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Benjamin Wasley
  • 5.0 (21)
  • COMEDY
  • DAILY SERIES

My name is Benjamin Wasley, you may remember me from my work as Giggling Ben on Hamish and Andy, or even Bad Boy Ben with the Vixen back in the 90's, but way before any of that, when I was 19, I moved from the seclusion of my bedroom at my parents house in Adelaide, all the way to the isolated Western Australian mining town of Karratha, to start work as a radio announcer for the very first time at a little radio station called 6KA. My Godmother gave me a diary to record every momentous occasion and now, 30+ years later, I'm going to find out how weird, arrogant, lame, self absorbed and closeted the teenage version of me was. To hold my hand while we revisit the end of the 80's and work our way through 365 days worth of embarrassing diary entries, I'll be joined by the people who've know me the longest, so we can have a giggle at the teenage version of me, and compare it with who I am now, and also revisit the world as it was at the end of the 80's, compared to how we're living right now.

  1. Mummy's Boy On A Mission (Week One)

    EPISODE 1

    Mummy's Boy On A Mission (Week One)

    Touch down in Karratha, it's January 8, 1989 and my teenage dream of having a career in radio is about to get underway. It’s my first week of a new job and a brand new life, I'm 19 years old and I’m about to find out my first shift on air starts IN JUST 3 DAYS and I've never been on air before (aside from reading scripts as part of the 15 week Vaughan Harvey Radio Course I attended in Adelaide in 1988, and a fully scripted hour of radio at the end of the course from a tiny radio station in Port Augusta called 5AU that I'll then use as my audition tape to secure this job). I’ve also gotta navigate a share house with all the other announcers, and this is the first time I’ve lived out of my parents home. Will I shit myself before my first shift? Can a mummy's boy make it on his lonesome? Also why would anyone in their right mind allow a teenager access to an open microphone and leave them ALONE in a radio station? What was radio like before the internet, mobile phones and social media, and how did I adjust to all of the things? We've got almost 365 days worth of diary entries to work our way through, find out how the first 7 days went as I read a weeks worth of entries, for the very first time in 30 plus years to my parents Anne and Graham. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    22 min
  2. Self Absorbed Lawn Mower Man (Week Two)

    EPISODE 2

    Self Absorbed Lawn Mower Man (Week Two)

    If 19 year old me thought a life in radio was going to be endless audio glamour and non stop, star studded everything...then this week must have been very sobering. Week two of my heady career in the media includes a bunch of manual labour involving a lawn mower and an expanse of grass desperately trying to cling to life around my new share house. Pretty sure that WASN'T in the brochure, naturally teenage me will find a really obscure reason to get s****y about it. Thankfully I’ll chew through more 80’s culinary highlights including making a chop stew, which someone will refuse to eat, how very dare they, plus I try a new cuisine I’ve never experienced and scoff a true 70’s dinner classic using chicken and fruit..because 70's. I’ll also get another pay packet that leaves me confused and make more grandiose assumptions around how important I am to others without any actual proof WHAT. SO. EVER. So prepare yourself for more of the usual teenage over reactions and drama within the snazzy confines of regional radio. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 min
  3. How To Be A Clingy Teenage Weirdo (Week Three)

    EPISODE 3

    How To Be A Clingy Teenage Weirdo (Week Three)

    Prepare yourself for some of the most demented diary entries I've made so far, and it’s only been 3 weeks, so it's a safe bet we are just scratching the surface of my teenage stupidity. I'll endure a workday I'll go on to describe as my ‘pain in the a*****e” day, which naturally is a "slight" over reaction. I meet someone I’ll insist feels like my best friend, the fact that I've only spent a handful of hours with them clearly means bugger all, and in super clingy teenage style, I’ll come to that conclusion without them even having the foggiest idea, OR even a choice in me friending them so hard. Plus there’s this guy who will ring the radio station to check in with his former workplace, leaving a big enough impression for me to record his name in a dairy entry. Here's the even weirder thing though, unbeknownst to both of us, we will actually meet and become actual friends roughly 3 years later in the dark of a private cinema at a preview screening of Sylvester Stallone's 'Cliffhanger'. I know freaky right, or is it just proof that the radio industry is just the same people swapping jobs here, there and everywhere? Thankfully, I won’t have to force friend him into being my mate and he actually joins me to reflect on that moment and hear what happened after that call with another weeks worth of diary entries. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    23 min
  4. What Ever Happened To That Guy Bradley? (Week Four)

    EPISODE 4

    What Ever Happened To That Guy Bradley? (Week Four)

    Can you friend someone so hard you actually scare them off? Was teenage me actually crushing on a guy called Bradley, or was I was so desperate for friends I'd launch myself at any potentials? Maybe I just kept name dropping him on the regular simply because he was the closest thing I'd had to a "fan" of my radio career? All of these questions will probably come up, but will any of them actually get answered when I can't even remember who the hell Bradley is? I’ll also entertain the delusion that religious radio programs aren’t a fan of me and that therefor means the almighty must be trying to sabotage my career, seems reasonable. We'll also squeeze in diary updates on everything from Telecom dropping a half price deal on long distant phone calls, to an overly detailed recollection on what a bowl of my chilli does to my bowel movements. There's also a brief visit into the kind of workplace hijinks that go down in a regional radio station, because everyone loves a bit of on air hazing slash bullying, naaaw the 80’s...you were so NOT woke. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    21 min
  5. When A Pen Pal Comes Knocking (Week Five)

    EPISODE 5

    When A Pen Pal Comes Knocking (Week Five)

    Did someone say self absorbed much? Probably not, but they definitely should have. In this episode, my Father reveals his diet has helped him lose a stone and a half! But rather than accept his hard work and dedication as the result of that weight loss, I make it all about missing me and then suffering so much anxiety about it, that he can't eat...makes sense...to a self absorbed teenager perhaps. I'll also receive a surprise phone call from a pen pal of two years and casually invite her to come and stay with me in the radio station share house, when she reveals she's on her way to visit. Then there's the gift my first cousin Nicole sends me for Valentine's Day to process. Plus there's the hectic reaction I get from my General Manager when he finds out about my super casual invite to a pen pal I've never met before. I'll also receive the smallest pay packet I've ever been given in my life thanks to a teensy oversight from our finance department. Joining me to work through all of that, and whatever else the teenage version of me decided to scribble in my diary, is my former co-host from my Top 30 days during the 90's in Perth, the original Vixen of the Vibes, Claire. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    22 min
  6. Not Very Deep Impact (Week Six)

    EPISODE 6

    Not Very Deep Impact (Week Six)

    When one of your high school besties describes a week of you teenage diary entries as "not very deep" you know you're onto a winner...right? Probably not...but at least teenage me was consistent, and who doesn't love wishy washy content, with meticulous time records peppered throughout. In this episode, teenage me puts pen to diary on everything from my now stock standard bitching and moaning about the demands of work, which of course comes with a not so delicate sprinkling of exaggeration thrown in, to it finally raining in the north west of WA. That rain will help drop the temperature from a scorching 47 degrees (or 116 Fahrenheit) to an equally scorching, but thankfully lower, 42 degrees (or 107 for you Fahrenheit connoisseurs). I’ll also begin housesitting for my workmate and friend Jan, who mysteriously decides to hand over the keys to her house and entrust the care of it, and her beloved pair of hairless Devon Rex cats, to a 19 year old she's only known for 6 weeks. I immediately regret it and throw a sad about being lonely because...well of course I do. Plus, we’ll also find out exactly what my first cousin Nicole sent me for Valentines Day, and a call from my parents leaves me feeling very weird, if only I knew how to spell weird when I was 19 , don’t worry, all will be explained within. Plus there's some awesome memories from my high school years that I'm thankful never ended up in a diary but am more than happy to have revealed in this podcast. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    22 min
  7. Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead...To Me (Week Seven)

    EPISODE 7

    Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead...To Me (Week Seven)

    Okay so the babysitter is only dead to me for a few minutes, but she was 14 and full to the brim with sass that was squarely directed at teenage me. So I can only assume I was a little bit cut, which explains why she appears in this weeks diary entries. How she went from a deliverer of sass, to a long term friend who appears in this episode, will hopefully be revealed in future pages. Together we'll work our way through enthralling updates like me washing almost every article of clothing I own, there’s also a spot of house sitting depression to deal with, free charcoal chicken to scoff and I turn into a lonely cat lady. Plus there's more rain to deal with and could that mean that something much, much bigger, wetter and windier is on its way? We'll also get some VERY surprising confessions from that former teenage babysitter, when she just casually drops a bombshell that she expected me to delete, but we thankfully managed to secure her approval and an apology to her parents so we can leave it in, so HUZZAH to that. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    20 min
  8. The Curious Case of Benjamin the Nanna (Week Eight)

    EPISODE 8

    The Curious Case of Benjamin the Nanna (Week Eight)

    Is it possible to be live your best life as a fully functioning Nanna...when you're only 19? Looks like my delusions of teenage coolness are about to be well and truly destroyed, as I work through another week of diary entries with my High School bestie Linda. Inside this episode, teenage me isn’t having a bar of anyone who calls me up while I’m on air and bores me to snores over the telephone, I’ll also get my bitch on with a workmate and decide to invite them over so I can host my very first dinner party. I get right royally pissed off when I have to work back late because I can’t find anywhere to record 3 commercials that someone dumped on me. Plus all my unfounded bravado will disappear in an instant, when I find out I’m doing my first ever outside broadcast, in front of actual people, who probably don’t give a shit about some guy who’s going to be trying to do a radio show on a card table, outside a cafe, in the middle of a shopping centre. It’s basically the teenage shut in’s version of an actual living nightmare...so...sounds like this is going to be fun then. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    22 min
See All Season 1 (48)

5
out of 5
21 Ratings

About

My name is Benjamin Wasley, you may remember me from my work as Giggling Ben on Hamish and Andy, or even Bad Boy Ben with the Vixen back in the 90's, but way before any of that, when I was 19, I moved from the seclusion of my bedroom at my parents house in Adelaide, all the way to the isolated Western Australian mining town of Karratha, to start work as a radio announcer for the very first time at a little radio station called 6KA. My Godmother gave me a diary to record every momentous occasion and now, 30+ years later, I'm going to find out how weird, arrogant, lame, self absorbed and closeted the teenage version of me was. To hold my hand while we revisit the end of the 80's and work our way through 365 days worth of embarrassing diary entries, I'll be joined by the people who've know me the longest, so we can have a giggle at the teenage version of me, and compare it with who I am now, and also revisit the world as it was at the end of the 80's, compared to how we're living right now.

Information

  • Creator
    Benjamin Wasley
  • Episodes
    48
  • Seasons
    1
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Benjamin Wasley