Ben Birchall
Presents Breakfasters
How did you first connect with Triple R?
As a starving musician, I used to camp out front and hassle the presenters for scraps of food and airplay. The Hound Dog played us and Dave Vodicka gave me half a turkey sandwich once. I got involved with the Breakfasters after I added fart noises to a song for them. So many beautiful relationships start like that, don’t they?
What/when was your first show?
Breakfasters is my first show, but if you troll through the archives, you might find me doing an impression of Judge Judy on a show called ‘The Homeowners’ in 1999.
What's your favourite Triple R story?
I once took a girl on our first date to the Triple R rooftop. The Irish power pop band Ash were doing a live to air, but we couldn’t get tickets. Luckily my resourceful friends doing summer fills as ‘The Homeowners’ pretended we were guests on their show. We skulked around the studio, snuck up the back stairs and got into the gig, trying to look as official as possible. The date must have gone well, because she married me.
Your favourite other Triple R program and why?
Off The Record. I start every weekend with it, and hopefully will for a long time. Plus I’ve got some fresh ideas about Bruce Springsteen I’d love to share with Brian.
What does Triple R mean to you?
Triple R is the best bit of the best city in the world. Neither could exist without the other. It’s a beautiful, symbiotic relationship, like a chicken and a smaller chicken.
The studio door has accidentally jammed shut with you stuck inside. If there was only one CD in there with you what would you want it to be and why?
The instructional CD ‘Coping with your fear of enclosed spaces, narrated by Dr Karl Van Nordstrom’.
