David Collins and Tanya Wilks: a final conversation

In the week leading up to the passing of radio legend David Collins his friend and long time on-air partner Tanya Wilks caught up with him one-on-one for an intimate chat.

David and Tanya discussed his career at 2HD and 1029 KOFM, how the pair’s on-air relationship blossomed, and David shared his thoughts on mortality and the pancreatic cancer which would claim his life. 

‘I started in Newcastle in January ’91 and program director and breakfast annoncer at the station. All these people kept coming up to me saying ‘wait till you meet Tanya Wilks, she’ll sort you out’ and then I did meet you and I got to know you.

‘And I realised there were no boy-girl duos on air in Newcastle at that time, and I heard you do a couple of weekend shifts and I remember calling you into the office and asking you to do the breakfast show. It turned out to be the best decision of all time. 

‘That first survey we went number one,’ said Tanya.

‘We did, and we stayed there for the whole 8 years, achieved the highest breakfast ratings ever achieved in this town,’ said David. 

‘Over that period of time, it was a slow burn, we became best mates, it was pretty obvious that there was something really special about what we had. And I knew it was going to work forever.’

 

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