3MP’s Easy Breakfast announcer and long-time Ace Radio employee Jon Vertigan has released a trailer for his podcast I Was a Teenage Prize-Pig.
Jon, who’s been in radio for 29 years, phoned Melbourne radio stations persistently as a teenager and won prizes on air, including records, CDs, cash, holidays and more.
He recorded his winnings as they went to air in the late 80s and on the podcast, plays some audio and catches up with the announcer that gave him the prize to formally apologize for being a “teenage prize-pig”.
There’s lots of great memories, and as Jon puts it “cringeworthy audio”.
Clean energy experts Alex McIntosh and Nick Zeltzer (pictured) host a new series of A Positive 
Climate, a podcast focused on ways to tackle climate change.
After partnering with NOVA Entertainment Podcast Network (NEPN) to launch a successful first season with features on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, season two launches with a positive tone reflecting their own 15 years of experience in the sector.
Season two kicks off with the first episode including an interview with Vow co-founders Tim Noakesmith and George Peppou. Vow, a Sydney based start-up, creates meat grown from cells known as “cultured meat” that could pave the way for emission free steaks that are better for both the planet and the animals themselves.
Zeltzer says, “We are thrilled to be launching Season two with Powershop, in what is a pivotal year for action on climate change. With the recent release of the IPCC report and the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow we want to play our part by sharing the stories from the Australian innovators taking action. With our podcast we’re hoping to let our guests educate and inspire listeners while helping consumers understand what they could do to make a difference.”
McIntosh says, “It’s really easy to get bogged down by the dire consequences of climate change and have this lead to a feeling of helplessness. But we think the best way to deal with this is to focus on the solutions and it is really amazing the level of homegrown innovation happening right now in Australia! We’re in a privileged position to get to see this progress and we just want to get the word out.”
Some of Australia’s most prominent entrepreneurs reveal how they built their fortunes from scratch and offer the secrets to their success, in a new podcast series How I Made It, from The Australian Financial Review.
Financial Review Rich List co-editor Julie-anne Sprague talks to Australia’s top business 
builders about their backgrounds and how they turned their dreams into realities.
The series canvasses stories from a broad range of entrepreneurs, highlighting growth from a range of industries. Among the interviews are fast food king Jack Cowin, women’s fashion retailer Jane Lu, Flight Centre’s Graham “Skroo” Turner, software developer Tony Walls and former NRL player-turned Rich Lister Wes Maas.
While their backgrounds may all differ, they all have one thing in common, starting phenomenally successful businesses that have landed them on the Financial Review Rich Lists.
How I Made It steps out of the boardroom and into the entrepreneur’s minds to find out what it takes to build wealth from the ground up, the lessons learnt and how taking big risks can pay off.
Episode one features Jack Cowin, who introduced Australians to KFC and Hungry Jacks, and built Dominos into a $12 billion giant. Worth almost $5 billion and ranked 17th on the Rich List, Cowin opens up about his childhood and what it takes to make a business empire.
He has 13 lessons for life and one of those is to never give up if you think you are right, and he says, “Sometimes in combat, big companies take advantage of the fact that the little guy will fold.”
Cowin was raised in Canada, at one point selling trees and shrubs door-to-door while studying psychology at university.
“That was the best education I ever had,” Cowin says. “I was making more money in a summer job than the university professors were – and they hated it! No matter where you end up, being able to create an image of someone that can be successful at whatever the task is important. Do the best you can because people are watching, and if you’re successful that carries forward.”
The How I Made It series, sponsored by Charter Hall, is now available on all podcast platforms and through afr.com.
Host Julie-anne Sprague says the series offers a rare glimpse into how some of the nation’s best business builders think.
She says, “What I love about How I Made It is it offers a fireside chat with some of the nation’s best business builders. You can learn so much by hearing how they interpret events and how they reflect on what they’ve created. “