Let's be honest, 11 years is a long time in any job these days and more than a decade of those hideously anti-social hours is worthy of an award. Personally it has been a pleasure and an honour to join Spencer in the studio every week for those 11 years. And our association on radio goes back more than 15 years and started with an email. The subject line was Would you take a three-and-a-half-year-old boy to the ballet? At the time I was editor of the now defunct publication Kids in Brisbane. I had just returned from a Queensland Ballet children's performance with the individual now known as Drama Teen. It seemed to me at the time that many in the media reported children as problems - kids with obesity, kids with ADHD and so on. The bee in my bonnet was that day was that there were so many positive things happening in Brisbane for families but finding out about them was hard. Basically Spencer said "let's talk". That afternoon was my first ever visit to a radio studio. I was invited back two weeks later and weekly after that. Drama Teen is now almost 19 and, fittingly, will be studying the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drama) at QUT from next year. It is possible that without that email and Spencer the doors to so many theatrical productions would not have been opened for Oliver and me. I don't know. But I do know that that it has been a wonderful opportunity and it has certainly enabled me to expose both myself and my son's mind to a world of theatre and live entertainment beyond the reach of a mere mortal on a university lecturer's wage. It has been a privilege. It was also an honour to be in the studio with him when he bowed out from the breakfast spot. Who knows what next year will bring for Spencer and for my involvement with the ABC in Brisbane. Right now I'd just like to say thanks. As Douglas Adams, a man both Spencer and I are very fond of once wrote So Long and Thanks for all the Fish ...
Thanks for these pics. We will all miss Spencer, spencils and all.
ReplyDelete