Confessions of an FM radio producer

ONE of Australia’s top FM radio producers has lifted the lid on what really goes on behind the scenes of commercial radio shows.

‘I’ve seen coffee cups thrown’

DODGING mugs thrown by angry radio hosts, dealing with diva celebrities and organising a dunk tank filled with eels ... welcome to the bizarre life of a commercial radio producer.

Matt Simpson has been working away behind the scenes on different TV and radio shows for 15 years.

In the past he’s worked with Bert Newton, Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Kyle and Jackie O and he’s currently the executive producer of Triple M’s Merrick … and Australia.

“Every day is completely different,” Simpson told news.com.au about life as a radio producer.

“You get to meet and talk to everyone from rock stars to somebody, such as I did yesterday, who is selling their vintage porn collection. There’s no other job really where you get to encounter that wide range of people.”

MERRICK: ‘I’M NOT BEING ASKED TO PRETEND TO BE YOUNGER’

Being a producer is often a thankless job but the gig does come with some pretty cool perks, such as meeting some of the world’s biggest stars and discovering what they’re really like behind the scenes.

Matt Simpson (left) and Bruno Bouchet (right) have a podcast called The Probe.

“I saw a rock star fire their assistant because they hadn’t brought along the scarf that they wanted,” said Simpson.

“And a couple of years ago there was singer visiting the country and they (her management) had a request that the star was to sit on a particular side of the announcer. No one could go near her except for when she was in the studio and only then were you allowed to stand on a certain side of her. I don’t know what was wrong with the other side of her face.”

Simpson is used to dealing with celebrities and rarely gets starstruck, but he can recall one time that he was afraid.

“A couple of years ago Chopper Read came into the studio and he started smoking a cigarette,” he said.

“No one was game to go and tell Chopper that he couldn’t smoke so everyone was just standing back looking at the smoke detectors thinking, ‘What do we do?’

“It was easier just to cover the smoke detectors than to tell Chopper not to smoke. I’d rather pay the fine.”

Chopper Read lit up during an interview at 2Day FM.

Organising interviews is a big part of a radio producer’s job and Simpson tries to lock in his guests at least a couple of weeks in advance. But then there are times when you simply get lucky.

“When I was producing an evening show at 3AK in Melbourne (a station that no longer exists), there was a show that followed ours that rated really well and they got big name guests,” said Simpson.

“One day this guest showed up at 9pm and it was a little old lady who said she was there to be interviewed by the evening show. I buzzed their producer and said, ‘Are you expecting a guest?’ and he said, ‘no, we’ve got all of our guests locked in’.

“It turns out it was Joan Rivers. It was a little bit awkward but we grabbed her and interviewed her on our show and it was a hilarious 30 minutes. I don’t know where she was supposed to be.”

For every ‘lucky’ story, Simpson also has one about interviews that have gone wrong or fallen through.

“I didn’t actually help organise this interview but I was working on the show and we were going back and forth for a long time with a bloke who had written a book called You’ll Never Spa In This Town Again.

What happened when Joan Rivers just rocked up at Matt’s studio? He put her on air.

“He claimed that he’d been thrown out of gay bathhouses in LA because he wouldn’t sign their confidentiality agreements and you can imagine the type of actors that he claimed frequented these places. We got him on the show and hit record and even though we’d briefed him not to name the stars, he just named them all!

“It took a long time to get him on the show and then there was no way we could ever air it.”

If you’re not entirely sure what a radio producer does, you’re not alone. Simpson says his mum and his wife are still confused about his job.

“It’s about making sure everything is organised for your presenters,” he explains.

“From suggesting what topics they should talk about and making sure they’re knowledgeable on that topic, to, not so much scripting their questions but reminding them about certain things that happened to a certain guest recently.”

Then there’s all of the organisation behind the scenes that needs to be done before the show starts.

“I once had to put live eels in a dunk tank because we were going to be dunking a guest into there. And then I had to deal with how to humanely return these eels back to where they came from.”

Simpson (3rd from the right in the back row) with his Triple M workmates.

Another role that a producer plays is acting as a sort of therapist for the hosts, who can quite often have fragile egos.

“Without naming names, I’ve seen coffee cups thrown and I’ve seen studio storm outs,” said Simpson laughing.

But despite the occasional dummy spit, Simpson says being a producer is great and wants to encourage young people to give it a crack.

“If anyone’s interested in getting into TV or radio, producing is the best first step,” he said.

“It’s such a special skill and we need more of them in the country. If you’re creative and you have a passion for pop culture or current affairs, then producing is perfect for you.”

Merrick … and Australia airs weekdays on Triple M and LocalWorks.

4-6pm on Triple M Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and regional NSW, VIC, QLD and SA.

5-7pm on Gold FM Gold Coast and Heart FM Hobart.

7-9pm on Triple M Adelaide and regional WA.

Matt Simpson and Bruno Bouchet also record a podcast where they interview radio’s biggest stars. Check out their past interviews here: mattandbruno.com