Wendy Harmer pays tribute to producer Yusuke Aso and the small army of others who saved her from her own “engineered trainwreck.”

I can still remember the time I sent a newspaper sub-editor a bunch of flowers after he rescued me from some particularly bone-headed thing I’d written.

It was back in the eighties when I was a reporter on the Sun-News Pictorial and I’d been barely able to sleep, worried about how it would look in print the next morning. I woke to find the offending paragraphs, which appeared under my by-line, beautifully re-written. He’d saved my reputation. Flowers were the least I could do.

Since then, I have been so grateful to the small army of editors, directors, agents and public relations experts who have backed me in my career. And when I couldn’t be saved from my own engineered trainwreck, hauled me out from the mangled remains, patched me up and got me back on my feet.

It’s those who work as radio producers who perhaps deserve the most accolades, because once the  ‘On Air’ light is glowing and the microphone is open, there’s little they can do but just hope and pray that you don’t make a total arse of yourself.

So often in radio – especially breakfast radio – the mouth is working overtime, but the brain is still back in bed.

There is something so very special about a person who chooses the role of a producer in radio. Someone who doesn’t seek the limelight for themselves, but spends an inordinate amount of time making sure that you, the announcer, sound as informed as you possibly can be. I know of one announcer who enjoyed a stellar reputation, but never uttered a single word on air that wasn’t entirely scripted for him by his dedicated team – word-for-word.

As the talking head, if you’re lucky enough to find one (or more) of these remarkable humans who throw their lot in with you, without reservation, you’ve hit the jackpot. Even for those producers who know that announcers may come and go – their dedication is to the program, their colleagues and the enterprise of the station itself,  knowing that, with good ratings, all boats rise. (And the best advice I ever got was to be a good friend to the receptionist at the front desk!)

These magical producers (part-journalist/ researcher /assistant /nanny /therapist) understand, implicitly, that radio is an ego game, and that we big, baby announcers require quite a bit of glad-handling.

I came to radio in the nineties from a background as a stage performer and TV host, used to instantaneous feedback from a live audience. In 1989, as host of the ABC TV’s The Big Gig  I discovered a drawer of insulting missives about me – many, very hurtful – that director Ted Robinson had hidden from me. Oh, for the days when listeners and viewers had to go to the Post Office for an envelope and a stamp!

In a studio, talking into thin air was one of the biggest challenges I had to overcome. I’d look through the glass to see whether my producers were smiling, with a thumbs-up… or desperately answering the phones as they switched to code-red triage to staunch the bleeding.

Those were the days before the dreaded text line was invented!

I know of some presenters who ask their producers to trawl the text line and only put up on screen the complimentary comments, but, used to hecklers right in front of me, I always said ‘let ‘er rip’, even if sometimes the comments and insults that came through instantaneously – the mis-informed, rude, and intensely personal ones – could throw me, even at my most confident, entirely off my game. I’d end up in tears.

My best producers were always in my corner. There to console, encourage and take up arms to defend against the most egregious and false accusations. To plot our next foray.

There have been so many good and kind people over my past 20 or so years in front of the microphone. I won’t try to name them because that wouldn’t be fair – I’d leave so many out!

Going back a bit, there was the one who stood outside my hotel door and fielded every call after I’d apparently fucked-up as the host of the 2002 Logies and, through her kind ministrations, had me back on live radio within hours.

One though, I will mention is Yusuke Aso who has retired this year after 38 years as a producer with ABC local radio. Yes, the one with 40,000 entries in his contact book. The ‘rockstar’ producer.

 You can read of his extraordinary career here.

I was lucky enough to have had Yusuke (he took out the extra ‘u’ for ease of us Aussies) as my producer, and I’ve been trawling through the many hundreds of messages Yuske and I exchanged – the first one from ABC on ‘Mornings’ in 2016, until when I last worked with him in December 2021, then as a partner with Robbie Buck on ‘Breakfast’ on ‘ABC Local’.

Some of them so hideously early in the morning – or so late at night – they make my eyes water. How did we ever sleep?

Thank you Yuske… I can never repay you for your professionalism, kindness and dedication (and for your family’s forbearance).

For your care and respect for me both as a professional… and as a fallible person with all my considerable doubts.

For being an equal part of my every public success.

I’ll leave you with just a few of our exchanges here…

ABC 702 Sydney Manager Nick Lowther, Wendy and Yuske (Yuskue) at his farewell drinks last week.