John Burgess back on radio

Times they are a’changing.

I’m taking a bit of a break from my radio and television story from years gone by to bring it up to the present for a minute. 

Since I moved back to Perth in 2012, I’ve been giving my all to Radio 6IX where I had pretty good success doing both breakfast Monday to Friday and then Saturday morning 6 till 12. 

During that time, I made the station quite a lot of money by selling heaps of advertising on my radio show and doing a lot of appearances at personal and business locations around Perth, as well as hosting lots of competitions here and across the network. And I have to say, having a national personality here, can create revenue at an interstate level as well.

But as they say, all good things must come to an end. Not by my wishes, I might add, but they decided to change tack and replace me with reruns of the Monday to Friday breakfast show. They have the right to do that of course, so no problems there whatsoever, but out of the blue came an opportunity to join 6PR which of course is a talk station.

It would be a complete reversal of what I’ve been doing for the last 59 years on the radio. I had of course done lots of interviews with a cross-section of movers and shakers during that time. 

I’ve interviewed prime ministers, premiers, members of parliament, business leaders, sporting greats and the top recording artists of our time as well. So, it shouldn’t be a big leap, I can hear you saying, but I have to tell you, chatting to people for four hours is something I’ve not experienced before. 

In previous radio gigs, if I ran out of anything intelligent, funny or relevant to say, I would just bang on a record, easy. But now I’m responsible for the flow completely, a daunting prospect as I found out over the last couple of weekends as I embark on this new venture.

Of course, I’ve always been lucky to have excellent help in some form like Roland Green who pushed all the buttons for me at 6IX for a number of years and now at 6PR. I’m in great company again with Isaac who is producer extraordinaire and Andy who now has the very important job of keeping me on the air, just to name a couple of people.

I can assure you it’s been a very exhausting time for them putting up with the new boy. Anyway, we’re underway and I’ve spoken to a lot of very interesting people already, like the Premier, Roger Cook, Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas, and the head of Sepsis Australia, Dr. Brett Abbenbroek. Sepsis is a terrifying problem, which almost floored me, as you would well know. 

I’ve spoken to the Salvos in Mandurah who’d been broken into and $7,000 worth of toys were stolen. I got on to my good friends at Kmart and they very generously donated 300 toys of all descriptions to the Salvos Christmas Appeal, helping kids who are underprivileged and needy. I’ve really enjoyed the experience and will continue to try and be informative and also helpful to people in need. 

I’ve also taken Crime Stoppers with me.

Sergeant Alice Cockram will join me each Sunday and hopefully we can solve a few of those outstanding problems that Crime Stoppers do a fantastic job with. 

I also intend to have a bit of fun. I’ll play some music from the 60s, 70s and 80s as usual. I’m continuing my association with Harvey Norman and will play On The Street with a $200 gift card up for grabs each week. We’ll have movie passes and lots more surprises as well. 

I might even persuade the lovely Jen Merigan, boss of this paper, to pop in from time to time and have a chat.

I’d love you to join me, 12 to 4 Sunday afternoon on Radio 6PR and if you want to have a chat, call me on 133 882 or SMS me on 0487 999 882. Love to hear from you. Next month we’ll resume my journey in the radio and television industry. 

Until then, cheers. Burgo out.