“I’ve had a weird mix of careers,” said Craig Reucassel in a keynote speech to the CBAA Conference in Hobart.
Known for his War on Waste series, Reucassel is currently presenting breakfast on 702ABC Radio Sydney. It all started when he and a group of uni mates had fun producing a satirical newspaper called The Chaser. From those maverick uni years to his current work, Reucassel’s “weird” mix of jobs has taught him some lessons, which he shared with delegates at the community broadcasting conference.
The self published Chaser newspaper was never really profitable, but “it was the most fun I ever had in the media,” he said, recounting stunts like posing as Osama Bin Laden when George Bush came to Australia, chasing the Prime Minister with a chain saw and publishing John Howard’s phone number.
His first career lesson was: “Enjoy the fun and freedom when you have it. It’s a lot harder to have fun when there’s editorial policies and lawyers in the picture.”
His second lesson was: “Value the people you meet along the way in your career journey.”
In the Case of The Chaser, there was one subscriber to the newspaper who would end up giving them their next career opportunity – Andrew Denton. He signed them up for a tv show. “Andrew loves a good work ethic, he recognised we were doing it every two weeks for nothing, he saw our work ethic.”
His third lesson was: “Chasing politicians doesn’t really work to bring about change. Change comes from the grass roots, then politicians follow.”
“Politicians and supermarkets didn’t change what they were doing about waste just because we did a tv show about it. But people changed their own habits, then other people saw what they were doing and changed their habits. Then social pressure built up for change and eventually local councils, politicians and supermarkets couldn’t ignore it any more. From the impact of the War on Waste, I learnt how real change comes about.
“Change comes from the grass roots level. Community Radio is connected at the grass roots, you have power to drive change. As community broadcasters you are everywhere and you are close to where change happens. Small changes can have an impact in a big way,” he said citing rooftop solar and changes to plastic bag usage as two examples of grass roots driven social change. He also recognised the importance of community radio in supporting local musicians and local events.
His advice to community broadcasters is:
“Recognise your impact – small things do matter.”
More CBAA Conference reports here.