Brigitte Duclos on getting sacked, quitting alcohol and finding her way back
After a brutal sacking from her radio role at Gold FM in 2015, Brigitte Duclos lost her way. She tells Fiona Byrne how quitting alcohol, returning to study and having a Plan B helped her get back on course.
Fiona Byrne
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Brigitte Duclos’s radio career was enviable, enduring and celebrated until she was “blindsided” and sacked “out of the blue” from Gold FM in 2015. Now, as she prepares to host Triple M’s Summer Brekkie with Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann, she tells how at 55 she has been through the toughest three years of her life, but is back in control thanks to a Gap Year, giving up drinking, returning to study and, finally, having a Plan B.
FIONA BYRNE: How did Eddie McGuire’s obsession with Collingwood help you get your start in media?
BRIGITTE DUCLOS: It was 30 years ago. I was 25, I turn 55 on Friday. I had finished my Bachelor of Applied Science degree, which was a Phys Ed degree, and I was going to go overseas. Then my friend Jen Hansen said, ‘They are looking for a girl to join the sport reporting team at Channel 10 and I thought, ‘That sounds interesting.’ Next thing I know I am being interviewed by Eddie McGuire, who is this young 21-year-old kid. He asked me who my friends were and did I know who was the captain of Collingwood. Somehow I managed to get through that interview and get the job, despite failing the Collingwood test.
FB: You moved into radio and had an amazing career at Triple M from 1992 until 2007.
BD: I went to Triple M (in 1992) to be the newsreader. Richard Stubbs was hosting Breakfast. On one occasion he came into the newsroom when I was reading a serious story and set my script on fire with a lighter. I was laughing which, of course, was not ideal. I did not last long in the newsroom but ended up being moved on to his show, which became an incredible four years. Then there was The Grill Team with Eddie (McGuire) and Dermott (Brereton). After that I had my children and then Tim Smith rang and asked how I felt about doing a breakfast show. I remember wheeling my big double pram into the studio to meet with him with a screaming baby and a two-year-old and that is how I ended up on The Cage (with Peter Berner, James Brayshaw, Matt Parkinson and Mike Fitzpatrick). They really were such happy days.
FB: You joined MIX FM to do Breakfast with Tom Gleeson and George McEncroe in 2008.
BD: The show was called Two Women and a Metro, which was a terrible name. George left at the end of that year and Tom and I did the following year together. I loved working with Tom, but he was too naughty for radio. He used to do ads and he would be naughty in the ads (live reads) and clients would be cross. He made a decision to leave in 2010 and I thought, ‘Oh no’. Next thing Lehmo (Anthony Lehmann) comes along. Nothing fazes him he is just delightful. We did that show for two years together and then at the end of 2011 we were told by ARN (who own the MIX, now known as KIIS, and Gold radio stations) that they were moving us to Gold to host Breakfast. It was bittersweet because Grubby (Peter Stubbs) and Dee Dee (Dunleavy) had been hosting Gold Breakfast and they were our friends. I felt terrible. Lehmo and I did Breakfast at Gold for four years.
FB: That golden era came to a sudden halt in December 2015.
BD: I love Gold, but they had a change of direction. They wanted to take the old out of Gold at one stage and I think that might have been me. That was very out of the blue, but then again, most good sackings are. They took a long time to offer us contracts (for 2016) and then finally they did. I was waiting for my manager to come back from overseas to check over the details before I signed, but I had the contract in my hands. We had a week left to go on air that year and we had just finished a production meeting for the next day’s show when they (Gold management) asked to see me. I walked into the meeting and the lawyer was sitting there. I was so blindsided, probably because I had a contract for one and, two, as a rule, the team gets sacked not one person. They said, ‘We want you to leave’. I said, ‘But you have offered me a contract’, and I was told, ‘Things have changed’. It was such a shock, it threw me so badly. It was very brutal. I did not know how to deal with it. It happened just before Christmas, I had two kids in private school. I did not know what to think.
FB: So what did you do that day?
BD: I went home and went to bed and had a drink. I did not know what else to do.
FB: Your departure from Gold marked the start of three tough years.
BD: I am not bitter and I was not bitter. I had had such a good run. It happens to everyone. But there was no (radio) job to move on to. I’d be lying to say I took it in my stride because I didn’t. You lose your identity to a certain extent because it (radio) was all I had ever known. When you are working you don’t stop and think. I had to stop and think for three years, to be honest.
FB: How did you keep busy?
BD: Grubby and Dee Dee were on 3AW so they would have me in for a spot, Triple M would have me in as a fill in. I started hosting Collingwood’s President’s Luncheon. Then I started working in a shop, which I loved and that gave me a bit of confidence back. I worked behind the scenes on The Footy Show. Through all of this I was really missing radio. I just can’t find anything I like, like it. I have tried a couple of things and I don’t love anything like I love radio.
FB: Tell me about your Gap Year.
BD: This has been my Gap Year, this year. After two years of things not quite coming together, I decided to have a Gap Year. I gave up drinking, lost a lot of weight and started exercising. I sort of went back to being like I used to be. I felt like I had lost myself a bit in worrying about the future. I also went back to university.
FB: What prompted you to give up alcohol for a year?
BD: I did it because nothing was changing. I could not get things right. So I thought something has to change. I don’t think I had a drinking problem, but I think I was drinking too much. I did not want to give up for a year, I wanted to give up for three months, but I was advised if you really want to make changes you need to do it for a year. I hated it in the beginning because I realised everything I did in my social life was based around drinking. I realised it was a habit. Everyone was amazingly supportive. I did not go out much at the beginning, to be honest. As the year went on, I found I was going out a lot more and for longer. I am now drinking again, but in a completely different way. It was a very good thing for me to do because it gave me clarity.
FB: Why did you return to study?
BD: I am doing a Postgraduate Diploma of Counselling. I started in September and have completed my first semester. Going back to study after 35 years has been the hardest thing I have ever done. Everything has changed. I had forgotten how to write an essay. I have had a bit of counselling through everything that has been going on and became really interested in that area. It is just so helpful. I am genuinely interested in people and I would like to be able to help them. Also, I think it is a job where being older and having life experience is an advantage. It is a two-year course and if radio comes up there is no reason why I can’t do both. I am particularly interested in people over 50. I see it around me. They are either dealing with empty nests and don’t know what to do once the kids are gone, or divorce after many years of marriage, or death which can happen to anyone, or loss of a job and no one wants you because you are over 50. You become invisible. I think it is a real gap in society.
FB: You are very strong about people having a Plan B. Why?
BD: What I never had was a Plan B, which was dumb. I never thought about, ‘What would happen if?’ I don’t want to go into my life anymore with fear and uncertainty because what that caused was terrible fear and terrible uncertainty and that really took the wind out of my sails for a long, long time. I am much clearer now about where I am and what is happening for me. The other thing I have learnt is you have to be responsible for everything. You can’t just sit there and hope things will fall into your lap, which I did for a while. I had been so lucky for so long that (after the Gold axing) I was just waiting for something to happen. You can’t just sit and wait. You have to go out and make it happen. I had to learn that in my 50s.
FB: Have you experienced any #MeToo moments during your media career?
BD: I have never had a problem. I have been so lucky to work with men who have from day one treated me with the greatest amount of respect. They (Triple M) developed the red card system on The Cage, so I could keep the boys under control. That was them helping me keep dignified and moderate. If the boys got rude or out of control I would red card them and they would have to leave the studio. It was a genius idea because it was four boys and me usually and they could get raucous and silly. I have never ever felt in any way treated badly as a woman ever.
FB: You and Lehmo are reuniting to host Triple M Summer Brekkie for two weeks. Is this the first time you have worked together since Gold?
BD: Yes. We had a meeting to discuss the show and I was shocked at how easily we slipped back into our groove. I am very excited about it and feel very relaxed about it. We laughed our heads off. When Lehmo and I last worked together he was determined to have a bridge named after me called the Brig Bridge. I am still up for that. I said to him, ‘I am after the
West Gate,’ but he said, ‘I don’t think you are going to get that signed off’.
FB: How would you sum up the last couple of years?
BD: Difficult into challenging into enlightening. I have not found all the answers yet. Your immediate reaction when you get sacked is to say, ‘I am a failure’ and it has been work to remember that I have had a really fabulous career and I am very lucky and to appreciate that. It is about not being trapped by that last memory of walking out the door.
FB: 2020 is fast approaching. How are you feeling heading into the new year?
BD: I feel in control for the first time in a long time and it is a nice feeling. It is a relief to be honest.
Triple M’s Summer Brekkie with Brig & Lehmo, December 9-20