When radio presenter Spence Denny started his first on-air shift in 1988, he was so nervous he struggled to queue the song from a Cold Chisel record.
"My hands were literally shaking trying to put the needle in the groove," he recalled.
Some 33 years later the veteran ABC broadcaster has just enjoyed his first week of retirement and, after being invited back on-air for a final farewell interview, was feeling the shakes once more.
"I don't know why but I'm probably more nervous than I was when I did my very first radio shift," Denny told ABC Radio Adelaide.
A roving voice
Known for the past 11 years as a roving reporter driving ABC Radio Adelaide's "Big Red Car" to events like burst water mains, infrastructure developments, bushfires and even questionable snow reports at Mount Lofty, Denny — also a regular program presenter — has become synonymous with the station's public image.
He has broadcast from some unlikely places, such as hot air balloons that look like cows, in a chair getting his head shaved for a Leukaemia Foundation fundraiser and, of course, the wettest, stormiest, coldest locations his colleagues back at the station could find — for their own personal amusement of course.
But for Denny, it all began during that first shift in remote Western Australia for 6KA in the fledgling town of Karratha, a job he secured at the age of 26 after a nine-year stint in the Army, and by utilising what he described as a "somewhat dubious" and "flowery curriculum vitae".
"When I was offered the job I was actually working at The Duck Inn in Coromandel Valley and I quickly went around to mum and dad's house where they had a Reader's Digest atlas, but it was pre-1961 and Karratha wasn't even in it," he said.
"I couldn't even look up where I was going."
Pilbara beginnings
But it was a foot in the door to an industry Denny had been interested in since boyhood, and he jumped at the chance.
"It was a five-day bus trip to get there and when I arrived it was 42 degrees Celsius," Denny said.
"I was met by the station manager who took me to the house where all the on-air people lived.
"That was quite a moment."
From 6KA Denny was asked to join a new, cyclone proof ABC station in Karratha, starting a 33-year career with the corporation that would see him broadcast from Perth, Townsville, Renmark, Mt Gambier and Adelaide — where he grew up.
A taste of the future
Denny's Adelaide childhood was interrupted at about the age of 11 when the family moved to England.
It was there that Denny's long affiliation with dogs, and a new interest in radio journalism, converged.
"I entered her [the English hound called Pippy] into a dog show and she won the blue ribbon for the dog with the most appealing eyes.
"My photograph was taken for the paper but I was also interviewed by a local radio reporter afterwards.
Music was also a big feature of day-to-day life in England, with bands like T. Rex, The Rolling Stones, Wizzard, Electric Light Orchestra and Bryan Ferry helping create what Denny — whose on-air music choices have brought him both favour and consternation from listeners — described as "a magical time to be living".
"A brand new radio station started up called Capital Radio and I was living in Crawley, and so Capital Radio came and covered — wait for it — the World Marbles Championship," he laughed.
"It was one of the first things they did and one of their first on-air personalities was Kenny Everett, who became a really strong influence."
A military start
Moving back to Adelaide where he finished his schooling at Norwood High School, Denny continued messing about with a radio cassette player, which he would use to "record things and make my own tapes".
But he also had "a strong interest in building things", having long assisted his father with such efforts like carpentry.
A recruitment drive for Australian Defence Force apprentices came to his school and, because Denny had "never wanted to work in an office, it seemed really appealing".
But with their carpentry quotas filled, he was not able to follow his first choice, and was offered a role as a fitter and turner apprentice in the Army.
He would find out later it was a career path his father took as well, who Denny did not know had worked in the Navy as a fitter and turner tool maker.
"I don't have any regrets about the Army and I was quite lucky with what I did, because I got to work on leopard tanks and armoured personal carriers, so I spent all my military days at armoured core squadrons."
'Denny & Denny & Denny'
After nine years, Denny made the decision to leave the military rather than sign up for another three years.
By that point, his father was running a real estate conveyancing business, for which Denny's brother had also joined.
"So there was a business in Adelaide called Denny & Denny, and it was going to be called Denny & Denny & Denny, but unfortunately the third Denny said 'no'," Denny laughed.
"So I started working in pubs and then I spotted this tiny advert in the paper to do some radio studies, which I sent a letter off to.
"I was accepted, did some study here in Adelaide, and then I got the job at the radio station in Karratha."
Calling it a day
Since Denny announced his retirement on January 7, he said he had been "overwhelmed" with well-wishing letters, phone calls, text messages and emails from the public.
Even during his farewell interview on Tuesday with good friend and fellow presenter David Bevan, the ABC was inundated with hundreds of text messages and phone calls sending off one of its favourite sons.
"I'm trying to respond to as many as I can," Denny said.
"In all sincerity, it has been quite overwhelming for me, just the response, and I can't tell you how grateful I am."
Denny believed that a background where he was constantly moving around — first as a child who went to nine different schools, then in the military, and then again with the ABC — put him in good stead for his radio career.
"Going to so many schools forces you to make new friends on the way, so you don't have any fear about approaching strangers," he said.
With plans now to do more travelling and see new parts of Australia, Denny left a key message for people who wanted to go into radio broadcasting.
"I am generally interested in people's stories, and that's what I'm going to miss."
