Abe’s Audio: How Abe Udy built huge firm from his garage

It’s got 1000 clients, worked for Qantas and Amazon, completed 500,000 jobs, and figured out how to work from home decades before Covid. Meet the massive Tassie firm you’ve never heard of.

Some of the Abe's Audio crew. Picture: Supplied

It’s got 1000 clients, worked for Qantas and Amazon, completed 500,000 jobs, and figured out how to work from home decades before Covid – meet the pioneering Tasmanian audio production company you’ve never heard of.

Devonport man Abe Udy, from South Australia’s Port Lincoln originally, founded Abe’s Audio in 1998 at the tender age of 18, after learning his chops during an 18-month stint at local radio station 5CC.

“Straight out of Year 12 I told them they needed to give me a job and they did to stop me annoying them. I learnt production and audio and sound, then I thought I’d rather work for myself for no money than work for someone else for no money,” Mr Udy said.

Abe's Audio founder Abe Udy. Picture: Supplied

So he purchased a rudimentary computer, slung up a microphone in his closet, and, “surrounded by shirts,” began producing “low budget radio commercials for really small radio stations”.

Abe's Audio head of workflow Jaron Ransley in the studio. Picture: Supplied

“I was charging $15, paying a local voice talent $5, taking $5 for my time and $5 profit. I had no business training whatsoever, it was just grit, determination and a passion for it,” Mr Udy said.

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His big break came when legendary Penguin musician and producer Peter Shurley, who he met in South Australia, invited him to take up space at his studios.

“So I packed up my business in my V8 Commodore and drove to Tasmania. I knew nobody. I bought a pair of second-hand speakers from Wynyard to save a buck, and worked in a storeroom at the studio,” Mr Udy said.

Peter Shurley, Mr Udy’s mentor, playing in Dalby in 2015. Picture: Contributed

Eventually, he established his own studio in Devonport and made his first hire – Joseph Durkin, who remains with the company, which now has 22 employees.

Mr Durkin played a key role in establishing Abe’s Audio’s head office in Launceston in the mid-2000s.

Voice talent in an Abe's Audio recording booth. Picture: Supplied

“He wanted to move away from the area, I said fine, if you can figure out how to work remotely, so he did. We were in the cloud before it was a thing, it allowed us to employ staff not just based in Tasmania, we could find the best people wherever they were,” Mr Udy said.

Abe’s Audio now has employees based in Adelaide, Albury and Sunshine Coast.

Now, in 2022, with the proliferation of content and media, Abe’s Audio is busier than ever, being tasked to work with high-level clients like Qantas and Amazon by advertising agencies and completing its 500,000th job earlier this month.

“We do a lot of radio and TV commercials, voice overs, we’ve really grown recently in training and e-learning, lots of online content, jingles, narration, how-to videos, explainers,” Mr Udy said.

“TV is no longer just a station, it’s channels and distribution, it’s the pre-roll on the Mercury website. Netflix is now allowing commercials. Who knows what the future will hold as consumer behaviours change.”