The Hit Radio Network’s national drive team Hamish Blake and Andy Lee have headlined this year’s National Radio Conference in Melbourne.
 
Their presentation is now available to view.

It was the first time the pair had appeared at the annual industry conference, with the session moderated by their Executive Producer and one of Australia’s foremost experts in radio content Sam Cavanagh.

Hamish and Andy answered questions about their career in radio, approach to content and what it takes to stay at the top of their game for 12 years.

 “We got there through trial and error,” says Andy Lee.
 
“We used to tell each other every line we were going to say which took the fun out of it, so we decided not to tell each other anything so now we go in into the studio genuinely excited and everyday.
 
“It takes a lot of trust in your partner and it certainly takes a lot of trust in your producing team”
 
“But,” says Hamish, “It’s about finding that level of balance between prep and spontaneity.
 
“So for us, there are two ends of the spectrum, over prepared and not prepared at all,” he says

Hamish and Andy’s drive show reached 2.5 million listeners each week and held that audience for four years before they retired from the time slot in 2011.
 
The pair were lured back to SCA’s Hit Network in June 2015 once again doing the weekday national drive show.
 
“There’s a lot of pressure on teams to have big ideas to get their show talked about,” says Sam. “How important do you think that is for radio?”
 
“It’s a curse,” says Andy.
 
“If that’s how the conversation starts there’s a one percent chance that idea will be funny,” says Hamish. “It will be over thought and the chances of it being big are minuscule.
 
“But if the conversation starts with what’s a fun idea we could do and as a bi-product it happens to be a large event, yeah then fine, but I reckon it’s a common mistake.”
 
“With every idea,” adds Andy “We certainly leave it open to grow as big as possible, you don’t want to put any parameters on it.” 

You can view the full presentation above or here at the CRA website.