Journalist Spotlight | Interview with Adam Davison, Breakfast Announcer at Chilli FM

In this Journalist Spotlight, we explore the exciting world of radio with Adam Davison, Breakfast Announcer at Chilli FM, who has built an impressive career in the field. Starting from small community radio stations, our guest has become a well-known voice in Tasmania. They share their journey, which began with a love for radio as a child. We discuss how to create interesting content, the specific challenges and opportunities of regional radio, and how community stations are crucial for connecting with local listeners. 

Could you tell us about how your career in radio began? How did you actively pursue a career in the industry after catching the radio bug at 8 years old?

I was doing a fair bit of breakfast community radio in Hobart and starting to think that rather than do this for free and still have to go to work at my cleaning job in the afternoon/evening I could just get paid to do this and go home and sleep instead. I sent an application and aircheck around the country to a few different jobs that were going but eventually applied for 7XS in Queenstown, Tasmania. They didn't think I'd enjoy it at my age and style but passed my application onto Jerry Sheers at Sea FM Devonport, who had just lost their lunch time announcer. He sent me an email and I ended up getting the job, working my way up to the breakfast show on that station and now breakfast in Launceston at Chilli FM.

What does your media cycle look like? How far in advance do you have to plan for content usually?

There's generally a portion of our breakfast show that's planned in advance, a week or two maybe. There's interviews lined-up and booked in here and there for usually no longer than two weeks. And there's a portion that's planned the day before or things that come up in the morning in the news / in our day-to-day lives. It's always good to have things planned, pre-recorded interviews, story-arcs, but I never like to completely kill any spontaneity because that's where the most fun happens—when even we don't know where something's going and we discover it along with the listeners. I also prefer to get ideas out while we're still inspired by them. While that spark of the idea is still there. In a couple of weeks you might end up thinking "why are we doing this again?" and the inspiration is gone.

For most of your career, you’ve been based in radio stations around Tasmania for ARN. What makes ARN’s community radio network unique?

It's great that ARN still has so many regional radio stations around the country. Radio stations are still so important to the people that live in these regions. They also have the resources of their metro stations which can offer great help to the regional stations. Most other companies these days are either regional or metro but not strong in both like ARN.

Besides being the Host of different radio shows, you’ve also worked as a panel operator/operations manager. Do you find that working in radio requires a broader skillset as compared to other mediums?

Absolutely, particularly in community or regional radio. It's all hands on deck and you often have to do 2 or 3 jobs. It gives you the opportunity to go onto many different things if you're ever interested in a metro opportunity. Whether it's producing, panel op, operations, music direction or production, these are all things you can (and often have to) learn when working in a smaller radio station and can set you up for a job doing just one of them down the line if that's what you want.

What makes for a good pitch for radio? Are there certain considerations that people should keep in mind, and what stories and/or perspectives do you want to feature more of?

If there's something in it for the listener. Or if it's something you're so passionate about that the listener can at least relate to your passion. You never want to make a listener feel left out, even if it's just a break where they're listening in on your conversation. Never too many references to things they don't get. No in-jokes unless they're in on it. I'm always keen to feature more stories about the listeners. We talk 3 hours a day - we get plenty of time to talk about ourselves. I want to hear what listeners are doing while they're listening, what they care about, what annoys them, what they believe and why they believe it. Where are they coming from? For me, there's really nothing more interesting about celebrities than there are about everyday people. 

Finally, could you speak on the importance of community radio in an increasingly globalised media landscape?

Community and localism are what sets radio apart from other mediums. Podcasts, big-budget or networked metro radio and even most TV can't offer that community engagement so it's a real asset to be able to take advantage of that. That and the fact that it's live and malleable for the listeners. Anyone can call up at any time and shape the show themselves. You can't do that with a podcast. A podcast was recorded days ago. You can't contribute immediately to that conversation as you hear it.