I must be bonkers because I am stepping back from my dream job at Mix FM radio and taking a detour after a 30-year career in local media.
Fear cripples me that I will never find such a wonderful and fulfilling role as my current drive-home shift.
Our goal has always been to make locals smile. It is not a job. It is a pure privilege to hang out as a team every day.
I will so dearly miss our epic listeners who share their lives with Todd Widdicombe and myself, who tell us when they have children, or when their mum passes away, or when they are getting a divorce.
It is a wild rollercoaster ride to work in radio and I will forever be grateful.
My buddy Toddy is resigning. He is the funniest person I know and also one of the nicest humans I know. Working with him has been a true gift from the radio gods.
My bestie wants more time with his family and to pursue other creative pursuits. I am not talking out of school when I also say that, in the past six months, Toddy has lost his brother and one of his best mates to suicide. It has been devastating for him and tough to watch my mate struggle with the weight of it all. Men’s suicide is something we all need to talk about more because it is an epidemic in our country.
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So, I had to make a choice to stay on, after working with Toddy happily for 19 years, or hang up the headphones with him.
I am leaving. With a heavy heart. But I am going to be around my kids much more.
One of my beautiful trio has autism and, let me tell you, I feel guilty I am not there to pick him up from school when he has had a bad day being teased or being by himself all day. My daughter is 14 and I want to hang on to any time I have left with her before she flies the coop and my little guy needs me around more of late with a few friendship fires and ongoing health issues.
My beautiful boss says I will still be able to do podcasts and fill-in shifts. And who knows what the future holds?
Thank you to everyone for listening, if you did. It has gone in the blink of an eye. It has meant the world to me. Time to learn to cook and clean the house.
To quote a great philosopher who does not wear pants (Winnie the Pooh): “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
Sami Muirhead is a radio announcer, blogger and commentator. For more from Sami, tune into Mix FM (until August 22).
