My bestie MJ, aka Mary the babysitter from my teenage diary, is back for another week of entries and to help me understand why the two of us where so HOT for John Laws in the 80's. In 1989 Lawsie was the actual 'King of Talkback Radio', his show was relayed to radio stations all over Australia, including Karratha's 6KA. This week's worth of diary entries includes a rather horrendous set of sentences where 20 year old me is practically whacking myself off, via the tip of my biro (not a euphemism) over John Laws. It's uncomfortable to read now because he's just so hideous and reviled, but back then he was considered the peak of radio talent in Australia...how times change huh. We'll also cover off how a regular caller to the radio station called me up with a "great idea", but it actually isn’t, and the fact that he wants me to help him make it happen, means I'm either gonna have to commit to it, or pull on my big boy pants and tell him it aint ever gonna happen. So that's obviously where the bitching begins in this weeks worth of dairy entries, there's also a creepy moment where I pretend I’m heterosexual and filled with fake lust for one of my guests. I also get agitated when I'm accused of not doing something and actually raise my voice and yell at my boss Neville...whilst also trying not to cry, so that's totes business slash adulting right there. Plus, despite being a dog person, I buy a kitten on a whim, which weirdly makes me a teenage cat lady, because in 1989 I already had a cat back in Adelaide. How long will 80's me stay interested, and can it live with me for more than a week? Probably not, you can find out what I called my new feline friend, and what happened next within this episode, plus in keeping with her earlier appearances on this podcast, MJ manages to further incriminate herself by casually dropping a story that again places her in an illegal scenario, so huzzah for that and job well done. 

<div>My bestie MJ, aka Mary the babysitter from my teenage diary, is back for another week of entries and to help me understand why the two of us where so HOT for John Laws in the 80's. In 1989 Lawsie was the actual 'King of Talkback Radio', his show was relayed to radio stations all over Australia, including Karratha's 6KA. This week's worth of diary entries includes a rather horrendous set of sentences where 20 year old me is practically whacking myself off, via the tip of my biro (not a euphemism) over John Laws. It's uncomfortable to read now because he's just so hideous and reviled, but back then he was considered the peak of radio talent in Australia...how times change huh. We'll also cover off how a regular caller to the radio station called me up with a "great idea", but it actually isn’t, and the fact that he wants me to help him make it happen, means I'm either gonna have to commit to it, or pull on my big boy pants and tell him it aint ever gonna happen. So that's obviously where the bitching begins in this weeks worth of dairy entries, there's also a creepy moment where I pretend I’m heterosexual and filled with fake lust for one of my guests. I also get agitated when I'm accused of not doing something and actually raise my voice and yell at my boss Neville...whilst also trying not to cry, so that's totes business slash adulting right there. Plus, despite being a dog person, I buy a kitten on a whim, which weirdly makes me a teenage cat lady, because in 1989 I already had a cat back in Adelaide. How long will 80's me stay interested, and can it live with me for more than a week? Probably not, you can find out what I called my new feline friend, and what happened next within this episode, plus in keeping with her earlier appearances on this podcast, MJ manages to further incriminate herself by casually dropping a story that again places her in an illegal scenario, so huzzah for that and job well done. </div>

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

My bestie MJ, aka Mary the babysitter from my teenage diary, is back for another week of entries and to help me understand why the two...

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