Yaas, finally, after weeks of teasing my very first holiday back to Adelaide, (remember all those useless numbers recorded on every page of my Collins Diary counting it down?) well it's finally arrived. We open this episode on the very last day before I jump on a plane and head home to my family and friends for 3 whole weeks. Obviously things don't go smoothly, there's two items I can't even find when it comes time to pack my bags, and one of them is JagMen related, so you can imagine how much teenage me lost his tiny, feeble, self obsessed mind. Naturally we need to start things off with my besties for this episode and it's a double shot with the return of TWO of my longest serving friends from my Karratha days, MJ (aka Mary the Babysitter who made her debut on Episode 7) and Natalie who sold me all of the things from JagMen clothes, to Stussy sunglasses and Swatch watches, while working behind the counter at Om Bazaar (first introduced in Episode 18). Together with me, we'll work through the meltdown before I depart for Adelaide, the 3 weeks of holidays where I filled out each and EVERY page of my diary by scrawling HOLIDAYS in capital letters, and discover what happened on arrival back in my home town. Once the holiday is over, it's back to Karratha to offer up my apologies for my lack of diary entries while I was away, then there’s the return to work, me not wanting to be on air but doing it anyway, such a trooper. I also do my holiday washing, get invited to a party, but no one tells me where it's actually being held, and it was Natalie that offered up the invite so we'll see what she has to say about that, plus there’s also horror of all horrors, more on air stuff ups, go figure. There's also a LOT of chat about how loose we were in the 80's and probably a very clear example of why most of us don't drink anymore too. So prepare for more teenage meh and ridiculousness, sprinkled with a lesson about alcohol abuse, which mostly just means we tell a bunch of horrendous stories about how messy we were, such fun, enjoy.

Yaas, finally, after weeks of teasing my very first holiday back to Adelaide, (remember all those useless numbers recorded on every page of my Collins Diary counting it down?) well it's finally arrived. We open this episode on the very last day before I jump on a plane and head home to my family and friends for 3 whole weeks. Obviously things don't go smoothly, there's two items I can't even find when it comes time to pack my bags, and one of them is JagMen related, so you can imagine how much teenage me lost his tiny, feeble, self obsessed mind. Naturally we need to start things off with my besties for this episode and it's a double shot with the return of TWO of my longest serving friends from my Karratha days, MJ (aka Mary the Babysitter who made her debut on Episode 7) and Natalie who sold me all of the things from JagMen clothes, to Stussy sunglasses and Swatch watches, while working behind the counter at Om Bazaar (first introduced in Episode 18). Together with me, we'll work through the meltdown before I depart for Adelaide, the 3 weeks of holidays where I filled out each and EVERY page of my diary by scrawling HOLIDAYS in capital letters, and discover what happened on arrival back in my home town. Once the holiday is over, it's back to Karratha to offer up my apologies for my lack of diary entries while I was away, then there&rsquo;s the return to work, me not wanting to be on air but doing it anyway, such a trooper. I also do my holiday washing, get invited to a party, but no one tells me where it's actually being held, and it was Natalie that offered up the invite so we'll see what she has to say about that, plus there&rsquo;s also horror of all horrors, more on air stuff ups, go figure. There's also a LOT of chat about how loose we were in the 80's and probably a very clear example of why most of us don't drink anymore too. So prepare for more teenage meh and ridiculousness, sprinkled with a lesson about alcohol abuse, which mostly just means we tell a bunch of horrendous stories about how messy we were, such fun, enjoy.

My name is Benjamin Wasley, you may remember me from my work as Giggling Ben on Hamish and Andy, or even Bad Boy Ben with the Vixen back in the 90's, but way before any of that, when I was 19, I moved from the seclusion of my bedroom at my parents house in Adelaide, all the way to the isolated Western Australian mining town of Karratha, to start work as a radio announcer for the very first time at a little radio station called 6KA. My Godmother gave me a diary to record every momentous occasion and now, 30+ years later, I'm going to find out how weird, arrogant, lame, self absorbed and closeted the teenage version of me was. To hold my hand while we revisit the end of the 80's and work our way through 365 days worth of embarrassing diary entries, I'll be joined by the people who've know me the longest, so we can have a giggle at the teenage version of me, and compare it with who I am now, and also revisit the world as it was at the end of the 80's, compared to how we're living right now.

Inside the Diary of a (Wannabe) Radio Announcer

19 in 89

Escape From Karratha (Week Forty-Four)

Holy shit balls, it's actually FINALLY done and it's all feeling a little bit weird as I type this description. The creation and recording of this podcast has taken me almost an entire year to complete, in fact, at the time of writing this I'm just 12 days away from my birthday, which will mark a full year having passed from when I dropped the very first episode that I recorded with my parents. So for this final episode, I flew back to my home town of Adelaide (with a hideous cold, apologies for how snotty I sound, just be thankful you missed me coughing up all sorts which was naturally edited out) to surprise my parents for their 53rd wedding anniversary in May and also forced them to sit down and endure my final week of diary entries. Over the final 8 pages of my Collins Diary entries, I record details of my very first Christmas without my family, which I obviously celebrated whilst enduring the searing heat of the Pilbara. Obviously teenage me is not gonna chuck a sad about it, apparently it was rather great, but my Mum does throw in a little naaaw about it when it pops up in the reading, and also manages to drop a hilarious comment about what she might have been doing on that day in 1989 too. I also play a brand new board game, miss seeing all of the movie 'Rain Man', thank to the threat of video library late fee deadlines. I also get to witness more Dave and Avril domestics, get to muck around on a computer, which confuses the hell out of my parents and I plus there’s my final entry for New Years Eve, written the following day obviously, because I was totes inebriated as my diary entry for that day will attest. Then it's a handful of thanks and it's all over, just like that, meh it's kind of sad but also totally rewarding. I've gotta say that the entire process of creating and uploading this podcast over the last year has proved to be a life saving endeavour that truly kept me distracted through repeated lockdowns of the Covid outbreak dramas that Melbourne experienced throughout 2020 and '21, who knows what's next, but fingers crossed we all come out the other side healthy and happy. Once again, thanks so much to YOU for making the commitment to listen to this podcast each time I dropped an episode, and thanks to everyone who sent me words of encouragement, or shared it with their friends or family. I truly love and adore you and for the final time I'm lllllllovin' you from here, check ya later, see ya, byeeeeeee.

Holy shit balls, it's actually FINALLY done and it's all feeling a little bit weird as I type this description. The creation and recording of this podcast has taken me almost an entire year to complete, in fact, at the time of writing this I'm just 12 days away from my birthday, which will mark a full year having passed from when I dropped the very first episode that I recorded with my parents. So for this final episode, I flew back to my home town of Adelaide (with a hideous cold, apologies for how snotty I sound, just be thankful you missed me coughing up all sorts which was naturally edited out) to surprise my parents for their 53rd wedding anniversary in May and also forced them to sit down and endure my final week of diary entries. Over the final 8 pages of my Collins Diary entries, I record details of my very first Christmas without my family, which I obviously celebrated whilst enduring the searing heat of the Pilbara. Obviously teenage me is not gonna chuck a sad about it, apparently it was rather great, but my Mum does throw in a little naaaw about it when it pops up in the reading, and also manages to drop a hilarious comment about what she might have been doing on that day in 1989 too. I also play a brand new board game, miss seeing all of the movie 'Rain Man', thank to the threat of video library late fee deadlines. I also get to witness more Dave and Avril domestics, get to muck around on a computer, which confuses the hell out of my parents and I plus there&rsquo;s my final entry for New Years Eve, written the following day obviously, because I was totes inebriated as my diary entry for that day will attest. Then it's a handful of thanks and it's all over, just like that, meh it's kind of sad but also totally rewarding. I've gotta say that the entire process of creating and uploading this podcast over the last year has proved to be a life saving endeavour that truly kept me distracted through repeated lockdowns of the Covid outbreak dramas that Melbourne experienced throughout 2020 and '21, who knows what's next, but fingers crossed we all come out the other side healthy and happy. Once again, thanks so much to YOU for making the commitment to listen to this podcast each time I dropped an episode, and thanks to everyone who sent me words of encouragement, or shared it with their friends or family. I truly love and adore you and for the final time I'm lllllllovin' you from here, check ya later, see ya, byeeeeeee.

The Chronicles of Benjamin: The Lame, the Pointless and the Completion (Week Forty-Eight)

Yes, before there was the Social Network, there was me, thousands of kilometres from home in the rural mining town of Karratha, bitching and moaning about all of the things, hence the Bitching Network for the name of this episode. Much of it seems to be directed at those that work above me, in particular my boss Neville and my roomie and fellow announcer Mark. I can't apologise to Mark enough for the sassy entries I wrote about him, it's clearly teenage immaturity at its peak and probably inspired by jealousy of his position and connection to the blokes of the office, which he naturally had because he'd worked there well before I arrived and already had established friendships with them. Also I was a moody little flog, so no wonder I wasn't getting along with those in power, I'm impressed they endured my bitching and moaning for so long. To help me through this episode, and monitor my sulking throughout, my bestie Michelle (aka Mish Mash...ya huh that nickname is another Benjamin creation too) joins me to talk how we survived the HR free period of the 90's whilst working at 96FM in Perth. This weeks worth of diary entries covers off me doing a fuckery load of work, which no doubt I'll be bitching about. Then there's all that jealousy I mentioned before, which begins with me having to deal with accepting that my co-worker and radio announcing roomie Dave moving on from Karratha, then there's the digs at Mark to work through, so expect even more sass from this little princess. I also become an editing guru, but it’s got nothing to do with radio, I’m bored over and over again, plus I’m even more keen to move on to my next radio station. There’s also another disaster for me to comment on, and the ultimate in 80’s banking technology comes into my life thanks to a touch tone telephone. So get prepped for some quality 80's reminiscing and some truly loose stories from behind the scenes of radio, from back when it was a little bit more hectic and gung-ho.

Yes, before there was the Social Network, there was me, thousands of kilometres from home in the rural mining town of Karratha, bitching and moaning about all of the things, hence the Bitching Network for the name of this episode. Much of it seems to be directed at those that work above me, in particular my boss Neville and my roomie and fellow announcer Mark. I can't apologise to Mark enough for the sassy entries I wrote about him, it's clearly teenage immaturity at its peak and probably inspired by jealousy of his position and connection to the blokes of the office, which he naturally had because he'd worked there well before I arrived and already had established friendships with them. Also I was a moody little flog, so no wonder I wasn't getting along with those in power, I'm impressed they endured my bitching and moaning for so long. To help me through this episode, and monitor my sulking throughout, my bestie Michelle (aka Mish Mash...ya huh that nickname is another Benjamin creation too) joins me to talk how we survived the HR free period of the 90's whilst working at 96FM in Perth. This weeks worth of diary entries covers off me doing a fuckery load of work, which no doubt I'll be bitching about. Then there's all that jealousy I mentioned before, which begins with me having to deal with accepting that my co-worker and radio announcing roomie Dave moving on from Karratha, then there's the digs at Mark to work through, so expect even more sass from this little princess. I also become an editing guru, but it&rsquo;s got nothing to do with radio, I&rsquo;m bored over and over again, plus I&rsquo;m even more keen to move on to my next radio station. There&rsquo;s also another disaster for me to comment on, and the ultimate in 80&rsquo;s banking technology comes into my life thanks to a touch tone telephone. So get prepped for some quality 80's reminiscing and some truly loose stories from behind the scenes of radio, from back when it was a little bit more hectic and gung-ho.

The Bitching Network (Week Forty-Seven)

The title of this episode doesn't bode well, but I figure if you're this far in, you're hardly going to give up with ONLY 3 more episodes left to go...right? Also if you've been following this podcast from the beginning, you'll already be well across the fact that teenage me was really shit at recording anything of any great interest in my diary, but that hasn't stopped me and my besties from having fun. This time around I've pulled in my bestie Donna (aka My Doona, yes I also created that nickname for her...duh) who's been a buddy of mine ever since we worked together at 96fm in Perth during the early 90's. Together we'll cover off teenage me on the hunt in Karratha for Christmas presents to purchase and pack off for mailing to my parents in Adelaide. Who leaves Xmas postage this late you ask, apparently I do, but in my younger selves defence, Australia Post were pretty efficient in the 80's, unless they were spilling oil on Country Road suits that is. Obviously there’s also gifts I gotta give myself, because of course I do, way to be self absorbed mate. I also get kidnapped, which sounds very dramatic, but most certainly isn't. I stupidly wear black clothing in 40 plus heat and nearly pass out, plus I get a bike, get depressed, get jealous, get in a visit to Indoor Cricket AND sn under 18's disco and we wrap up with me getting my groove on under the table at a Chinese restaurant, whilst also experiencing Karaoke (not what I call it in the diary) for the very first time. That kind of blows my mind, who knew the technology to amplify drunk idiots, as they sung along to popular tunes, was already in use in 1989, and all the way up in Karratha as well. Thank goodness this teenage drunk idiot managed to actually write down something interesting. Not so dull after all huh, so plug in and get around the low key excitement I've now instilled in you. 

The title of this episode doesn't bode well, but I figure if you're this far in, you're hardly going to give up with ONLY 3 more episodes left to go...right? Also if you've been following this podcast from the beginning, you'll already be well across the fact that teenage me was really shit at recording anything of any great interest in my diary, but that hasn't stopped me and my besties from having fun. This time around I've pulled in my bestie Donna (aka My Doona, yes I also created that nickname for her...duh) who's been a buddy of mine ever since we worked together at 96fm in Perth during the early 90's. Together we'll cover off teenage me on the hunt in Karratha for Christmas presents to purchase and pack off for mailing to my parents in Adelaide. Who leaves Xmas postage this late you ask, apparently I do, but in my younger selves defence, Australia Post were pretty efficient in the 80's, unless they were spilling oil on Country Road suits that is. Obviously there&rsquo;s also gifts I gotta give myself, because of course I do, way to be self absorbed mate. I also get kidnapped, which sounds very dramatic, but most certainly isn't. I stupidly wear black clothing in 40 plus heat and nearly pass out, plus I get a bike, get depressed, get jealous, get in a visit to Indoor Cricket AND sn under 18's disco and we wrap up with me getting my groove on under the table at a Chinese restaurant, whilst also experiencing Karaoke (not what I call it in the diary) for the very first time. That kind of blows my mind, who knew the technology to amplify drunk idiots, as they sung along to popular tunes, was already in use in 1989, and all the way up in Karratha as well. Thank goodness this teenage drunk idiot managed to actually write down something interesting. Not so dull after all huh, so plug in and get around the low key excitement I've now instilled in you.&nbsp;

Escape From Karratha (Week Forty-Four)

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