Mike Kennedy Has A Double Life.

Newcastle Herald

Saturday November 15, 2003

His passion is country music and he works as a volunteer radio broadcaster, sending Australian country sounds over the airwaves in Newcastle on 1629am (formerly hospital radio) and on the Central Coast through Gosford's 2CCCFM on Sunday nights.

Because he loves it, he does it well and he's won a fair swag of awards for his programs.

Because it's voluntary, he has to buy his own CDs and pay his own travel costs.

In order to do that, he works at lots of jobs. Some, like doing advertising voice-overs and shopping centre spruiking, he loves and wants to do more of.

Others, like serving documents on loan defaulters and family law respondents, he doesn't like so much.

"As a commercial agent I've had to interview people who've fallen behind in loan repayments and retrieve their keycards from them. I've been threatened a few times. It isn't a lot of fun."

Serving divorce papers has its moments too. "One bloke nearly kissed me. He reckoned he'd been waiting years to get away from his wife. I turned up with divorce papers at another woman's door and she broke down in tears because it was her wedding anniversary. It's work, but it's not very nice work."

Still, it pays the bills and finances his "real" work.

Mike, 56, was born in Scone and recalls selling apples from his parents' fruit shop door-to-door in order to make a bit of money when he was young.

Since then he's worked in nightclubs and as a salesman. He's taken singing and acting lessons and has just finished a TAFE course in journalism.

"I'm just a shy country boy trying to make it in the city," he explained.