24 of RG Capital’s regional breakfast presenters will be taking two days off next week to attend a staff development bootcamp, and they will be replaced by two AFTRS Fulltime Radio students.
The two students, Michael Christian and Sophie Onikul, will face the biggest challenge of their professional careers so far in their role as ‘The Replacements’ when they go to air next Monday 9 August and Tuesday 10 August.
With a national audience of more than one million, their RG Capital Radio breakfast show will run on the following RG stations from 6am to 10am:
· MIX 106.3 Townsville;
· SEA-FM at Mackay and Whitsundays, Rockhampton and Gladstone, Bundaberg and Fraser Coast, Gippsland and Melbourne South East, Devenport, Burnie and Scottsdale;
· C-FM Kingaroy, Warwick, Dalby, Toowoomba;
· SUN-FM Shepparton.
AFTRS Head of Radio, Steve Ahern says this is the first time AFTRS Radio students have had the chance to broadcast to such a wide audience before graduating:
“The opportunity to showcase AFTRS new talent to a major radio network is significant. This is terrific exposure for these two students at a time when they are just about to seek work, after finishing their studies here at AFTRS.
“We regularly work with the RG Capital Radio network for our professional work placements and we are very grateful that they support industry training so strongly.
As part of RG Capital’s commitment to developing their own staff talent, they have also given AFTRS Radio students a helping hand too. I think it will work well for the network and its listeners.”
Christian and Onikul, who have just completed a number of successful duo shifts for their practical broadcast ‘Pulse,’ are looking forward to their big opportunity and have named themselves ‘The Replacements.’ After their two days on air they will join their fellow students on work placements at stations all around Australia.
Michael Christian says the pair’s biggest challenge is to “present national content and not to have any station or city specific content creep in.”
“Oh yea, and we’ve gotta be good too – That’ll be the hardest part!
“I’ve heard the promos, they’re paying out on us. They must have heard us already!”
On a serious note Christian told radioinfo:
“If someone had told me two years ago that I would be working in radio for a career and doing a national broadcast as a graduating student, I would not have believed it. Not even seasoned radio people get a chance to do breakfast to such a wide audience, we are just a couple of students. Thanks RG Capital.”
Sophie Onikul says the duo are working hard in the lead-up to next Monday, with studio practice sessions for the remainder of the week and weekend.
“We have been bouncing ideas off Steve and everyone else in Radio at AFTRS, who have been so helpful. Rod Brice and the management team at RG Capital have also been very good to a couple of new chums like us. It has really been a team effort to get us hitting our straps by Monday.”
Applications for the 2005 Full Time AFTRS Radio course are open now (click below).
This year’s class will graduate on Friday September 5 and will then be on the job market.