As a TV presenter, Jason Dasey has appeared on some of the world’s largest networks, including CNN and BBC. But since falling in love with radio at a relatively late stage in his career, he has become hooked on the audio medium.
Jason is now back home in Australia after more than 25 years abroad.
He was host of Weekend Mornings on Singapore’s Money FM in 2018 and 2019, anchoring 10 hours of news and interviews on the new business station, owned by Singapore Press Holdings.
The highlights included exclusive interviews with evergreen musicians Neil Sedaka and Glenn Shorrock, a 2019 Australian election review with iconic broadcaster George Donikian, and in-depth coverage of the 2018 U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore.
Having made Singapore his base for the past 18 years, with stints in Malaysia and Hong Kong in between, he is well placed to compare the Asian media scene to Australia.
“While technical and editorial standards in Asia have improved markedly from the past, Australia allows more forthright views on radio and TV… there are no ‘shock jocks in Singapore, for example,” Dasey told radioinfo.
“However, Singapore does have more coverage of its geographical neighbours — for example, Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal and the Indonesia elections were always being reported on in depth. With Singapore being a city-state, there aren’t the many layers of national media that you will find in a vast country like Australia, so international news, and its possible impact, is always at the forefront.”
Jason Dasey first moved to Singapore in 2001 as the Pay-TV revolution took hold in Asia, working with many fellow Australians in senior production roles, as the now-defunct joint venture ESPN STAR Sports acquired key sports rights, like Premier League football, across the continent.
“While India still appears robust from a content creation and subscribers’ perspective, the glory days of Pay TV in Southeast Asia seem over, with an increasingly challenging commercial climate for channels to survive,” according to Dasey.
Since relocating to Brisbane in July, he continues to freelance for Money FM as a roving reporter, and has set up his own content platform on YouTube through his company, Cockatoo Media, while he looks for a more permanent position in Australian radio.
He has now recorded feature interviews with Mental As Anything front man Greedy Smith and former Air Supply guitarist Rex Goh, as well as New York Times’ best-selling author, Michael Robotham.
“I tracked down Greedy Smith in the process of organising my North Sydney Boys High School reunion. When Greedy found out that we went to the same school (he was a few years’ ahead in the same class as former Australia cricket captain Allan Border), he was more than happy to talk to me.”
“Rex Goh is a Singaporean who had two stints with Air Supply when they had their greatest success in the 1970s and early 1980s. It took some effort to track Rex down as he is shy and rarely gives interviews, but he ended up inviting me to his Sydney house and making me tea! Money FM listeners got to hear all about his four decades in Aussie pop music.”
Dasey says his stint at Money FM was formative as he plotted his return to Australia. He joined the station on weekends three months after its launch, and also filled in on weekday shifts.
“I fell in love with radio again as I produced most of my own shows, wrote and read the news and sport, learned how to operate the panel using the Zetta system, and did my own podcasting of almost 600 interviews…
“I had worked in radio as a reporter for BBC World Service and Radio National in the 1990s, but this was a big step up and I learned a lot. I covered a broad range of subjects from politics and hard news to finance, pop culture and sports, so I found it incredibly satisfying.
“Probably the highlight was my Saturday shows with witty English author/satirist Neil Humphreys. We worked well together, and it reflected in the ratings, which made us one of the station’s most popular shows.”
Jason is perhaps best known as Australia’s first sports broadcaster on the global networks BBC World and CNN International. Trained at the Sydney Morning Herald, he was also a Vice President of production for Malaysian Pay-TV giant, Astro, and worked under the Walt Disney banner in Singapore as Coordinating Producer/Host for ESPN.
As he looks for a full-time on-air role on radio, Jason has started his own digital video series on Instagram called Stranger In A Familiar Land, as he rediscovers hidden gems in Australia after a quarter of a century overseas.
“It’s wonderful to be back home on a permanent basis for the first time since early 1994,” Jason said. “I’m grateful to have been granted the opportunities at the world’s biggest media companies… I feel that my career and hunger for story telling have been revitalised after my recent chapter at Money FM.”
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Jason and author Neil Humphreys in the Money FM studios
