In one of the more interesting things we learned today, it turns out Hamish & Andy — the highest-rating radio hosts in Australian history — were once headhunted by triple j. Well, at least Hamish says they were.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Betoota Advocate Podcast, the duo’s Hamish Blake has claimed that he and his radio mate Andy Lee were approached by someone from triple j shortly after they’d signed a contract to begin working at Fox FM in Melbourne, as Seventh Street Media points out.
“We had someone from triple j tell us, ‘We want you to do Drive,'” Blake said.
“This is just before we started doing Drive in Melbourne, and we were like, ‘Oh we signed with commercial radio,’ and they were like, ‘Cancel your contract, if you go commercial you’ll never get to work at triple j.’
“We went, ‘Okay, um, but we’ve signed with them. I’m so sorry, but we’ve signed.’
“They were like, ‘This is the moment.’ They did the hard sell of going, ‘This is the moment where you define your legacy. You shred that contract and you come to triple j.’”
After declining the alleged offer from triple j, Hamish and Andy enjoyed huge success during their years on commercial radio, which sadly came to an end in 2017, and has since been replaced by a weekly podcast.
The pair have also had TV success with shows like Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year, Hamish & Andy: Re-Gifted and Hamish & Andy’s Caravan of Courage.
Listen to Hamish Blake’s full interview on The Betoota Advocate Podcast, here.
