting at 3BA, Ballarat in Victoria as a late teen. Also working at 7HT, Hobart for around six months, he did a stint at one of the Melbourne stations, 4GG Gold Coast for a number of years from 1978 into the 80's, commercial stations 4KQ and 4BH in Brisbane for a significant number of years in the 90's and Naughties, a couple of years at Light FM in Melbourne, Greg's hometown, then back to Brisbane to work for Australia's Vision Christian Radio network - broadcasting to over 800 big cities, towns and small villages in every state and territory.

Vision's website is: vision.org.au Greg is regular host of "Afternoons" on Vision, heard Monday to Friday 3-7pm Eastern Australian Standard time.