Radio Today<\/strong> \u201cNo matter how much you love a job, position or opportunity, there comes a time when you need to pull out.\u201d<\/p>\nFor Steve, that time had certainly come. It was September 2024. Near on three years of 3.45am alarms had zapped his joie de vivre.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Daily 4BC mantra for me was \u2018Energy UP \u2013 Enthusiasm ON.\u2019\u00a0 Every shift. Every day. Even when some thought I was a little weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou must do what works for you. Particularly to get through breakfast.\u00a0 Energy UP \u2013 Enthusiasm ON!\u00a0\u00a0 Without fail.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I had to continue with mornings, every half hour. Relentless, yet rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever \u2013 to paraphrase former Nationals<\/strong> Leader David Littleproud<\/strong> recently \u2013 I was buggered!\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cAlso, I think I had pushed Nine<\/strong> management enough on several topics,\u201d Steve says. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a one-man band, who invariably ends up in an orchestra.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cSo when you make a tough decision (to leave) and follow through, what do you do next?\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve drew upon some previous advice shared with him by entertainment industry heavyweights in Kevin Golsby<\/strong> and Jon English:<\/strong> There will be quiet times. You need to have other skills.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-3957.png\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cFortunately, I have always had a passion for real estate and renovating,\u201d says Steve.<\/p>\n
And so, he made another life changing decision.<\/p>\n
He sold the Brisbane<\/strong> base where he and his partner Jan had lived for four years and moved Hervey Bay.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cMore water. Less traffic. Better lifestyle,\u201d he smiles.<\/p>\n
And a renovation opportunity to boot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI bit off a little more than I could chew, so I have \u2018chewed like hell,\u2019 for the past 15 months. Miss Jan and I now have a wonderful property with 2 home offices and views of the Coral Sea.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\nDuring this time, Steve got a call out of the blue from AIR News<\/strong> owner Terry Daniel.<\/strong><\/p>\nAfter a false start, lots of paint, gyprock dust and numerous tradespeople, Steve officially joined the AIR News team earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack in the saddle, albeit on a different horse, which ironically, runs on the \u20189 radio track,\u2019\u201d Steve laughs.<\/p>\n
In recent years, AIR News has acquired the services of experienced radio reporters including ex-ARN<\/strong> and Cruise 1323<\/strong> Breakfast newsreader Alan Baskin,<\/strong> former senior Network 10<\/strong> producer Mark Dransfield<\/strong> and former 3XY <\/strong>and Gold 104.3<\/strong> News Director Michael Lynch.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cIt works so well \u2013 with many experienced radio people, all working from home studios, adding professionalism and immediacy to nearly 150 stations across the country, hourly,\u201d says Steve.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same joy. The same buzz. And you can wear overalls \u2013 which sometimes I do!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, if you\u2019ll excuse me, I have one more wall to paint!\u201d<\/p>\n
Images supplied.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot has happened in Steve Barker\u2019s life in the year and a half since he finally switched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[151963,177140,177141,18,117,19,17,337,151961,177142,177143],"class_list":{"0":"post-387459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-4bc","9":"tag-air-news","10":"tag-australian-independent-radio-news","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-nine-radio","17":"tag-steve-barker","18":"tag-terry-daniel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116237293262503438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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