INTERVIEWING BACKGROUND
In the media, we often reduce ourselves (and others) to just a few words that are wholly inadequate at providing the full picture. This is one of the failings of those bite-sized conversations we hear on talkback radio. No-one’s message is ever comprehensively described or properly heard. That’s why I’m a fan of long-form interviews.
I WAS A LATECOMER TO MEDIA
On my thirtieth birthday, I found an ad for a radio training course at 2RRR in Sydney (Ryde Regional Radio) and promptly signed up.
Weeks later, I found BondiFM – a tiny narrowcast radio station at the top of the Bondi Hotel overlooking the beach. The studio was a room with a 16 channel mixing desk, tape deck, minidisk deck and CD players.
It was a haunt for the night owls, and as mother of two little boys, the daylight hours were mine for the taking. I grabbed a two-hour show and called it Eclectica. Until then, I’d spelt my name Merri, but the station manager wrote “Eclectica with Meri” on the program guide. I’ve spelt it that way ever since.
Fast forward a few years, back and forth between Sydney and Perth (and with three and then four children in tow) I’d thrown my hat into the ring at community station RTRFM 92.1 and also at 2RPH, Radio for the Print Handicapped in Sydney.
In 2006 I completed WAAPA’s esteemed Graduate Diploma of Broadcasting (sans undergrad degree). I took to it like a duck to water in some senses..and like a square peg in a round hole in others.
After several years producing at ABC local radio, a wealth of new knowledge and skills (and one more baby) I left behind my excellent colleagues and decided to go freelance.
What makes my work endlessly fresh and interesting is constantly gaining new knowledge and even better, learning it from people both expert and passionate in their field of endeavour.
