No, another boundary or region was not created, not something teetering on the verge of collapse, rather a radio show with a slight reference to the station it appeared on that would allow Hobart and Tasmania to have a chance. A say. A voice for inclusion.
Beginning on Hobart’s leading community radio station Edge Radio on a Monday afternoon in 2006, the show soon moved into the highly competitive and heavily rotated Friday morning breakfast slot where it has stayed for the last three years to massive success. And the core element behind the success has been the element of giving our city a voice and getting events here, events that may seem impossible and way too out of our league. What events may these be? Just more International Cricket matches and Food festivals?
More AFL matches?
Far from it.
The Brink sets the bar high and dares to dream, with ambitious attempts to attract the Big Day Out, Eurovision and the crème de la crème of international events; The Olympics. And while you may scoff and laugh, it certainly has not been an in joke, with support for the ideas stretching all the way from the streets right up to the Premier himself, with David Bartlett recently confirming his and the governments ‘full support’ on our recent 200th edition of the show for the Olympic Bid. And with close to 1000 members on Facebook, the public opinion for an Olympics in Hobart, as well as other high profile events in our city certainly is soaring.
While the foundations of the show are built on giving Hobart a voice, the guests who appear on the show certainly add to the attraction of such a radio show. Previous guests that have been interviewed in the past include Vanessa Amorosi, Home & Away actors Paul O’Brien and Cornelia Frances, WIN Television newsreader John Remess and Tasmanian media legend Tim Franklin.
Such an array of guests appearing on a community radio show is rare, and plans are in foot for the likes of Mark Webber, Craig Lowndes, Ricky Ponting and even the likes of Eddie McGuire and Daryl Somers to appear on the show in the not too distant future. This certainly adds flavour to an already robust show. But what else attributes to the listeners tuning into a community radio breakfast show over the more highly advertised and seemingly popular commercial stations such as Sea FM and HO FM?
“It is the local flavour,” co-host Josh Shoobridge says, “the sense that we are both local guys who aren’t being paid to sell products and spruke vacuum cleaners.”
It certainly does help that both Josh and I host the show for nothing more than our pure love of not only radio, but our city and state and that we see ourselves as spokespeople for the plight of getting more recognition to our fair state. Yes the guests help. As does the community spirit and growing support from our cities citizens. But we would also like to think our chemistry on air is a driving force behind listeners tuning in, as is the large audience participation element of our show. We allow listeners to send in their ‘confessions’ in order to bring the secrets of our city out and make us a closer knit community. We allow our listeners to ‘ask’ us for advice, and instead of having a generic letters section asking for praise, we prefer to air our listener ‘complaints’ so that we can openly discuss our faults and allow the listeners to either agree or disagree with our ways of dealing with them. Add in poor impersonations of celebrities, a self imposed karaoke styled segment as well as our very own radio soap opera that combines everything from Home & Away to The X-Files and everything in between, and hopefully you have a recipe for radio success.
So if you are like me, and sick of Tasmania missing out on the big picture. Sick of having to spend endless amounts of money to travel to the mainland in order to see your favourite events. And sick of sales driven radio hosts who rant out the same utter dribble, then maybe it’s time to adjust the dial on your radio and get involved and lend your voice. As Premier David Bartlett recently said:, “The Brink has become an integral part of life in Hobart and its breakfast diet.” Perhaps now more than ever, it’s time to change your cereal.
The Brink airs every Friday morning on Edge Radio. More information can be found at
http://thebrinkradioshow.googlepages.com
