Al Shield

Head Copywriter and Announcer

Coast FM 95.3, Warrnambool

Al enrolled in Camberwell High School as a year 9 in 1995 and spent the next 3 years as a creative writer, class clown and loud mouth, instead of putting any thought into what he really wanted to be.

(Like his mum reminded him, ‘You need good maths to be a pilot.’ There went that idea..)

When he completed his VCE, he walked out with high media scores and the burning ambition to be a journalist, but no idea where to start.

Without an incredibly high TER score that the universities seemed to want, (why so high for Journalism? They don’t operate on people!) he enrolled in an Advanced Media TAFE Course at Holmesglen in Glen Waverley and spent a year learning the ropes on all aspects of the media.

It was there he learnt that he was a horrible actor and didn’t want to be a film runner (film crews just don’t stop!) so he had to look for another career.

Towards the end of the year, one of his lecturers suggested looking at a career in radio and pointed him in the direction of a course hosted by Swinbourne University. The course came highly recommended, but was fiercely competitive, taking only 14 students per year out of the 200 or so that applied and involved everything from resumes to demo tapes.

With the encouragement of family and friends, he applied and somehow, with a lot of favours owed along the way, he made it in. He spent the next year learning everything from writing commercials to reading the news, waiting for a big break to come along.

After a stack of rejection letters and 2 missed job opportunities (one by 5 minutes – a classmate beat him to it!), he got a call from his lecturer who told him about a fill-in job for 2 weeks at Hamilton’s 3HA. So he put his part time job at the newsagency on hold, jumped on the train and spent 2 weeks filling in, making coffees and finding out how things worked.

After a 2 week stint back home, he got another call from 3HA, asking him to work for another 2 weeks. On his last day, he was just about to head back home when they asked him for another 2 weeks. 2 weeks turned into 2 months and then the position as Copywriter and Night Announcer.

After a year and a half, he received a call from Hamilton’s sister station, 3YB Warrnambool, who invited him to join the team as a mid-dawn announcer and Assistant Copywriter. Not bad for a guy who never knew where he was going!

A year and 4 months later, he’s now Head Copywriter and Announcer on the new Warrnambool Station 95.3 Coast FM as well as a fill-in guy whenever somebody gets sick. He lives in Warrnambool with his girlfriend of 3 years and spends his spare time watching wrestling, partying with friends and playing havok in various shapes and forms on the internet.

95.3 Coast FM's website - http://www.coast.com.au/