Radio has been a hobby of mine for a long time, since around about 1979.

I would slowly wind the dial up and down the SW bands and AM band of the family radio when I was a Kid, to see what I could find. I would be amazed to hear Stations from Australia, USA, Canada, and French and Spanish speaking countries coming through the airwaves at night.

I also tried to make a career of it once, working at Star FM in Wanganui as the Evening DJ, but felt it wasn't for me as a career, but more as a hobby.

Some of the other Stations I had worked at include:

FM97 ("Better Music - and more of it! In digital stereo")was a pirate radio station a friend and I set up at the C.I.T in 1990. I designed and made the Mixing desk, FM Stereo transmitter, and audio compressor/DNR system, my friend helped improve the Transmitter's output power, and did all the station programming. The station proved very popular due to the wide variety of music we played, and the fact we were the only crystal clear Stereo station anyone could pick up in the Halls of Residence. While we weren't broadcasting, we retransmitted Wellington's More FM (with their permission), as we were able to (due to the height of our "studio") pick up More FM clearly.

FM97 On Air Studio

 

Not only did the station prove popular among the students, but we received many reports and QSL cards from radio hobbyists. Plus, the Radio Frequency Service knew about us, but were kind enough to let us carry on.

531PI is a Radio Station in Auckland which broadcasts to the Pacific Islands community. I was hired in 1996 to produce a Sports show early Saturday mornings, followed by a Multicultural Top 40 countdown.

It may have been a culture shock to the station's listeners at first to hear this white fella on their radio station, but the show and format soon proved popular. I would have various bits of useless (but humouress) information and facts to fill in the gaps and keep people entertained, along with a line up of terrible jokes. I also had various Show ID's and sound effects produced on a Mac laptop, based on a "Simpsons", "Star Wars", or "Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" theme.

Radio demo

 

Simpsons:

(Off station voice): "The 531PI Top 40, with Ben Lennard"
Bart: "It's just something they created to scare Kids, like the Boogy Man or Mike Jackson."
 
(Off station voice): "The 531PI Top 40, with Ben Lennard"
Policeman: "Son, you wait here while daddy tries to talk some sense in to this raving derilect."
 
(Off station voice): "The 531PI Top 40, with Ben Lennard"
Homer: "Get away dammit! Run for your lives!!"
 
and, a sfx for my terrible jokes: Jokeending.wav

 

Star Wars:

Darth: "What is thy bidding, my master?"
Emperor: "There is a great disturbance in the force"
(Off station voice): "The 531PI Top 40, with Ben Lennard"

 

Hitch Hikers Guide:

(Off station voice): "The 531PI Top 40, with Ben Lennard"
Slartibartfast: "It may disturb you."
Arthur: "Oohh..."
Slartibartfast: "It scares the willies out of me!"
 
(Off station voice): "The 531PI Top 40, with Ben Lennard"
Narrator: "More controversal than Oolon Coluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters: 'Where God went wrong', 'Some more of God's greatest mistakes', and 'Who is this God person anyway?'"