"Ruby said she's not rolling the bowls today, but she's home listening to the country music and waiting for this song. I hope it's the right one. From Shaza Lee."
Veteran DJ country music presenter Mike Kennedy is in the studio taking calls from listeners in between playing tracks.
It's clear he knows his listeners and they know him.
For 30 years, Mike has been a volunteer radio presenter on Coast FM 963 in Gosford, NSW, reaching the milestone in March.
Every Sunday he travels down from his home in Beresfield, outside Newcastle, to host the Australian Country Music Show from 12-2pm.
He arrives about an hour and a half before the show to program the studio's computer with the tracks he intends to play.
When The Senior dropped by, artists on the track list included Brad Cox, Brian Letton, Paul McCloud and the great Chad Morgan.
By coincidence it was Chad's 91st birthday, so Mike gave the Sheikh of Scrubby Creek a special shout-out, playing Josh Powell-Fussell's When Chad Morgan Came To Town and Chad's cheeky Since Dear Mother Died.
Such is Mike's following that some listeners even take the phone off the hook while he's on air.
"Mostly they're seniors," he said. "I make sure I play the old classics because it's an older audience."
One of his devotees, Dot, hasn't missed a show in 28 years. Every Christmas she brings in a cake and a huge card crammed with names of thankful listeners.
"What I've got is something very personal and that's what the people tell me when they ring up," Mike said.
"Sometimes a husband or a wife has passed on and the one that's living still listens and it's special for them.
"It's not like the commercial radio stations where they're just talking at people."
A life in communication
Mike spent his early years in Scone, where his parents had a fruit shop.
On weekends the family ran amusement rides like merry go rounds and razzle dazzles at showgrounds and carnivals.
"It was a big family. We started with nothing yet we survived. But we worked hard in the early years and I know what people are going through because I've been there."
Mike has worked hard at his craft, studying speech and drama in Australia through the College of Music in London.
"I do voice training every day. I do readings, poems, scales, all that sort of stuff. I'll also pick up a guitar and sing a song."
Mike has always enjoyed voiceover work. For five years he was Flash Jack the Price Cutter for menswear chain Reuben F. Scarf. As well as handling all the advertising in character, he spruiked outside the stores.
Later he became Hyper Harry for the former Super Kmart, "traipsing around in a big bow tie".
Over the years he's also managed pubs and worked as a sales manager, journalist, actor, bus and taxi driver, to name but a few jobs.
Amazingly, in 48 years of broadcasting, he's only had one paying job on air: in 1985, when he lived and worked in SA.
It was the only country music program in the state. "I was selling through the day and got the biggest market share in the history of the company."
Nowadays, among other things, Mike hosts the Australian Country Music Stars of Fame concerts in Newcastle to raise funds for Camp Quality.
He has fronted four shows to date, most recently at Weston Workers on April 6, 2024.
Mike has also hosted country music shows and was inducted into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame in Tamworth in 2016. In 2019 he was made a life member of Coast FM.
