The job of a breakfast radio journalist is sometimes characterised as a rather dull affair; in bed by 8:30pm, at work by 4:00am, write and read a slightly modified bulletin every thirty minutes.
For 2Day FM breakfast journo Geoff Field, however, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In this radioinfo exclusive, Field describes his experiences as chief newsreader on Sydney’s top rating FM breakfast show.
Oh how things have changed for me as a newsreader since being employed on the Kyle and Jackie O show back in 2004.In that time I have got married to my partner Jason on national radio and television; been dumped in the middle of the desert, and I have just completed my first calendar, which also features my colleagues Kyle and Jackie.
I really love my job, because it’s taught me that after more than 20 years in the industry, rules are made to be broken. I can remember in the first year how I used to get angry with Kyle if he was late putting the news to air. It now doesn’t worry me in the least, because I’ve grown to understand that it’s a flowing unpredictable show where anything can, and does, happen at a moment’s notice.
The SCARE GEOFF segment has become one of the show’s most popular features, where I’ve managed to achieve feats that I once would have never dreamed of doing. Some of the “highlights” include:-
- reading the news after being pushed out of a skydiving plane at 14 thousand feet,
- broadcasting the news with a PYTHON snake wrapped around my neck while the studio was invaded by a crocodile.
- Another memorable moment was being blindfolded at our city studios and taken to the top of Centrepoint Tower, where it was removed; and I still managed to read the news looking down at the people in the street below who looked like ants;
- that was almost as scary as being lowered into the Manly aquarium where I read the 8am news – which had been laminated – as sharks and string-rays brushed past me looking for food.
One of the funniest things that happened on air was my being hypnotised by Peter Powers. In the space of two hours, he had me genuinely believing I was giving birth, he also put me into a trance which made me hate Jackie O every time she spoke – it almost ended in violence. Thank God he snapped me back into reality just in time!
Who said news-reading was boring?
Geoff Field can be heard weekdays on Sydney’s 104.1 2Day FM. (And can occasionally be seen on TV in a superhero costume auditioning to be the next Australian Idol.)