Breakfast Lightens Up

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday April 9, 2007

Sue Javes

A revitalised Mikey Robins is fired up about his Vega gig.

He is the first to admit he's a little obsessed with clothes at the moment. At a recent publicity shoot for Vega 95.3, Mikey Robins squabbled with long-time mate and on-air partner Tony Squires over who should have first dibs on the best shirt. Hosting a fashion parade for charity the other week, he delighted the audience by briefly taking to the catwalk to show off his new physique. Laura, his wife of eight years, says he's spending more money on clothes than he used to spend on lunches.

"You can't blame me," he says with an infectious grin. "I've been locked out of the candy store for 20 years." Even when discussing clothes he still thinks food. Old habits die hard. He's had to throw out half-an-hour of fat jokes from his stand-up routine.

Anyone who reads the social pages will have seen the new Robins - 60 kilograms lighter, minus the dark bags under his eyes, glowing with good health and looking understandably pleased with himself. But the dramatic weight loss has meant a lot more than wearing fashionable clothes. He's suddenly bringing more energy and creativity to his work, which he'll need to help boost Vega's breakfast program as it slowly edges into a competitive position for the first time since the FM station began.

Robins weighed 147 kilograms before having lap-band surgery a year ago. "I realised if I didn't do something I was going to be seriously unwell in a few years," he says. "I was staring down the barrel of being a diabetic with high blood pressure and cholesterol and facing a premature death."

A spin-off from the weight loss and regular exercise program has been a decent night's sleep. Robins was belatedly diagnosed with sleep apnoea a couple of years ago. What he assumed was tiredness from years of breakfast radio on Triple J and Triple M was oxygen and sleep deprivation. His doctor said he was averaging 45 minutes sleep a night. Since the weight loss, the apnoea has disappeared and he's sleeping seven hours a night.

"I feel I have got my old powers back," he says. "I no longer have that wet sock in the front of my head. I think I'm back to being as quick-witted as I was 10 years ago, so it is a very happy time to be on air."

Robins joined Squires, Angela Catterns and Rebecca Wilson on the breakfast shift at the start of the year. A four-person team for a relatively small audience seemed like overkill at the time but there's no doubt Robins's humour and wit have been a positive addition. There are signs that Sydney listeners are slowly taking to Vega. The station has added 80,000 listeners during the past six months to claim an audience of 350,000 and more people in the 40 to 54 age bracket are listening to Vega than 2UE.

"It reminds me of when I started at Triple J with Helen Razer," Robins says. "People think Helen and I and Angela and Debbie Spillane were an overnight success on Triple J but it took us four years to get a healthy set of numbers. There is the same vibe here at Vega. Things are on the move and it's the greatest feeling in the world to be part of that growth process."

Robins has chosen to appear on the ABC's Australian Story later this year rather than write a book about his weight loss. "I didnt want to do a minor-celebrity-loses-weight story with a picture of me holding out an old pair of pants," he says. "I'm not a sudden expert on dieting. All I can tell people is this was my journey and this is how it has changed my life."

CRUISE CONTROL

P&O Cruises has turned to top-rating talk station 2GB to help revive its family image after months of damaging headlines over the inquest into Dianne Brimble, who was found dead on P&O's Pacific Sky in 2002. From next Monday, 2GB presenters will be giving away 75 family cruises on the Pacific Sun, valued at more than $500,000. Each winner will score an eight-day trip for four, cruising the South Pacific during August. Philip Clark, Kayley Harris and Pete Graham will also be on board the ship. Described as 2GB's largest promotion, it will make it that much harder for 2UE to claw back audience from 2GB during the next few months.

HAIR RAISING

Richard Glover's hair experiment on his 702 ABC drive program ends today. He has not used shampoo for six weeks to test a theory that it is unnecessary for clean, healthy hair. Glover, undecided about whether to return to his old shampoo habits, plans to leave the final verdict to Melissa Doyle on Channel Seven's Sunrise program this morning. "I'm hoping Mel will run her fingers through my hair and if she judges it as fluffy as a kitten I'll keep on doing what I'm doing. If she decides it's greasy, I'll go back to shampoo immediately."

CALL OF NATURE

Triple M's new Wil and Lehmo Show settled into the drive shift last week with just one minor mishap - 40 minutes into the first show, Lehmo (Anthony Lehmann) raced to the toilet as a song was playing and failed to make it back to the studio in time. A bemused Wil Anderson (above left with Lehmo) had to carry on alone briefly. It turns out Lehmo lost his way trying to get back to the studio. Anderson joked that in future he would be issued with breadcrumbs.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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