By Jen Seyderhelm – Radioinfo Writer and Editor
I would suggest that if you spoke to anyone over the age of 21 who calls themselves a Queenslander they will know Triple M Townsville’s Steve ‘Pricey’ Price OAM or 4BC’s Laurel Edwards. Maybe both, but then it’s a long way from Townsville to Brisbane.
I remember chatting with a NSW radio colleague about a mutual affection for country singer songwriter Troy Cassar-Daley. I started to extol the virtues of Troy’s wife to a blank look from my friend. But then I once called myself a Queenslander too.
Laurel Edwards is Cassar-Daley’s wife of 27 years. Before that she was, and is, a staple of Brisbane breakfast radio, the longest serving female announcer of the same program in Australian history.
She and Pricey were both inducted in the Australian Commercial Radio Award’s Hall of Fame on Saturday night, the first two on air talent out of QLD to do so.
Edwards joined 4KQ on breakfast with Kim Mothershaw in 1992. They quickly become No 1 in Brisbane and remained there abouts across the next 30 years (and lineup changes) with Laurel the constant.
I first heard BBQ Bob Gallagher, Laurel and Handy Gary (Gary Clare), with the legendary John Knox reading the news, on 4KQ in 2003 when I moved to Brisbane after living in the UK. They accompanied me as I travelled up the Bruce Highway each day to my job in North Lakes, when I brought my newborn baby boy home from the Everton Park hospital and on a particularly poignant car trip with my parents after the totally unexpected death of my younger brother.
I’ve thought about what it was and is about Laurel that so resonated with me. Yes, she’s authentic, funny, smart and warm as all the best broadcasters are. She’s also fully present in what is going on around her without needing it to be about her. Family and music are at her centre and her now adult children have followed in Mum and Dad’s footsteps and gone into radio and the music industry respectively. By the way, Laurel is a great singer too. That’s how she and Troy met at the Gympie Muster.
I was in Cairns a fortnight ago enjoying a once in a lifetime family trip to the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree. My nephew Chris, who lives in Townsville, joined us for a couple of days. I asked him about Pricey. They all know Pricey up there.
This is Pricey’s last year on air. 50 years in radio and, similar to Laurel, and 32 on breakfast on 4TO which later changed from AM to FM and became the current 102.3 Triple M Townsville.
In the last 12 months he’s released a love letter book to his community called The Price of Paradise, announced his pending retirement, taken the breakfast show on tour and, in what is likely to be his last survey, been the King of Breakfast in the region one more time.
And of course was inducted into the Commercial Radio Hall of Fame.
I’d really looked forward to meeting Pricey at the ACRAs and was as delighted by how his larger-than-life personality matched his outfit.
After his speech Price was gracious and reflective about the realisation that giving radio away is hard when it has been centre of your universe for so long. There is no off switch for Pricey.
He said:
“This is my life. The audience is my life. I’m going to go searching for Steve. I’ve been crazy for a long time. Spend time with my girl. Do things, because you just give so much. And I’m going to miss it so much.”
My chat with Laurel was curtailed by other loud festivities. Laurel spoke of how she has been waiting for new people, things and technology to move on ahead of her. But she’s the consistency in the midst of those changes, the even keel that keeps the ship steady with a fabulous 70s and 80s soundtrack.
It’s been a heck of a year to be a Queenslander. They won State of Origin and had teams in the AFL and NRL Grand Finals. Now they have two local contributions, Laurel Edwards and Pricey, in the Commercial Radio Hall of Fame with more than 60 years of 3am starts and connection with their Brisbane and Townsville communities between them.
Well done and much deserved.
Photo: Dan Gray, Graynoise Photography