As one-third of the breakfast team at Brisbane’s B105, Matty Acton likes to understate his role – “I’m the guy who presses the buttons”.
More than just a button smasher, he’s a quick-witted, one-liner guy, who loves what he does.
“Best part of a job, I would say, is that jumping, just being on air. I grew up in a small town, where everyone would just go get a trade. So the fact that you know, I’m in a studio having fun every morning is really cool.”
Along in the studio with him is Stav Davidson, who is celebrating 15 years at the helm – an incredible feat.
Matty proves the point that being a pest pays off- “So my high school had a radio station that broadcasts during lunchtime, and it was sponsored by the local radio station and they supplied them CDs or whatever.
And one of my friends did it and Gladstone is stinking hot in summer and it was air-conditioned. So I was like, I’ll hang out in there for a bit of fun. And then when we had to work placement, I did work experience at the radio station that sponsored the school. And it perplexed me that people were just having fun talking and getting paid. Now, later on in my career, I learned it wasn’t quite that simple.
But from there I worked for free for about three or four years through high school and stuff. And the CEO at the time, I’d met him once and he made the mistake of saying, “send me some of your audio from your shift on the weekend.” So every Sunday after I did my shift, I’d email the CEO of the company every week. I did it for about two years. So when I finished year 12, I got this call from a guy in Toowoomba he was like “Hello it’s David Burton”. So I’m like “G’day, what’s going on?”. And he said the CEO has said that you can have a job. I was like, “sweet, when do you want me to start?”. And what I later learned was he’d emailed all the managers of the on-air and said, next job, this kid’s just finished school, give it to him, and when he signs his contract, says he’s not allowed to email me anymore.
So that the next thing I knew, I was packing up my Ford Laser with my single doona and my pillow and my PlayStation then hooked it up to Toowoomba. And that was the start.”
