Happy birthday Wendy Whalley. Wendy writes:
Over a quarter of a century ago, last millennium, I started at Radiowise Media Networks, working for Peter Saxon and Peter Rubinstein.
When they bought the AMT newsletter from Steve Ahern, and renamed it radioinfo, I took over the administration of it, looking after the subscribers (who all required paid subscriptions in those days), the jobs pages, the On This Day pages, the Movements page and the invoicing side of things.
With all my years of looking after the subscribers, I came to feel a strong connection to each subscriber. With my elephant-like memory, if someone phoned me, I remember stupid things like their username, where they were stationed, their career progression and, often, their families. However, I almost never met them face to face.
That was until the RAWARDS, and later the ACRAs and Radio conferences came along. At the Awards night dinner I could go up to almost any table and say “Hi, I’m Wendy from Radioinfo!” and any number of people would exclaim “Wendy!” as if they had always known me. That was why it became my favourite night of the year (that, and the fact that it was the only night of the year that I could get frocked up!).
As the years went on, and as radioinfo grew, returned to Steve Ahern and acquired Radio Today, I became more publicly involved and in my road trips to meet my expanding family (now with six grandchildren from 18 years to 8 months) in two states, I always took the time and opportunity to drop in on radio stations (previously arranged, of course), to meet so many of those wonderful people that I’ve known by phone and email for decades.
Your “out of office” replies come to my inbox, and are often a source of delight – funny replies that make me chuckle, the delightful little ones, like the weekly one that says “On Wednesdays I take my little boy swimming and spend the day with him, I’ll be back tomorrow” and some hilarious ones that we’ve put on our pre-Christmas newsletter. There are also ones that I forward to the editors of both sites with a suggestion that they might like to follow it up with a story, which they frequently do.
Although I have never been on radio, I love being in radio – the people I’ve met are so passionate about the medium even though it so often treats them so poorly, especially in recent years – I have a strong sense of belonging and do feel that I am a tiny part in so many lives.
Today, Star Wars Day, May the Fourth be with you, is my 70th birthday and while I hope to step back somewhat next year, I don’t think I can ever completely give up.
So, if you are coming to the inaugural Australian Audio Awards, please come and say hello – you have brought me so much pleasure over the past quarter century.