Hi I'm Geoff Field from 2DayFM in Sydney and I read news for Hamish and Andy
and I'm going Back to School with Student Edge as you can see.
What were you like as a teenager?
I was...
While all the other kids played sport, I was always interested in music.
In fact, used to wag sports day and bring my friends over to my house which was just
behind the high school
and we used to put on music and listen to music and stuff.
I was not a rebel but I certainly found ways to get out of things I didn't like.
What were some of the excuses? What were the best ones you could use to get out of something?
Gee I'm not feeling well.
I could do the whole sort of, you know, gammy leg thing.
I don't encourage anyone to do that by the way.
I didn't enjoy doing the PE, sports stuff and I actually hated doing it, so that was
my little way of getting out of it.
But I highly recommend you don't do that.
So, besides music - did you study music as well?
I played the guitar for a while. I loved radio.
I used to go up to the local radio station to do work experience
which is where I developed my love of journalism and newsreading.
Is there a particular moment when your love of journalism, your love of broadcasting,
where you finally discovered
"Oh this is actually a career I can get into or something I want to follow up on"?
I kind of loved listening to the radio as a kid. I'd like to say through my talent and
my expertise I got into radio
but my dad was best friends with the general manager at 2ST in Nowra and he got me some
work experience there.
Just towards the end of Year 10 - I was 16 years old - I had just finished my school
certificate back then and the general manager said, "Geoff would you like to start working
with us, we're looking for someone to do a shift."
So I left school on the Friday. Started working at 2ST on the Monday and I have not been
out of work since.
Well, I've got to go back to something. So, your broadcasters voice - yout deep baritone
That came in around 16?
Yeah it did.
That is very fortunate. I'm still waiting for my voice to finish breaking.
It's broken.
It's breaking. It's in a continual state of going up and down, really.
So you had this from a young age. How was that?
I can remember about 15, people said you've got a good voice for radio. I just thought they were...
Cause they knew I was interested and I just thought they were buttering me up.
But to have actually some professional people say that and then to have the management of
the local radio station, at the age of 16, say,
"You can read the news..."
So I used to get on and I'd read the news, at that stage, basically for the south coast.
Because there was no internet then; there was like the one radio station.
So I was providing news for thousands of people on the south coast.
And I was 16 years old. I'm sure most of the listeners didn't realise they were listening
to some 16-year-old, pimply-faced kid reading the news.
It's kind of interesting. So you had that kind of authoritative voice behind the microphone.
Very trusting. Did you have that reputation in high school?
To get picked on the debating team, I did enjoy smashing the competition with my argument.
So I suppose maybe that sort of helped me.
I never held back. Apart from my sexuality.
But back in those days it was not cool to be an openly gay person. So I had to hide that.
But apart from that - which was a huge part of my life - I was quite a forceful...
Not in a bullying way but I always spoke my mind and was always quite vocal on issues.
Was that difficult then, in high school to have to hide your sexuality?
Oh yeah. Yes it was.
Be public about it.
Late '70s, early '80s. It was very difficult. Because you basically lived a double life.
You had to fit in with everyone because it really was not at all cool to say you were gay.
You would never say it in the playground. There are a couple of friends, but basically
you had to live a double life, even though you knew you were gay.
You had to - I'm sorry to the girl I took out to the social dance - I love you very much,
but not in that way.
But you had to do things like that; you had to play the game.
So yeah, they were different times back then and I'm so glad that things are changing.
Not fast enough - but they are changing, so people don't have to live lies like they used to have to.
So, when you were working on the south coast, did you kind of cotton on to the fact that,
"I'm probably gonna have to move away if I want to continue my career"?
Is that something you had wanted to do to begin with or something you had to, kind of,
work up the courage to do or to talk to your parents about?
Well I was very lucky, one of the news directors from a Sydney radio station, 2SM, who were
quite popular at the time
This was before the FM stations had really bedded in.
Was driving through Nowra and heard me, and I got a phone call saying, "Would you like to come work in Sydney?"
And it took me about three seconds to say yes.
By the way this is literally the climax of the movie Wayne's World, so that's a pretty
remarkable story.
Yeah, there's a lot of remarkable... luck has always played a big part in my life.
So working for Kyle and Jackie O, Fifi and Jules and now Hamish and Andy, I mean what
are some of the more interesting or bizarre things you've had to do that you may not have imagined
as a 16-year-old newsreader?
Well, I suppose a lot of people out there who are in Sydney would remember the Scare Geoff segment.
I was stupid, because one day we were talking about: What are you scared of?
I just brazenly said, "Nothing much scares me."
Jackie said, "Really?" And that's where the Scare Geoff segment was hatched.
The first thing that I did, I think, was skydive out of a plane. I was terrified. And I had
to read the news as I was skydiving.
The second thing I did was read the news as I was being lowered into a shark tank with
meat on my legs.
I also got blindfolded here in this very studio. I can remember Labrat - his name was - he
blindfolded me, they put headphones on me, I had no idea where I was being taken but
I knew I was being lifted somewhere.
I was being taken to the very top of Centrepoint tower; they had me out on a harness.
I remember I was blindfolded and I had headphones on so I couldn't hear what was happening;
I couldn't see.
I was literally on the edge of Centerpoint tower.
They then ripped off the blindfold; the headphones came on and I'm looking at the street below;
Pitt St in Sydney.
And Kyle says... they pass me a laminated copy of the 8 o'clock news and Kyle said,
"Right Geoff, read the news."
I just can't actually remember anything other than sheer terror, but apparently I read the
news that morning.
I'm told. I still haven't listened to it back.
So tell me, do you have any regrets about those early years? About schooling, or are
you pretty happy with how it's all worked out?
Very happy. I wasn't one of those people that hated school.
Well then, do you have one piece of advice for any young people about the way they approach their study?
My advice would be: really spend a lot of time on the stuff you're passionate about.
If you find something that you're not interested in...
It's kind of hard because I know sometimes you've gotta do things... life isn't full
of stuff that you're gonna like.
But I would put more energy into stuff that you are passionate about.
That you feel may benefit you in later life and that you want to do.
Geoff thanks so much for your time today.
Pleasure.
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