The Coast’s Own 107.7 TRIPLE M BREAKFAST SHOW
Welcome to our first in person ‘Coffee with a Coastie’. You can listen to the full interview below.
Rob, how did you end up on the radio after spending many years on our TV as a chippy?
Well, I finished telly and the door shut on that. I still did a little bit, but not a lot. When I finished Better Homes and Gardens after 15 years, I spent about a year with my family, because we’d just had a baby. So it was a really perfect time. But it also gave me a little bit of time to explore other avenues. So I went down to Triple M in Sydney and they had this thing that was like a breeding ground for radio, a training kind of thing. It was called Triple M Modern Digital, and they just did two hours once a month. You’d go in there and just sit down with someone, Melissa “Mel” Tkautz (from Real Housewives of Sydney, SAS Australia) is who I was doing it with, she was a nice co–host (laughter). We would just shoot the breeze and have a chat and it was all good fun. They taught you a few bits and pieces, about how to tell a story short, because I could talk for hours otherwise. Paddy still tells me I ask the longest questions in the world. Then one day the phone rang, and it was from the Central Coast, Peter “Yamo” Yiamarelos and he said, “do you want to come up and join the breakfast team up here? We are trying out for a new breakfast host because someone had left” and before I knew it, I was here in the mornings, every day and I’ve loved it ever since. It’s really good.
Paddy, you bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to radio. What was the first piece of advice you gave Rob when you started together?
Rob: (laughter)
Paddy: I knew he’d laugh.
Rob: Some things are funny.
Paddy: Leave your ego at the door and you know what, it hasn’t worked. No, I don’t know, no advice. We just came into the studio we are in today, and I think we’d met once or twice maybe. We came in here and we did some sort of a demo or something.
Rob: What happened was I was working with Mandy Coolen and she was off work for a couple of days and they needed someone to run the panel because I’ve got no idea how the desk works.
Paddy: Yeah hopeless, in the London times that’s how they describe it hopeless (laughter).
Rob: I did not spill coffee over it and destroy it ether, did I Paddy Gerrard?
Paddy: That was once.
Rob: Anyway, so he came into run the desk whilst Mandy was away. Then later in the year, when 2GO became Triple M we ended up in the same room.
Paddy: Yeah, but we came into this studio for some unknown reason before that and I walked away and thought that was really, really good, I could work with that bloke. Then they rang one day and said, do you want to come back and do breakfast? I said, yes, I would love to, who with? And they said, Rob Palmer. That’s when I cried. Though I had no advice then, I do give him advice now, like when it comes to the world’s longest question.
Thinking back, what was your initial thought when you both found out you’d be working together? How familiar were you with each other’s previous work?
Rob: I knew I liked Paddy because we’d spent a couple of days together and we just laughed. I knew he was hopeless on caffeine. The first time we got together I said, mate do you want a coffee? Because I knew how to use the coffee machine and he didn’t because he hadn’t been in the building for a while. So I went up there and I made him a coffee and I tell you, you could stand a spoon up in this thing and I gave it to him. He drank it and he said he didn’t sleep for three days.
Paddy: Three days truly, because I don’t drink full strength coffee.
Rob: He has decaf.
Paddy: That was just one of the many things throughout the time, but it’s been fun the whole way along. It’s just been an absolute ball.
Rob: I think we realized that there’s no rule book for this stuff sometimes and we don’t have one. So we just talk to each other like a couple of mates. We hang a bit on each other, we also support each other if we really need to and it kinda of works.
Paddy: Yeah, and the thing is, you don’t get offended. Honestly, you can’t get offended. If you do get offended, don’t be in the game.
Rob: Yeah, he’s right. You do need to leave your ego at the door, and he gives me heaps of rubbish about it, but you do have to. We have a BBQ every morning and everyone’s invited and the more people that join us, the more fun it is.
Paddy: That’s what we think. It’s like a couple of mates having a chat and that’s what it should be. People say it sounds like you guys are at a pub or a barby having a chat and that’s what you want, and then people can call on 133 353 or go online and get involved that way. We do rely heavily on our listeners to contribute because that’s where you get the best stories.
Rob: They make us laugh.
Paddy: Yeah, they really do, without them we’d be nothing.
Rob, when you first started you said that you felt it was a privilege to be a part of people’s mornings. Before you were on radio, who was part of your morning?
Rob: Before I did radio, the first person I remember listening to on the radio was Uncle Doug on Triple M. Uncle Doug, he was the business! You know, everything that guy touched I would laugh at. I just sort of felt like I was going along for a ride on the way to work. I like to get away from all the serious stuff and all the down stuff, there’s so much you can get upset with. If I could spend an hour in my car on my way to my job listening to stuff that lets me get away from it, I would and I suppose that’s a guideline for us too. We try not to be too serious, but we can touch on serious stuff too if we feel we need to. Then if something is deeply personal, we can bring it to radio, and that’s a real privilege to have that platform. Because you can share something that’s concerning to you, but also at the same time 10 minutes later, we can be laughing our skins off about something completely stupid.
Paddy: Light and shade That’s what it is.
Rob: It is a privilege to be in people’s mornings, and they choose to have you, or they choose not to. And we understand that, we just bring ourselves and if you like us, come with us and if you don’t, it’s not offensive to us.
Paddy, you’ve had a stellar career on air. What made you want to get into radio? Who did you idolise?
Paddy: Well, once again, as Rob just said, Uncle Doug, Doug Mulray! We were in Queensland and we used to get his audio sent to us. But also, back when I was in Brisbane it was Wayne (Poo) Roberts. He was on 4BC. He was the reason I wanted to get into radio, as I loved what he did. I saw Wayne Roberts one day when we were at an awards night and I went up and said hello. In the game, you do sort of know everyone, indirectly. And it was so good just to have a chat to him. And I said, mate, you were the reason that I got into the game. And he said to me, you’re the third person tonight who said that. We even get that sometimes now, young guys come along and say, how do you get into radio? It’s great to see people come along, like what you do and say, this is the career I want to choose. But I initially wanted to get into sport, I really liked sport. So I went and did a radio course, but really focused on sport then.
Rob: I thought you were going to say but you weren’t fit enough.
Paddy: That is true.
Rob: He was actually quite the player in his day. He’d never tell anyone though, he was very handy on the football field.
Paddy: I really liked my sport. Then my first station was at Mt Isa, doing sport on air and then one day after about six months the manager said, would you like to come and do breakfast. I said yes and I’ve never done sports since. But geez, we talk about it a lot, which is really good.
You guys looked like you had an absolute ball playing roomies at the Crowne Plaza “Life Swap” … what was the most memorable moment for each of you?
Rob: Well looks aren’t everything. Waxing his chest?
Paddy: That was the after dark video.
Rob: I pretended to be room service and he just laid there.
Paddy: It was really good. But behind the scenes that took a long time. They were big days filming that. It was a lot of fun though. It was nice staying at Crown Plaza. We loved it. Staying there at Terrigal.
Rob: You could have kept your side of the room a little more tidier than you did.
Paddy: We found out a lot more about each other, that’s for sure, too much actually in some instances.
Rob: I spent a lot of time in the restaurant.
Paddy, we worked out golf isn’t your thing and Rob gave you a run for your money in the gym on the rowing machine. Have you discovered a sport that you and Rob can enjoy together that is more of an even playing field?
Paddy: I felt sorry for him, I let him win.
Rob: I’ve never seen a man so close to throwing up.
Paddy: He has a rowing machine at home, and I don’t, and they said have a go on the rowing machine and I seriously was so sick. It was not funny.
Rob: He went like he was rowing to save his children for the first 150m then hit
the wall. I’ve never seen anyone hit the wall before.
Paddy: I tell you what, I’m more of a sprinter than long distance.
Rob, what’s it like working with Paddy compared to winning Dancing with the Stars and do you still have those gold hot pants?
Paddy: Yes, he still has them
Rob: They may be tucked away in a cupboard somewhere. I’ve got some
spray on vinyl pants as well. I got spray tanned, I got waxed, I got everything. In fact, it wasn’t wax it was Nair hair removal cream.
Paddy: He still uses it to this today.
Rob: You wouldn’t want to leave that stuff on your skin for too long, if it eats hair like that, imagine. But working with Paddy compared to Dancing with the Stars, that was ten intense weeks, this has been three years of the same intensity, I’m not sure how long I’m going to last. No really, I had a dance partner that carried me and now I have a radio partner that carries me as well, so I’m very grateful.
You have such an amazing relationship on air. Do we see Paddy and Rob out on the street together anywhere?
Paddy: We’re going out for lunch today for the first time in six months. Nah, it’s really hard and this is probably the beauty of it, Rob enjoys golf I can’t stand it, I enjoy going to the gym he can’t stand that.
Rob: Paddy won’t go in the ocean, I like going out for a surf, there’s so much stuff like this.
Paddy: I did go swimming once.
Rob: When?
Paddy: It was a while ago; the water is too cold here compared to Queensland. We are going out for lunch today and there are different things we go to, but on the weekend, we tend to lead our own lives and we wouldn’t want it any other way. You don’t want to be living in each other’s pocket. We do contact each other most days though, there is a lot of texting that goes on.
Rob: Yeah, there’s a lot of texting going on, it’s just stuff that helps with the show the following day.
Paddy: and email. Not that Rob reads any of them.
Rob: I’ve got about five and a half thousand emails in my work inbox that are unread. It’s a little embarrassing. But Paddy reads them and if there is something I need to know, he tells me.
Zookeeper Dan looked to show you both a great day at The Australian Reptile Park for World Wildlife Day and we noticed a couple of things. Rob, you don’t like spiders and Paddy, you don’t like snakes – have either of you ever played on this with a practical joke?
Rob: No, I don’t even like talking about them to be honest.
Paddy: I hate snakes, absolutely hate. But Rob is more fearful, he’s arachnophobia to the nth degree.
Rob: Well, I don’t know let’s not carry on about it. But don’t touch me for the next five minutes please. That’s my deal breaker, if Paddy brings a spider into the studio at any stage I’m leaving for the day.
Listen to the full interview above to hear about the Halloween prank Paddy pulled on Rob.
You guys are going into your third year on air together, what do you love most about working together? What would you like to do more of in the future?
Paddy: We laugh every day, honestly from the time we get in every morning. No matter whether we are laughing at Rob or laughing at me taking the micky. You laugh every day, and we just say, how good is it to have this job every single day and get paid for it. I’ve always said if you don’t like your job go and find something that you really do. That’s what I’ve said to our kids, find something that you want to do and then go do it.
Rob: Ahh it’s easier to say and harder to do sometimes.
Paddy: What’s that.
Rob: To get out of a job you don’t like and do something you do like. I’m not saying our job is hard.
Paddy: I was trying to be philosophical
Rob: C’mon, leave it at the door. For a man that looks as simple as he does, Paddy is an amazing talent behind the desk. We could be mid conversation and he will not only find facts and figures online about what we’re talking about, but he will also find a sound that suits the conversation and it all gets put together whilst talking to someone and maintaining interest and attention in what we are talking about, to make the radio show sound like a theatre. I don’t know how he does it. It’s not often I’ll give him a compliment, but it’s an amazing talent to be able to do what Paddy does.
Paddy: Thank you my good friend.
You’ve been part of a rebrand from 2GO to Triple M, then Triple M’s 50th birthday celebration in November last year, these are massive milestones to celebrate. What other exciting events are coming up for Triple M?
Paddy: Wellll, Lukey (laughter).
Rob: I got no idea, do you know something?
Paddy: Yeah, yeah about that thing. It hasn’t been announced yet.
Rob: Unfortunately we can’t say anything.
Paddy: There is still a few final details.
Rob: A lot of fun.
Paddy: They would murder us if we said anything.
Rob: Probably you more so than me (laughter).
Our sincere thanks to Paddy and Rob for their time.
Be sure to tune in between 5:30 and 9am weekdays to catch Paddy and Rob Palmer on the Coast’s Own 107.7 Triple M!