DRIVE TIME: Steve Fitzgerald
IF you hop into Steve Fitzgerald's taxi, chances are he’ll have his radio tuned to Orange community station FM107.5.
Whenever he gets a spare moment in his busy lifestyle, he listens to music because he's always enjoyed music as long as he can remember.
But he's also a presenter on the station and has his own program called Rock on Air, which goes to air between 5pm and 7pm on Thursdays.
Mr Fitzgerald also has a huge collection of old records, CDs and a computer full of digital music which he finds the time to play at home.
So he’s a dedicated music lover through and through and becoming involved with FM107.5 gave him the opportunity to play the songs he liked and to be able to play them for other people to listen to.
Mr Fitzgerald gave lots of thought to becoming a presenter on FM107.5 because it was something he knew he would enjoy doing.
And although he hadn’t had any experience as a radio station presenter, that wasn’t a problem so he bit the bullet and joined Orange Community Broadcasters.
Station stalwart Susan Morris taught him the ropes and there was a timeslot that suited him so his program Rock on Air was born.
Mr Fitzgerald moved to Orange from Sydney in 1984 for a promotion as office manager at the Roads and Traffic Authority's works depot and he worked there until it was closed down and transferred in 1992.
He had 11 years at Email after that and when his small refrigerator section was closed down he got a job with a car hire company but it too closed down.
Taxi driving was his next job but he thinks that’s pretty safe.
He looks forward to doing his program every week and plays music from the 60s, 70s and 80s, not a lot of what people can hear on the commercial stations.
“I probably like the 60s the best because that was when I was brought up,” he says.
“So my favourite artists include Van Morrison, Neil Young, the Beatles, the Stones, Pink Floyd and Moody Blues and I play them on air.
“I try to come up with a program beforehand so I just go through it on the day. I like to have it pretty organised.”