Carly Portch and Seamus Evans had only been working together as the Breakfast team on Hit103.5 in Far North Queensland for a couple of weeks before one listener almost brought the show to its knees.

Early yesterday morning, all was humming in the studio with the chemistry between the young duo building nicely. That was until they took a call from a listener who accused Carly of “being immature and promoting glutony” and advised her “not to have children because she’d absloutely destroy them.”

The call not only upset her and her co-host but the whole production team who grappled with the dilemma of whether they should put the call to the back of their minds and move on or replay the call at peak listening time and address the issue head on.

They opted for the latter.

Carly later wrote on the station’s website:

I’m not going to lie this morning’s show was hard for me, everything was going fine until we received a call that rocked me to my core.

In this job we put ourselves out there and I pride myself on being exactly (minus a few occasional swear words) who I am on air as the same off the air, what you see is what you get.

Which I think is why the words cut so deep. I completely understand that I may not be for everyone, in fact I am not in the least bit offended by that.

I feel so lucky that each day I am given this platform and you guys share your lives and cars with me and that will never be lost on me.

Which is exactly why I decided to bring on the air what I was feeling after that call. I was caught so off guard I found it hard to collect myself the words just felt so targeted and so personal.

My main reason for addressing it was also that I wanted that person to know that while she might have gone about her day as normal, those words will linger with me. Our words carry so much weight one negative comment can completely undo a thousand positive ones. Which is why we need to think before we speak and that is all I ask.

I have like so many people worked hard on my self worth and overcoming self doubt and while I may come across as a confident person on air I realised today that it can quickly come undone and I think we all have this vulnerability.

Which is why we do need to choose our words carefully, you know that saying moment on the lips lifetime on the hips?  I think the same applies for comments what you think might be a passing comment or a harmless post online can live much longer in someone else’s world.   

I am feeling much better thanks to my very supportive working environment and amazing co host shout out to Seamus and thank you to everyone who has reached out with kind words but not everyone has those support networks so as I said before where you can choose kindness and if not maybe silence!