Radio bosses hit Carrie Bickmore with bad language warning
Carrie Bickmore has been warned about her use of bad language on her radio show, with one particular four letter word raising the ire of her boss.
Confidential
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Broadcaster Carrie Bickmore says radio bosses have warned her about using bad language on the show she co-hosts with comedian Tommy Little.
“I always use the barometer of, ‘I don’t know how I’d feel about that if (12-year-old son) Ollie was in the back seat of the car right now,” Bickmore said of determining the tone of the popular FOX FM drive show.
Little added: “But she says the most outlandish stuff. In our first meetings, with our boss, the only notes were: ‘Carrie you need to stop swearing. She kept saying s--t.’
Bickmore: “I wasn’t saying it aggressively, I was saying things like s--t happens, and the boss is like, ‘You can’t keep saying that three times a show’.”
Bickmore and Little this week re-signed with Austereo, and the Carrie And Tommy Show will return in 2020, broadcasting on weekdays from 3pm to 5pm.
Her commitment to the show followed speculation she might quit radio, or her television gig co-hosting Ten’s The Project.
“I’m staying with both next year and I’m really excited about it,” Bickmore said.
“When you do two jobs that you love, it makes sense to keep them.”
Bickmore and Little said the show, and their friendship, had evolved over the last two years on air.
“When we first joined up to do the show, we did an interview and Tommy described us as great mates, and I thought, ‘Really?’ I thought we were just professional friends,” Bickmore said, laughing.
Little: “She told me we were professional colleagues and nothing more.”
Bickmore: “Now we’re great mates.”
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She said they aim to do a show that’s “topical, share some personal things along the way, do things that make us laugh, and hopefully make other people laugh.”
Little added: “It’s a really nice balance between heart and idiot.”
Bickmore’s father, Brian, is a former radio announcer. She says he always gave realistic advice about the industry, especially after her career rollercoaster at Nova, co-hosting a drive show with Andy Ross in 2002.
“We were going along, having so much fun, and we’d just gone to No.1,” she said. “And I’ll be honest, looking back at it now, I realise we had a long way to go as a show.
“But I’m thinking we’re good, we made it, then they brought us in and said, ‘We’re not sure it’s 100 per cent working, and we’re going to go in another direction.
“I was so gutted I rang dad and said That’s it, I want to quit. I’m not made for this.’”
“He said: ‘It’s radio, go back in there, head down and work hard and it will all swing around.
“At the time, I thought it was annoying advice from my father, but it was true.”
Soon after, Bickmore got a gig at Rove Live and a newsreader spot on Dave Hughes and Kate Langbroek’s radio show.
“Decisions are made quickly that don’t go in your favour, and they’re made as quickly in your favour at other times, too.”