For me, Walla Walla isn’t a nod to a U.S. federal prison nestled amongst the vineyards of the Columbia Valley. For me, Walla Walla is a town with more wombats than people on the eastern edge of a penal colony founded in 1788. And it is where I found my first and enduring love.
















In the dark hours of Friday evenings, my love called out to me from her tall wiry frame tethered to the earth on the edge of town. Her voice carried through the winds powered by 50,000 watts until her lips crackled on my radio.

It was the early days of the internet and what some believed were the last days of radio. On Friday nights these two destined companions came together for an internet chat radio show. I was immediately smitten.

Like any pubescent teen, I burned with desire to spend Friday nights with the apple of my eye. And like many young loves, I found myself jilted one Friday night when she didn’t show. So, I called the station to find out what happened. That’s when I got my first job in radio - unpaid of course.

















As graduation approached it was time to “be responsible.” I sought wisdom and counsel. “Leave radio as a passion of youth and focus on a field that’s growing… like IT.” So, I left radio and began to study for a job in IT. But that didn’t last long.

Within five months I was miserable. If radio is dying, FINE! I’d rather lay with her until she surrenders her last breath than take money to fake a passion that I didn’t have. So, in 1998 I moved to Mudgee, a town with slightly more people than wombats. It was my first paying job in radio… a two-hour country music show.

As I made my way in radio I landed in larger markets where wombats are rare and rarely seen. That’s when I met David Smallbone for the first time. We connected in 2005 at Easterfest in Toowoomba. We became friends and remain friends. At that time, I had no idea how my eventual journey to America would mirror his own journey of hardship.

Two years later I went back to my roots in radio. If an internet chat radio show was right for 1996, then streaming radio must be right for 2007. But I was wrong.

When the 2008 financial crisis rocked the world, it also rocked our funding. To make matters worse, my timing was wrong. The world didn’t want streaming radio… yet. 

Sometimes when you leap, it’s only to grab the ledge of a crumbling rock that is also falling. And so was my next leap when I joined 89.9 – The Light in Melbourne.























When I stepped up as CEO in 2012, the financials were a mess. And we found ourselves four days away from bankruptcy. It didn’t take long to discover the problem. And the problem wasn’t declining listenership.

My first meetings were with the sales team. They made me feel like I was surrounded by a pack of wolves announcing their plans for dinner. And I was dinner. 

The wolves cocked their bodies at a slight angle and leaned their shoulders up and forward. A cold, cruel smile angled down on one side of their face as the opposite eyebrow shot upward pointing to their crinkled forehead. But these wolves fell prey to one selfish seduction.

After they’d toyed with me enough, they’d strut to the coffee shop across the street. And there, they’d howl the songs of their victorious hunt. But in the euphoria of their celebration, they never realized that the owner of the shop was a good friend of the station.

One of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made was to say goodbye to the entire sales team… including one of the best salespeople I’ve ever met.

But I couldn’t see how to build a God-honored business without building a God-honoring business. So, we ran off the wolves, and the results were positively shocking.

By 2012 TheLight was the #1 station in half the world… the half below the equator. But the world was changing, and we needed to change also. The strategy was to give our audience options. Because, the more time they stay, the more we could impact their lives. And it worked.























Then COVID hit.

We entered the pandemic in a $2,000,000 hole. The “experts” told us to do layoffs. But that never felt right.

Petra sang, The Battle Belongs to the Lord. And the Lord battled for us. We exited the pandemic with a $200,000 surplus, and new hires. But God also made it clear that it was time for me to move on.

A few years earlier, David Smallbone and I had been talking about the state of industry. Someone said it was one bad decision from dissolving. But I countered, “No, it’s one good decision away from being what God intended it to be.”

So, David and I reconnected. He opened the doors that brought me to the United States. The world had changed. It was ready for streaming and K-LOVE needed to figure out how to grow their online audience.

Give the audience what they want, where they want it. The more they stay, the more we can impact their lives. It was time to stop losing our audience when they turned the radio off. Within eighteen months K-LOVE grew from #13 in streaming to #5. But you probably heard the news.

Just like David Smallbone, I moved to the US expecting one thing and got something else. K-LOVE let the CEO go and I found myself in the US as an alien adrift. But I never forgot my first love.

Three decades ago, her wiry frame called out to me from the edge of town in the land of wombats. It doesn’t matter if it’s Walla Walla, Warsaw, or Washington. The prognosticators still declare, “Radio is dead.” That’s not true. That’s just the “cue burn” of an overplayed song.

The prognosticators spent too much time cueing and not enough time listening to the music. So, they’ve missed the most crucial truth.

Radio isn’t about the airwaves. Radio is about building an audience. And anyone who remembers the crackling voice of their sweet love in the dark hours on Friday night knows how to do that. Those skills haven’t changed in the last 100 years … nor will they change this century.

Like my mate, Smallbone, I found myself adrift in the land of opportunity. Then the U.S. government declared me as, “An alien of extraordinary ability.”



















And that ability is helping lovers of radio grow their audience, even when the radio is off!