Gold Logie winner and host of Network Ten’s The Project, Waleed Aly has revealed he never thought he had the ‘skill set’ to do radio.

Speaking with Rachel Corbett in the Podcast series You’ve Gotta Start Somewhere, Waleed has spoken about his foray into radio after writing articles for newspapers while working as a lawyer.

“Jon Faine (ABC) had read a couple of pieces,” he says.

“I wrote two within the space of a week, the week of the tsunami and he read them on holiday.

“…then I got a call from his producer and asked did I want to co-host the Conversation Hour with him.

“So I went along and started doing it regularly and then I got a call asking if I wanted to come in and do some presenting and I was like what?

“This is one of the most high powered radio shifts that exists in the country, it three and a half hours of morning radio. I was like, this is a mistake.
 
“I originally said no, I can’t do this it’s not my skill set. They kept coming back to me over a year or two and eventually I relented so my first ever radio shift solo was filling for Faine.”
 
“I was thrown in the deep end and I remember consoling myself by saying well it’s January there’s no news and then Israel sent ground troops in to Gaza.

“I remember being surprised how comfortably I got through it.”

Waleed is now well known to the 774 audience, with his stints as host of the Mornings program, guest host on The Conversation Hour and on Drive with Rafael Epstein.

Waleed also hosted ABC RN’s Drive for three years, prior to Patricia Karvelas taking the reins.

You can listen to You Gotta start Somewhere on iTunes.