About

Tech Minds & Radio Waves: My Story

I’ve always lived at the intersection of two worlds: the magic of broadcasting and the logic of information technology. Where most people see a sharp divide between complex technical infrastructure and engaging human communication, I see a perfect partnership.

My journey began in 1995 at a regional primary school. During the precious computer allowance times in class, I was getting my first 30-minute weekly taste of a dial-up internet connection on a classroom Osborne Pentium computer. The seeds were planted. By the time my family got our first home PC in 1997, I was completely hooked – tearing into software, troubleshooting hardware, and realizing that my future belonged in IT.

School classrooms weren’t the right fit for how my brain worked, so halfway through Year 11, I made the call to leave and learn by doing. I took up IT studies at a local TAFE and eventually launched my own regional business fixing computers, selling hardware, and providing web hosting to an under catered local audience.

Trading the Workbench for the Airwaves

By 2007, fixing other people’s tech six days a week had left me somewhat burnt out. I needed a pivot, which brought me back to a childhood dream: the radio. As a kid, I hadn’t just listened to the music on the radio; I was fascinated by the skill of the announcers—the “pilots of the airwaves.”

I went back to TAFE, completed a Broadcasting Diploma, and was named Star Student of 2007. Within months, I was working at local commercial FM stations (StarFM/The River). What followed was a rewarding 13-year career in commercial radio where my two passions finally collided.

I wasn’t just a voice on the air afternoons across multiple states or beating the local ABC station in the morning ratings; I was the guy bridging the gap behind the scenes. When our network needed to overhaul its workflow, I engineered a mass audio ingestion process from scratch. It bypassed our legacy bottlenecks, streamlined how we edited and distributed content, and was eventually adopted company-wide across all audio brands.

I knew how to talk to a crowd, and I knew how to build the systems that kept the crowd listening—whether that meant flawlessly transitioning stations to new national brands overnight, or working around the clock through the frontline emergencies of the devastating 2020 regional bushfires.

The Next Frequency: Tech, Telecoms & Leadership

When the economic fallout of COVID-19 brought an abrupt end to my radio chapter via a company-wide redundancy, I took six months to reset, untangle my identity from my dream job, and see where the world needed me next.

That answer came via a federally funded telecommunications support project operated by one of Australia’s national farming bodies. Joining as just the third employee on the team, I was back on the frontline—this time decoding both simple and complex telecommunications issues for regional families and farmers, debugging provider faults, and advocating for consumers who just needed their tech to work. Because I could easily translate complex data into plain English, I stepped up to manage the entire project for a year, along with providing technical and engagement leadership across my four year stint with the program.

Where I Am Now

Today, I work as an ICT infrastructure contractor, managing server and desktop environments across a diverse stack: Microsoft Windows, Linux Server, MacOS, Cisco Systems, and Ubiquiti Networking.

When I’m off the clock, you’ll still find me chasing those same foundational passions—tuning into great music, tinkering with new gadgets, upgrading my skills, and taking day trips to enjoy the regional landscape I’m proud to call home.