The trek home after a big night at the Australian Commercial Radio Awards can be painful at the best of times, but this year it was Melbourne’s wild weather causing the most pain. Huge wind gusts had several flights out of Melbourne delayed or cancelled, with reports of planes being pushed around at the height of the bad weather.

SEA FM Mackay breakfast duo Jay Shipston and Dave Peters read the signs early and realized they were going to be missing work on Monday.

“It was an adventurous weekend and pretty cool to be nominated for an ACRA in the first place, but after we missed out on the gong, it seemed luck wasn’t on our side for the remainder of the weekend”, said Jay.
“On commute to the airport in a double decker bus we noticed the wind and it was strong! We get to the airport and notice the light poles swaying in the wind like “pool noodles” as Dave put it”.

The situation wasn’t helped by Jay’s partner, who had taken a vital source of spending in such an emergency.

 “After 6 hours of waiting at the airport, and a chat with our content director about not getting home it was time to think about accommodation. I had no money as my partner got on an earlier flight with the credit card to pay for the parking for our car in Mackay. The boss stepped in and put us up for the night at the Best Western. Thanks boss!”

Despite not being in the studio on Monday morning, the boys did take on the role of ‘roving reporters’, even though the only roving going on was around the inside of the terminal.

“Our fill-in guy did a great job. We spoke to him a few times throughout the Breakfast Show from Melbourne airport. The good thing about not getting to work Monday was the show was already prepped up with content for Tuesday!”

Not to mention a story to tell for many years to come.