Celebrity interview derailed by radio star’s ‘bulge’

Australia’s biggest radio stars have opened up about their most embarrassing on air moments, including a rather unfortunate ‘camel toe’.

Australia’s biggest radio stars have opened up about their most awkward on air moments, and some of them are guaranteed to make you cringe.

The broadcasters agreed to share their amusing stories with news.com.au to celebrate the centenary of radio in Australia.

Some quick history for you: Radio’s first station transmission came from the call sign 2SB on November 23, 1923, with listeners treated to a musical performance of Carnival of the Animals – The Swan.

Fast forward to today, and there are now 260 commercial stations broadcasting across the country, with millions of Aussies tuning in daily to hear the latest news, their favourite songs, and of course to be entertained by the many talented broadcasters on air.

Speaking of those broadcasters, let’s now take a look at their most awkward on air moments.

Woody from KIIS FM’s Will & Woody

I once bought Will a costume to wear to an interview with Jason Segel and Emily Blunt.

I deliberately bought a child’s size costume which meant that Will’s ‘bulge’ was excessively prominent (check it out in the video player above).

This led to Jason pointing and laughing at Will’s package and refusing to talk about anything else during our allotted 10 mins.

Will and Woody from KIIS FM.

He's a real left leaner.

Will from KIIS FM’s Will & Woody

We overheard Jennifer Lopez screaming at her publicist about needing to do an interview with us.

We were both dressed as Santa and had to go through the whole interview knowing that she really didn’t want to be there.

Suffice to say that the interview wasn’t one of our best.

Wippa from Nova 96.9’s Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie show

Confusing the list of questions not to ask with the list of what to ask when interviewing One Direction.

The band was fine with the questions but the publicist flew off the handle.

How the One Direction boys looked during an interview with Fitzy and Wippa.

Mitch Churi from KIIS FM’s The Pick Up

I’ve farted, burped and cried on air but nothing can beat the interview I had with Dua Lipa.

Flown to Hamilton Island to chat to the pop star, we had a five minute silence to fill so I went in with some jokes about how I thought Hamilton Island felt like North Korea.

She did not appreciate the comparison. Worst interview ever.

Ben Fordham from 2GB’s Ben Fordham Live

My most awkward moment was announcing the death of a celebrity when they were still alive.

We were talking about TV shows that we miss and a caller said, “remember Simon Townsend’s Wonder World?”

I said, “yeah, that was a great show. Sadly we lost Simon Townsend recently,” and then people started calling in saying, “are you sure Simon Townsend is dead?”

It turns out I’d seen a story months earlier about Simon Townsend’s co-host, Woodrow the dog, dying and somehow I got it mixed up.

When I came out of the ad-break I had to do a mop up job. It was pretty ugly.

Simon Townsend with Woodrow.

Ben Fordham from 2GB.

Erin Molan from 2Day FM’s Hughesy, Ed & Erin

We had Matthew McConaughey on our show to promote his book, Just Because.

There’s a passage in his book that says:

Today, I made love to my woman.

Not because I wanted to right then, but because I knew I’d want to once we started, and that the walk on the beach we took afterwards would be more romantic, the cocktail I made at 5:45 would taste better, the shrimp I seasoned would have more savour, the all-star game we watched at 7:00 would be more exciting, the music we danced to til midnight would have more rhythm, and the conversation about life we had together, sitting across the kitchen table from each other until 3:00am in the morning would be more inspiring.

And it was.

We spoke about that part of the book during the interview and then I asked Matthew, “why didn’t you want to ‘make love to your woman’ at first? Did you just not feel like it?”

He replied: “That’s so none of your business!”

I assumed it was a legitimate question because he had written about it in his book and he was on air to talk about his book.

Clearly I was wrong.

I was genuinely curious as opposed to just trying to be cheeky!

Ed Kavalee, Dave Hughes and Erin Molan for 2Day FM breakfast.

Amanda Keller from WSFM’s Jonesy and Amanda

We had Weird Al Yankovic coming in and beforehand, Jonesy (my co-host) kept telling me to pronounce his surname ‘Yankovick’, and I said, “no, excuse me, it’s pronounced ‘Yankovich’.”

During the whole interview, I introduced him as ‘Weird Al Yankovich’, and said ‘Yankovich’ a number of times.

At the end, we said, “do you mind recording a promo for us?”

He said yes, and then said: “Hello, it’s Weird Al Yankovic (pronounced ‘Yankovick’) here.”

Jonesy gave me a look of such hatred and I felt quite bad.

It was humiliating that we did all of that in front of him.

Brendan Jones from WSFM’s Jonesy and Amanda

Kurt Fearnley came into the studio, a wheelchair athlete.

I said, “you must feel so good with all those medals (you’ve won), you must just be walking around with all those medals?”

He just looked at me, and I said, “mate, I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I said that.”

He said, “don’t worry, mate, it’s fine”.

And then they (producers) told us to have a photo together, and I said, “Kurt, if you’ll just walk over here”.

I just kept going and going.

And then before he left I said, “we’ll walk you downstairs”.

I just said to Kurt, “I don’t know why I’m doing this!”

He said, “it’s alright, don’t worry.”

Amanda Keller and Brendan 'Jonesy' Jones.

Kurt Fearnley AO. Picture: Sarah Marshall

Fifi Box from Fox MF’s Fifi, Fev and Nick

Back in 2013, my then co-host, Jules Lund, blindfolded me and took me to a ‘secret’ destination for a segment of ours called ‘The Blackout Challenge’.

I was pregnant at the time, and basically found myself lying on a bed in a dark room being serenaded by the one and only David Hasselhoff!

Working with radio producers I have to put my complete trust into them with stunts like this, but unfortunately they couldn’t control ‘The Hoff’ and he decided it was funnier to take his pants off for an added extra surprise.

Also, being heavily pregnant made the whole scenario a lot more awkward!

Brittany Hockley from KIIS FM’s The Pick Up

I was lucky enough to be asked to fill in for Jackie O (on KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O Show) while she was taking some time off over the summer.

I remember being off air during an ad break, music was playing, and we (Kyle and the team) were just having a chat and a laugh.

I laughed really hard at something, and if you know my laugh you’ll know it is pretty hectic.

I put my whole body into it.

I threw my head back and then slumped forward in hysterics and threw my head and my hands onto the desk.

I did this so viciously that I accidentally hit a button that sent us live on air, while we were in the middle of a song and were chatting.

I still don’t quite know what I did or how I did it.

I remember thinking, “oh my god, this is it. It’s the end. I’m fired. It was nice while it lasted”, but Kyle just laughed.

It was such a huge thing for me but I doubt he even remembers.

I’ve reigned in my laugh a little since then.

Brittany, Mitch and Laura from The Pick Up.

Laurel Edwards from 4BC Breakfast with Laurel, Gary & Mark

I have had many awkward moments in my 30 plus years on air but a memorable one was in 2005 when I prematurely announced the Pope’s death.

Pope John Paul II was gravely ill and all eyes were on the Vatican.

We had the TV in the studio switched to The Today Show, and reports were coming in about his imminent death.

Not having a great understanding of Roman Catholicism protocols, or any understanding for that matter, when the Vatican said: “The Pope has just been read his last rites”, I went to air with the big announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, Pope John Paul II is dead”.

The phone lines lit up and some very upset Catholic listeners took offence to me killing off the Pope.

I felt awful but in fairness he did pass away not long after.