Kerin Kirby George claims she is extremely shy and introverted. But the way in which the radio broadcaster interacts with her audience on from 6-9 am on weekdays, it’s hard to believe that she isn't always the life of the party.
Kirby, as she is fondly called by her co-workers and Boom 94 listeners, is a natural as a radio personality. But, she told WMN, because of the traditional way in which she was raised, what she now sees as her “whole career” and an avenue through which the public gets to hear a different side of her, was probably the last thing she expected to fall in love with – and at urban radio station Boom no less. “I came from corporate prior to being in media. I went through the whole ‘go to school, get a perfect job’ thing because I come from a very traditional family. My background is in HR, and I was pretty good at it, but I felt like I wasn’t doing as much as I was meant to do. I felt like I was made to do more. I didn’t know what it was, but being in an office environment felt very stifling,” the Morning Pump co-host told WMN, in her proper and eloquent manner.
But one day she just realised she couldn’t do it any more, got up and left – a decision that didn’t sit too well with her mother.
“My mom has had the same job for 18 years, so coming from a home like that it was very unorthodox to just leave your corporate job, your security and everything…She looked at me like, ‘you are crazy’. She was mad for about six months.”
Kirby has been working at Boom for over a year. Prior to that she had been at Hott 93 for four years, and before that she had done an eight-month internship at Sweet 100, training under experienced and respected broadcasters like Mark Anthony and Allan Diaz.
“The foundation was really good because they come from old school. I always took their advice really seriously because of their years of experience. At that time when I went into radio, radio was making a transition from the mainstream and very stringent way of reporting and telling stories, and even speaking on the radio, to a bit more laxed. And this is where urban radio, one of the biggest markets on radio, comes in.”
She said although Hott 93 was a little bit more laxed than the adult contemporary Sweet 100, it was still a little bit scripted. It was while at Hott 93 that she got an unexpected job offer that changed the trajectory of her career plans.
[caption id="attachment_1025789" align="alignnone" width="674"] Kerin Kirby George says her ultimate media goal is to do a TV show. - Ayanna Kinsale[/caption]
“I was just there going about my business and got a call one day that Boom 94 was interested in hiring me. Initially, I wasn’t interested because I had never done urban radio before and I didn’t think it was me.”
But after giving it some thought, though, she decided it was an opportunity to do something different.
“It was also about curiosity and being able to expand as an announcer and broadcaster across different stations and their cultures.”
Kirby told WMN since working at Boom, the genre of t
