YOU may have heard that 2CC did pretty well at the recent Australian Commercial Radio Awards, where of eight finalists from the station, four were declared to be the best in their categories.

My colleagues from the station’s breakfast show, Tim Shaw and Eddie Williams, won for Best Current Affairs Presenter and Producer respectively. The 2CC Raiders Call Team were given some well-deserved recognition for their work bringing every Raiders game to life on air. And I was the fourth winner, picking up the gong in the Best Talk Presenter category.

However you look at it, it’s a decent result for a small radio station and great recognition for the whole team because the contribution of everyone in a small team counts.

Add in a few more awards picked up by broadcasters who feature in the programs we take from our network partners, it’s even more impressive. As a final comment on the subject, it makes it easy to go to work in the morning knowing the people you work with are held in such high regard.

The awards were held in Melbourne and while settling in for my flight home I had a thought that gave me the giggles.

I started thinking about how I would explain what I do and the weekend in general to someone from Australia at around the turn of the last century…

(This is where on radio I’d hit the sound-effects button for a harp glissando.)

“Yes, I won an award last night for best talk presenter on radio and now I’m about to fly home to Canberra.”

“Radio? Fly? Canberra?”

“Ah, yes, radio. I sit in a soundproof room, where I interview people who are generally in another building, and I talk to people who call in on the phone, so that other people can listen to the conversations.”

“And how do they listen?”

“On their radio.”

“These people who listen aren’t actually there with you?”

“Well, they’re not in the same place as me…”

“So you’re actually talking to yourself?”

“Well, they’re there, but they’re somewhere else…”

“And they gave you an award for that?”

“To be fair, it is my job.”

“So they pay you money for it, too? That’s a good one!” (Cue several minutes of laughter.) “Now, about this flying? You do that yourself, too?”

“Well, there are a couple of hundred other passengers.”

“So it’s like a train that goes into the sky?”

“Actually it’s a lot more convenient than a train, and faster, because there aren’t any direct train services between Canberra and Melbourne. They never built the line.”

“I was getting to that. Canberra. What is it, and where’s that?”

“It’s the place we built to be the capital city when Melbourne and Sydney couldn’t decide which of them should have been the seat of government.”

“Uh-huh. So let me see if I have this right. You have a shiny thing, that they gave you for talking to people who may or may not exist, in conversations that you don’t know if anyone’s listening to. And you’re taking it home by getting on some sort of device that flies. To a place that doesn’t exist? Nice meeting you, mate…”