3AW Afternoons host Dee Dee Dunleavy returns to her journalistic roots: "It brings me alive."

It was in year 12 at Frankston High School that a light switch flicked for Dee Dee Dunleavy, and she set her sights on a job in journalism that would eventually lead her to radio hosting.

Dunleavy, 58, was aiming for a career in a completely different direction until her high school English teacher put her on the right track.

“I remember writing an essay and at that stage I wanted to be a pharmacist. I really enjoyed chemistry so I thought that was the way I would go,” she says.

“But when my lovely English teacher Heather Golden was marking my essay, she said I should consider a career in journalism and it was just like ‘bing’, a little light went on.

“It was my final year of HSC and once she said that, I never thought of anything different.”

Dunleavy got a job at a small local paper called the Town Crier reporting the news from Mornington, Mount Martha and Mount Eliza, before heading to the Frankston Standard and then Fox FM as a journalist and newsreader in 1986.

She soon found herself interested in an expanded on-air role, partly thanks to the legendary Australian singer John Farnham.

“John Farnham came into the studio to promote Whispering Jack and when he was in the studio, I floated in there and joined in on the interview and I just thought to myself, ‘I love this’,” Dunleavy says.

“I love talking to people and, to be honest, at the same time I was a little starstruck. Who doesn’t want to sit next to John Farnham as a young girl?”

Those were exciting times for the girl who proudly grew up in Baxter, on the Mornington Peninsula.

Dunleavy, who lives in a beautiful heritage-listed home in Bulleen, now finds herself in a fresh wave of career change. This year she started her dream job as 3AW’s Afternoons host (weekdays, midday to 3pm), replacing Denis Walter, who has moved to 3AW Nights.

As such, she and Peter “Grubby” Stubbs ended their long on-air pairing – one of the most enduring in Australian radio history. The pair are great friends, talk all the time and are genuinely and deeply happy for each other.

“We’ve been working together for 32 years and it’s been a great partnership,” Stubbs says.

The 3AW gig brings Dunleavy back to her love of journalism, and she is feeling rejuvenated. “It sounds pathetic, but it brings me alive. It’s in my blood,” she says of her new show.

Off-air, family is incredibly important to Dunleavy; she, husband Kieran and their two children Bonnie, 24, and Bailey, 21, are very close.

They have been there with her through the major steps of her career, including the tough times. No more so than in 2011 when she and Stubbs were sacked from their 12-year breakfast slot on Gold FM.

Suddenly, she felt very lost. In what can be a very brutal industry, the popular duo felt blindsided by the owners of the station, ARN.

“It was devastating and soul-destroying,” Dunleavy says. “I didn’t know who I was or what I would do. I knew I wanted to stay in radio, but you just can’t walk in and demand a job somewhere as there is a lot of competition.”

She picked herself up, met with one of the country’s most respected agents – Mark Klemens from Profile Talent Management – and the doors to 3AW opened for her and Stubbs. And she hasn’t looked back.

At their stunning family home, Dunleavy loves the little things, like making a salad from Kieran’s vegetable patch, and sitting around in the kitchen with him and the kids. It is this family time that made the decision to host Afternoons on 3AW an easy one, after many years of breakfast and weekend radio.

“The family was a big part of my decision to take the afternoon job,” Dunleavy says. “For 25 years of my working life doing breakfast radio, I was going to bed early and my darling husband would sit up alone every night.

“My kids woke up every morning to Mum not being home.

“I can’t tell you how much joy the new job has brought to my family. Family is so important to me and I am so glad to be able to spend time with them and do things on the weekends.

“But I will say I am really proud of being able to make my career last this long and I honestly couldn’t tell you what the secret is, other than being nice to people and listening to people.”

3aw.com.au

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