SCOTT Masters and Nigel Johnson, aka Scotty and Nige, say they were “relieved” when they heard they’d taken the prized ratings crown for Canberra’s breakfast radio spot.

“We’re just happy that we didn’t bomb,” says Nige.

“CityNews” met the pair in their Gungahlin studio at 104.7, fresh from their ratings win over ABC rival Ross Solly.

“It is an unpredictable thing, when the future of your job is in the hands of people you’ve never met, but right now it’s the best feeling,” says Nige.

It’s fair to say it’s been a cracking year for the duo so far, not just for their win over Solly. In March, they were voted the third “most liked” thing about Canberra in the “Like Canberra” centenary campaign – no mean feat, when competing with Floriade and Canberra’s scenery.

“I can’t believe the views of the mountains beat us,” jokes Scotty. “But to be the only people in the top 100 was crazy.”

While Newcastle-born Scotty says he was “destined for radio”, starting his career fresh out of year 12 in 1991 as a late-night disc jockey with a Newcastle classic hits station, Canberra-born Nige’s career was a case of being “in the right place at the right time.”

“I was one of those teenagers who always called up the radio station and won competitions,” he says.

“One day, I won some money at 104.7 and they asked me to come in and say over the radio that I’d won. So they put me in the voiceover booth and I blurted it out in one go, nailed it. I got dragged down to the program director’s office and landed a job.”

Both Scotty and Nige started at 104.7 in 1998, separately working as afternoon announcers. They started their breakfast show full time in May, 2007, and say the secret to their success is to be “natural”.

“Audiences are so much more switched on and media-savvy these days, they can smell when a joke is set up,” says Nige.

“We don’t usually tell each other what we’re going to be talking about in advance, he doesn’t hear the jokes before, so that when the listeners are hearing it for the first time, so are we, and the reaction is genuine.”

“We don’t take ourselves all that seriously,” adds Scotty.

“We’ll sometimes make fun of people but not in a nasty, personal way. Usually we just make fun of each other, because who wants to be serious on their way to work?”

The boys say they prefer to get their material from their own life experiences, but they admit they like to remain a bit elusive to their listeners.

“We reveal what we want to reveal, at the end of the day we are caricatures of ourselves on the show,” says Scotty.

“Sometimes something will happen at home, but you know you probably shouldn’t use it for the show.”

What they can reveal, is that Scotty juggles his 3am wake up call for the 6am show with his two children, aged 16 and seven.

He plays for a rock band and never needs a drop of caffeine to start his day. The heavily tattooed Newcastle Knights fan just celebrated his 40th birthday with a big party and says mate Nige, two years his junior, was there with a beer in hand.

“We are mates; besides my kids, I spend the most time with Nige,” he says.

Nige, a coffee junkie who has just moved into his new house in Forde, says he’s “given up on dating”, which leaves plenty of spare time for his favourite hobby, playing a “vast amount” of computer games.

“People think we have this glamorous life, but I’m just a guy who lives with his cat,” he says.

The boys say most of their listeners are supportive when they come up to say hi – usually thanking them “for the laugh” on the way to work – but their naysayers aren’t shy about expressing their opinions, either.

“One man came up to me and goes: ‘Hey mate, how are you?’ And as he shakes my hand he says: ‘I f***ing hate your show’, and walks away,” laughs Scotty.

It doesn’t look like the boys are going anywhere soon, though: “We’ll keep doing this till the ratings plummet,” says Nige.

Scotty and Nige, 104.7, weekdays 6am-9am.