How I Got Here: Radio announcer, Gabi Elgood
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Admit it, we’ve all been there – stalking social media and LinkedIn profiles, trying desperately to figure out how the hell someone got their dream job.
It seems impossible and yet there they are, living out your career fantasy (minus the itchy business suit). It might seem hard to believe, but once upon a time, they were also fantasising about their future career, and with some hard work, they made it.
Welcome to How I Got Here, HerCanberra’s series that reveals everything you want to know about the secrets of career success. You know her voice from Rod and Gabi on Hit104.7, but how did Gabi Elgood begin her career as an MC and radio host? Here, we dive into her career.
Existential crisis time: Who are you and what do you do?
I am on the Hit104.7 Breakfast show with my long time friend Rod – Get Up with Rod and Gabi weekdays from 6 am.
For the majority of my time on the show each morning I find and talk about stories that make me laugh or I tell ridiculous stories that have happened in my daily life like last week when a MASSIVE spider tried to crawl up my leg in the shower to get away from the water – time to move!
I’m also not afraid to get vulnerable or talk about serious things that matter. For example, I have talked extensively about my fertility struggles, about the gendered violence epidemic Australia is currently facing, and I have also supported the charity Share the Dignity for year,s talking about period poverty in Australia.
Let’s go back to when you were a kid, have you always dreamed of working in this industry?
I always loved listening to the radio as a kid. I grew up listening to Nige (No Friends Nige) on the Hot 30 and then Scotty and Nige on 104.7’s Breakfast show, but it never occurred to me when I was young that I could do that as a job. I was always aiming for an entertainment job, though. I was, and still am, obsessed with musical theatre, so I was working toward being a triple threat to take that on.
When I was 20ish, I realised my singing and dancing were average at best, so I pivoted into TV presenting and studied a Presenting course at NIDA in Sydney every Saturday (Murray’s Couches loved me that year), which in turn scored me a job at a Canberra TV channel called Channelvision. That’s when I realised the media industry was where I belonged. To get out of the public service into a full-time media job, I applied for an admin role at Hit104.7 and Mix106.3 and my love affair with radio began.
Tell us about when you were first starting out, what set a fire in your belly to get here and how did you do it?
I’ve always had an innate fire to succeed, but that really went into overdrive when I got my admin job in radio and knew I wanted to take on a radio career. I put in the hours in those early days. I worked full time in admin, I still had my part time Channelvision job, I worked weekends in the radio Newsroom reading the news or at promotional events and also stayed back late to train in the studio and record some on-air breaks for my demo reel. That demo led to my first full-time breakfast radio job in Orange, from there I was promoted to the breakfast show in Toowoomba (the bigger the city, the bigger the job) and then Townsville before taking on all of regional Queensland in a networked show. For my entire journey, my goal was to get home to Hit104.7, so I applied and auditioned every time there was a job opportunity here, but it wasn’t meant to be until now.
Recall a time when you wanted to chuck it all in; what did you tell yourself when it got too hard?
The hardest days I experienced were when I moved away from home for my first on-air radio gig. I was living in Orange, away from everyone and everything I knew and I had no idea what I was doing job-wise. My self-belief was tested, and my confidence took a hit but I’m not one to give up so I kept pushing, knowing things could and would be better. For me, talking my problems through with a loved one always helps me see the big picture more clearly, but getting a mentor was a game-changer. Asking a woman in the industry who had been where I was for help and advice saw me through those tough times.
What was your biggest break?
My biggest break came off the back of a pretty tough time in the industry. When Covid hit, I was doing the breakfast show on the hit station in Townsville and the company made a heap of redundancies in the regional markets. All regional breakfast shows were gone except for one in each state and my show was turned into the Queensland-wide Breakfast Show. This meant the population in my broadcast area went from around 200,000 people to nearly a million. That was a massive promotion, but it was a real mix of emotions because I’d seen my friends and colleagues lose their jobs in the process.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Vulnerability is a superpower.
People crave human connection, so if I can be transparent in everything I do and say, even when it makes me feel very uncomfortable and vulnerable, then hopefully people can relate to that, connect with it and feel like they have a friend in the car with them. This means talking about the hard things in life but also the funny, embarrassing and awkward, so we can all laugh at our own silliness.
What is it about your industry that you love and what makes you want to pull your hair out?
I love, love, love the people. Radio people are their own breed and when I first stepped foot in the station, I knew I had found my people. There’s a passion and a drive in radio people that is nothing like anything I’ve experienced elsewhere.
Funnily enough, the people can also be the cause of pulling my hair out, haha, only in that we are all so passionate about our jobs and we all want the best product to come out of the speaker so we don’t always agree and brainstorming can go off on crazy tangents.
Tell us how you ‘stay in the know’, what media do you consume?
I consume as much media as I possibly can, which some people would hate, but I love it, I just wish I had more time because there’s so much out there these days. I have most streaming platforms to watch the hottest TV shows, I’m all over the most watched TV shows on free-to-air as well (MAFS, I’m looking at you!), I try to keep on top of social trends (try being the operative word) and I have about 50 tabs open on my computer at any one time with all the different news, pop culture and entertainment sites ready to go. I normally do a scan through all the sites at night while I’m watching telly and then again at 4 am when I get into work.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Fingers crossed I’ll still be on Hit104.7.
Getting into radio I knew that, like most entertainment jobs, it wasn’t the most secure industry but I do it because I love it and I’ll keep riding that wave for as long as they’ll have me. Outside of work, I’d love to be a family of four living in a proper four or five-bedroom house with a backyard but who knows if we’ll ever be able to afford that!
Why should people follow in your footsteps?
Working in radio is really the bee’s knees if you’re creative, social and are willing to work hard. Every day is so different so there’s no chance to get bored and the sense of accomplishment when you do a great interview or give away $10,000 is second to none. It also gives you an incredible platform to help the community and local charities, especially in tough times.
Don’t be fooled though. Many people think I only work three hours a day, but in reality, I wake up at 3.20 am, I’m at work by 4 am and I’m lucky to be out the door on my way home by midday, just in time for a nap. It’s tough hours, but it is a lot of fun. There are also other jobs in radio that are just as fun and not stupid hours if that’s more your thing.
What advice would you give your past self?
I would tell my younger self to keep listening to her drive and aspirations and block out the noise. So many times when I was in my 20s I was told that I would regret putting my career above finding a partner and having a family, because if I ran out of time to have kids, I wouldn’t have a fulfilling life. This couldn’t have been more wrong but I can’t pretend those sentiments didn’t nag at the back of my mind. So I would say to young Gabi, “Your 20s are all about learning about yourself and chasing those dreams, get out there and just do it! The other stuff will come if you want it and when it’s meant to, just trust the process.”
