A Life On The Radio

A Life On The Radio  

By Paul McCann

Long before television came into the world many families would sit listening to the radio in their homes . It was a great resource of entertainment for many.
As a child I loved listening to the radio as well even though we as a family would also watch the TV .
I started writing poetry very young and later developed a passion for writing songs . When my family and I emigrated to Australia in 1972 , it wasn’t long afterwards that I started writing other articles , Plays and short stories .
I had regular articles and poetry published in the Southern Highland News , and in Belfast’s Horizon Magazine .
I began reading my work on local radio and in venues around Sydney during the 1990’s’ at Don Banks Museum , The Annadale Café , Harold Park Hotel .
Community Halls and then I was invited to read my work on various radio stations . Dulcie Meadows another poet I met had a radio program on Australia radio . She had mentioned to me about starting a radio program and at first I never gave it much thought until a few more people were saying the same thing so after leaving Sydney in 1993 to start a new job in the Southern Highlands I approached the local radio station 2WKT Highland Fm if there would be place for an Irish radio show .
I was given the green light and went to ait with my first Radio show called Craic With Mc . The show went to air every Monday night and I soon began to get lots of phone calls and letters .
The show was a popular and some other stations were interested in me doing Craic With Mc on their stations .
I had found a little niche on community , A place for music , poetry m short stories and radio plays . The shows were supported by the Department of Ethnic affairs and a grant was given to the stations twice a year by the community broadcasting foundation that helped various radio stations to get funds for equipment and develop projects such as live broadcasts and other regional and remote community awareness events supported and promoted on community radio .
This opened up for me an opportunity to attend various music festivals to interview musicians and other performers and writers that were broadcast on my radio programs
Life on the airwaves is more than just sitting on in front of a microphone and playing music for listeners . There is a lot of work done behind the scenes every day . Organising each program before it goes to air , finding interesting articles to mention , adding new items of interest for the listener and providing information that might be of interest ,
As a writer I always liked to introduce some of my own radio plays , poetry and short stories on my program . Fortunately for me I was one of the lucky few who had a big family out there on the airwaves so during the 25 years of radio broadcasting on my three weekly radio shows Craic With Mc I was on air Monday on Highland FM in the southern highlands of New South Wales , then on Wednesday on 2NBC , at Narwee in urban Sydney and on Saturday on RAI FM in Canberra .
I started to get support from MRA music distributors in Queensland and promoters of concerts who would allow me to interview touring artists and other people involved with music events and touring artists .
With all of that came the interviews for my radio program .
I was lucky to have done many interviews with musicians and writers from Ireland , America , Australia , and in the local community where I did my radio programs .
The amount of roles a radio producer does can be many . From cooking sausages on a barbeque to asking questions at a trivia night at the club , It’s all part of the radio lifestyle .
Many radio presenters like me lived this kind of life on the radio and with all the work that we did we discovered we built up this extension of a family network that included our listeners , our network , the people we visited in hospital and nursing homes . Then the other people who we could reach on the airwaves in their workplace or at home , in a bar or in their car, people who were part of that extended family who regularly kept in touch with an amazing number of phone calls and letters each week from people who just wanted to say hello . That was just part of life on the radio apart from the person doing the broadcasts behind the microphone in the studio live to air each day at the radio station .
I loved the people who would arrive unannounced to the radio station with cakes they had made at home , records from their personal collection and other gifts they wanted to give as a token of gratitude for the radio program they always enjoyed listening to .
So many of fund-raising events with the local community brough its own way of promotion for the radio station as well and the involvement of local business who paid for program sponsorships for the radio programs that went to air each day . .
After 25 years on the airwaves that lifestyle was a wonderful experience and one that was hard to walk away from but I felt it was the right time to call it quits . It always about the timing and making the right choice .
Still to this day I keep in touch with some of those people I met in my radio life .
It was a great pleasure to have been on the airwaves and I am grateful for everything that happened and the people I met when I was the heart of the community on Craic With Mc

The End
By Paul McCann