A lot of people are moving back home at the moment. From those who were temporarily living abroad to those who used to travel interstate for work, a large portion of Australia is adjusting to new schedules which are somewhat related to the past.
One duo who has absolutely mastered the art of returning home is Ben and Liam. After a lengthy stint at Triple J, Ben and Liam have hopped across radio ponds to host Nova 919’s breakfast show in Adelaide. The boys spoke to us about how to make the most of wherever you land, if you just give it a shot.
To hear the full chat, check out this episode of It’s Been A Big Day For…
Interestingly, radio wasn’t always the be-all and end-all for Ben or Liam. Ben opened up to us about the start of his career saying, “I never grew up wanting to be a radio host, I didn’t really have any aspirations. But, I worked on a dairy farm for like five years and I didn’t like that…” Meanwhile, Liam added “ “For me… I wanted to play for Liverpool until I was about 16 / 17, realise that wasn’t going to happen…” But, the way the cards fell, the two of them found each other through the stand-up and community radio scene and their bond grew from there.
After about 7 years of working together, both on Fresh 92.7 (a community station in Adelaide) and on Triple J, the boys have entered the big leagues of radio, presenting on the most coveted time-slot known to man. But, to them, it doesn’t feel that different.
Although they’ve changed radio avenues, Ben and Liam are determined to keep the content they produce consistent to what their audiences know them by. When talking about moving between community radio, Triple J and Nova, Ben said “It’s funny how every decision… always feels like it’s the big one. There’s that one which Liam was talking about (referring to a getting a paid gig in community radio), then there’s the other one which was like ‘Do we go to Triple J?’ and there was the other one which was like ‘Do we go back to Adelaide and do Nova?… They’re always going to be happening, those conversations… ” Then Liam added in, “That’s it… I feel like we haven’t made a wrong move yet.”
And even though they’re doing breakfast, they hold community radio close to their heart. When giving advice on how to crack the radio industry, the boys paid respect to their roots saying, “Pretty much wherever you are, even if you’re out regional, there are community radio stations and they are looking for people just to rock up and start doing stuff.”
Also, when talking about how they’re working during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ben said, “Every show is similar but we’ve always found as a team… that sometimes you can have better ideas from being put in a box… In a weird way, it’s almost been more freeing for us because there’s no one in the building.”
There you have it. From Ben and Liam to you, embrace your home-town and embrace the things that get thrown your way because you never know where it’ll lead you.
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