AN hour with ABC Radio Brisbane’s Kelly Higgins-Devine was anything but dull.
A hairstyle coloured as vibrantly as her voice, the conversation moves from journalism to motherhood to Catholic schools to her nomination for P & F (Parents and Friends) president with ease, delight and of course, laughter.
“When I began at the ABC,” Kelly said, “My laugh is the one thing I constantly was criticised about.
“It was just email after email.”
Some “soul searching” realised a resonating truth.
“When you first start on air there’s a lot of comparison between you and the person (in the role) before you,” she said.
“In the end I had to make a decision that I was going to be me and I wasn’t going not to laugh.
“I can’t act that well for three hours a day, five days a week.”
Divine Kelly was born in Bendigo and educated in the Catholic system, arriving in Brisbane to complete high school at Mt Maria College, Mitchelton.
She “mucked around a lot” after high school including singing in bands, and almost “fell into” radio aged 23.
“A friend was doing a course (in radio broadcasting) and I thought that sounds like fun,” Kelly said.
The mother of eight-year-old Mackenzie or “Kenz” as she often affectionately refers to her, hasn’t looked back, on the radio waves since 1993, first in Cairns, then Shepparton and back to Brisbane.
While not the place of her birth Kelly said making a life in Brisbane with husband Craig Devine and Kenz was “the most settled” she’s ever been.
Fresh from a meeting of the P & F at St Martin’s primary school, Carina, that very morning, Kelly’s as friendly in person as she is on radio, although is mindful of her “sit on the fence” role on air.
“I’m not here to give my opinions,” she said of the 3-6pm timeslot on ABC Radio each weekday.
“I’m the person who puts the arguments to you and lets you fight it out.”
Kelly’s thrilled when listeners present “a well crafted argument”.
“I love the person who will ring in and give the opposite opinion to what everyone else is saying,” she said.
“It adds to the conversation and debate.
“Everyone may not agree but people have a right to express well-thought-out reasons.”
Kelly is forever mindful of “being respectful”, an offshoot of her Catholic faith.
“You never think about your school motto really … until adulthood,” she said.
“It was ‘strength and kindliness’.
“These are two things not seen as going together but as I got older I realised they are two very important qualities in a person – to have strength of character and to be kind – to not be the aggressor and to try to understand people as much as you can.
“I have a responsibility to be compassionate and respectful … and they’re the things I got the most out of being Catholic.”
With certain compassion Kelly offered to broadcast during the wait for Cyclone Yasi recently.
“We all knew it was coming,” she said of the lead-up.
“I said to my bosses if they needed me to fill a shift I would … I had worked in the area.
“They came to me the day before.”
The result was an 11pm to 5am broadcast with Kelly at the microphone “not knowing what would happen”.
“On the outside I think I looked very calm,” she said.
“But on the inside I was thinking, ‘You really need to do a good job of this, this is going to be important to people’.”
And important it was, with more that 60 people calling in from Tully, Mission Beach and the surrounding areas during the six-hour marathon and countless others tuning in around the globe.
Suggesting that she and indeed the ABC radio network in general, were “a lifeline” to those within the eye of Cyclone Yasi, Kelly’s reluctant to take any accolades.
“It was a team effort … I had exceptional producers … and my colleagues had really set the tone,” she said.
“My mantra was, ‘Don’t make it worse, it’s bad enough already’.”
With constant weather updates, interpreting radars by the minute and speaking from those within the eye itself, Kelly said they aimed to “calm as much as possible”.
“We gave listeners a sense of control over their own circumstances,” she said.
“I tried to say things like, ‘You’ve survived half of this now …’ and ‘Don’t go back into the street as it’s coming back …'”
A pivotal moment was receiving a call from Mission Beach.
“A caller said he was in the eye of the storm,” Kelly said, recalling how she decided to pursue the conversation as he was “calm”.
“I asked if he could see the stars.
“He said, ‘yeah, I can see the stars’.
“I think that became a hope moment.
“It was like saying this too will pass … (and) it was probably the most special moment of the broadcast.”
Knowing she too is blessed professionally and personally, Kelly “counts her lucky stars” and keeps seeing the positive side of life.
“The good thing about radio is it’s about making connections with people,” she said.
“I want them to feel I’m their friend.”
And while our time of sharing was up, for at least that morning, the divine and never dull conversation could have lasted another hour, or three.
