Summary: My Connection to Radio Mark [0:00] I’d like to welcome Lee Stamps (Stampsy) from K Rock to the World Heart of Connection Podcast. Lee is an announcer here and music director and she wears many hats here at K rock. I’m not gonna give it due justice by trying to tell everybody what she does. So I might ask Lee (Stampsy) if she could introduce herself. Stampsy [0:26] Yeah sure. I’m the network music director for the Grant Broadcasters network. But here at K Rock I’m the music director and I’m the drive announcer of the departure lounge. So I’m one half of on-air team from 4 to 6 our till alongside my co-host, Josh. My Childhood Connection to Radio Mark [0:40] Great. Connection to radio. Can you tell me what bought you or what took you into the connection to radio? Stampsy [0:50] My earliest memory was my Mum coming into my bedroom, I must have only been 11. I should have been asleep but there I am underneath my doona with my radio listening to the hot 30 countdowns. I was wanting to know what number one was going to be and having Mum whip the doona off my bed. You need to sleep nut we’re early at number two. I just loved music and I can’t sing as I’m tone-deaf. I’ll attempt in the shower but I just love the impact, the feeling and the emotion that music drives. I just love envisioning being on a stage or dancing along to a tune or just feeling happy from the song all the way music makes me feel. So that was probably my earliest memory of radio. But I didn’t want to get into the radio at a young age. My Connections to Sport Stampsy [1:50] I was a major tomboy – I was a big tomboy. I loved my sport would play absolutely anything and everything. I played Netball for 13 years and was trying out for state teams. I had this vision because I was a bigger child and I didn’t think I was going to be athletic or in the athletic field. So I went – I think I might get into sports psychology or sports Physiotherapy, so I can still be in that sporting arena. I think in Year 10 you do work experience for a week and I couldn’t get into any of my placements. So Mum just said to me, look as a community radio station down the road. Why don’t you go there for a week? You love music, it’s really close so I can drop you off. Do that for a week and then we’ll look at getting you some placement in sports, physio or sports psychology. Reading the Weather Hooked Me So I ended up doing the week at Plenty Valley FM out in Mill Park. And on day three, I remember the station manager let me read the weather on the radio. Drop mike that was the beginning. That for me was the moment where I went – I get paid to talk and I’m pretty good at it – I talk a lot. So for me, oh there’s this avenue of where I get paid to play music and I get to talk. I get to talk to people and interview and have a laugh. It’s entertaining, and I’m driven and I get to do really cool things. So I ended up doing community radio, for three years just for that one week of work experience. Mark [3:23] In the work there is a connection. It’s an interesting connection because you can’t necessarily see the impact of your connection. Can you sense the connection from a felt sense? Stampsy [3:39] It’s a really interesting question because they are days I genuinely forget that people listen to me – every single day. We recently had a radio survey and we came back as the number one most listened to drive show. My mind and my heart just exploded. I went wow there’s 10s of thousands of people out there who listen to me waffle every day. Making a Difference to Just One Person But then there are some days where I will get a message in the inbox on my personal Instagram. And someone will go on I was laughing along with that because I did the same thing yesterday or thank you for talking about th
