Since April, Jacob Nicholls has been guiding Mackay and Whitsundays listeners through their mornings with infectious energy and positivity on hit100.3 Mackay.
Jacob has joined the team as Announcer & Operations Manager and is loving every minute of it.
“I’m very lucky to do something that I genuinely love doing every day for a job,” he said.
“It’s pretty surreal to be here.”
Growing up in Brisbane, Jacob started in radio about four years ago after calling his local station Bay FM in the Brisbane bayside suburb of Thornlands.
“I basically called the local community radio station and thought, ‘I reckon I’d be ok at that,’” he said.
After eight weeks of training, Jacob secured an on-air role and volunteered at the station for about three years while studying and working part-time.
“I really didn’t know what sort of career path I wanted to take so I was sort of filling in time for a while to make a bit more of an educated decision,” he said.
Paid opportunities in the industry were rare thanks to the pandemic but Jacob eventually joined the Street Team with B105 and Triple M in Brisbane, working there for nearly 12 months when he was told by multiple people that there was a job going in Mackay that he’d be well suited for.
He applied and was stoked to learn he got the job, moving up from Brisbane within nine days of learning the news.
Jacob says he’s found Mackay to be a friendly town where people are always up for a chat.
“It’s just been the good community feel, it sort of reminds me of a big country town,” he said.
“I really want to do a bit more exploring around town and make the most of it here, because we’re just lucky to live in north Queensland.”
As Announcer & Operations Manager, Jacob is on-air from 9AM to midday daily and spends his afternoons preparing for the rest of the week, saying every day is different.
“A lot of my morning is taken up trying to bring some positive energy to the people of Mackay and The Whitsundays,” he said.
“I always think that energy is infectious so if you’re upbeat and positive and happy and spreading those sort of vibes, the aim is to hope that it translates to the listeners as well and at least make their day slightly brighter than what it was when they woke up in the morning.”
Jacob Nicholls started on the air with hit100.3 Mackay in April
