16 Years On The ABC!

16 Years ago, my daughter Alana was 2 years old and I was listening to the radio on ABC Southeast. The garden talk back show came on and I was listening to people calling in and asking questions to the elderly gentleman that was the host. His answers were correct but a little outdated. There were more organic solutions available these days and because I was running a garden centre, I knew of all the new products and methods.

I thought to myself, this would be so cool to be able to help people with their garden problems. So I prepared a decent speech and rang the ABC. I got hold of Dorothy Fear, the host of the program straight away and I asked if they ever needed someone to be the garden presenter or to fill in if someone had time off, I could offer my services and before I had a chance to say my spiel about my qualifications and back ground and experience, she immediately said “Yes!”.

Unbeknown to me, the older gentleman was retiring and my timing couldn’t have been more perfect!

I will never forget the first time I travelled to Mount Gambier from Naracoorte (where we lived at the time) I had not slept the night before as I was filled with excitement and worry about whether I would know the answer to someone’s question.

I arrived and it was less exciting in the building than I was expecting but still cool to have the headset on and a microphone in front of me. I nervous peed about 3 times before we went on. And then…..

It was fantastic and fun and it flew past so quickly. My friend Sue from Naracoorte phoned in with a really hard question that she had asked me the day before and I could feel my face getting red because my answer was now being heard by thousands and I really hoped I was right. It was something about Perennial Wallflowers and how the purple flowered one can change to a variegated flower. What a way to start!

I’ve since figured out that I need to write down some notes to talk about relevant topics on the radio, the night before so that I can sleep easy. Also I starting asking the listeners a gardening quiz question first thing in the show to get the ball rolling. I am always surprised at how quickly the question gets answered, particularly when I make them really hard at times.

The thing I love about it, is the spontaneity. You don’t know who’s going to be calling, with what question or problem. So you’ve got to have your wits about you! 2 coffees help with this and so far I haven’t gotten stuck with any questions.

I also love the ABC doesn’t allow advertising, so you can’t suggest products as such, more like the active constituent. I love the ethics of the ABC and I love talking about how to get free plants, or how to fix things with home remedies.

I’ve had a few hosts come and go over the years (wow, I sound like an old person!). Rod Sparks is the host of the Gardening program for quite a few years now and we get on like a house on fire.

I love pranking him in various ways like the time I took in Painted Mountain Corn (which is colourful and hard as a rock) which I got him to eat live on air. I’m not good at lying so I also took in a 6ft sunflower and that distracted him from asking me about the Corn before we went on. I took a mock bite of mine, whilst he tried a full on mouthful. I know you’re not supposed to have radio silence, but I fell off my chair laughing at the shocked look on his face and I laughed so hard I snorted and anyway, you get the picture!

Colourful but hard as a rock Painted Mountain Corn

I hope to still be doing this radio program for a lot longer.