Try something different for breakfast

Radio Adelaide

Breakfast radio in Adelaide has a new face - and a slightly new flavour.

Radio Adelaide 101.5FM, the University of Adelaide's community radio station, has appointed Lisa Leong as its new breakfast presenter.

Ms Leong is now hosting the brekkie show on Radio Adelaide from Monday to Thursday, with volunteer presenter Jonathan Lucraft continuing to host on Fridays.

Originally from Melbourne, Ms Leong gave up a lucrative career as an intellectual property lawyer in London to pursue her love of radio. While in London she started working as a volunteer presenter with a hospital radio station, later finding work with other commercial and community radio stations.

"I got to a point where I decided that instead of giving all of my spare time to the law firm, I'd actually like to contribute more to the community," Ms Leong said.

"It was something that was missing from my legal life. I enjoyed the work and I enjoyed the team, and I really enjoyed my time in London as a lawyer. But it wasn't ringing true to me, whereas I felt that when I was doing this [working in radio], I was starting to feel like this was much more me."

Ms Leong applied for and was accepted into the full-time radio course at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney. She quit her job in London and moved back to Australia.

Before she had even finished the course, Ms Leong landed a job with commercial radio station Hot Tomato on the Gold Coast. A year later, she moved to Adelaide to become a late-night and weekend announcer for commercial station SA-FM.

"All this time I was in commercial radio, I was picking up a lot of skills and it was really useful... but there was an element missing. I often thought about why I got into radio; it definitely was to do an interview-based show," she said.

That means the Radio Adelaide job was perfectly suited to her, she said.

"It's an interview-based breakfast show, and I'm a morning lover, I'm not a late-night person at all.

"On Radio Adelaide you get to do seven interviews a morning, it's very challenging... but also I think my ideals are very similar to community radio ideals, which is to give people a voice who wouldn't otherwise have a voice in mainstream media, to always challenge yourself, to be innovative, and also to train people."
Station Manager Deborah Welch said Ms Leong's appointment was a key one for Radio Adelaide.

"Audiences need to develop a relationship with someone, and our ever-changing, volunteer-based presentation in breakfast meant that the audience never quite got that connection. With Lisa in the role, and Jonathan, who's already quite well known to our audience, we can now build that relationship," Ms Welch said.

To get a taste of the new breakfast show on Radio Adelaide, tune in on 101.5FM, or listen online at: www.radio.adelaide.edu.au