Across the summer of 2009-2010, Dan, Mel and Andrew hosted The Enthusiast Radio Hour on Melbourne community radio beacon Triple R.

We had many a laugh, interviewed some fascinating creative minds, presented uncommon news, profiled amazing dead people, examined literary and fatality awards, scrutinised newspapers and web phenomena, mocked “Mockbusters” and musical microgenres, and talked entirely too much about Avatar (which was the style at the time).

Of course it was the hot height of summer and no doubt many of you were sunning yourselves far away from the wireless or the wifi. In the interests of full disclosure, The Enthusiast is presenting all nine shows as downloadable mp3s (or podcasts, if you import into iTunes) over the next couple of weeks.

Very enthusiastic thanks to our producer Davis Clayton, Station Manager Mick James, Talks Producer Donna Morabito, and the rest of the Triple R crew for their expertise and guidance and tolerance of our “talkin’ bullshit” style.

Note: The Enthusiast Radio Hour title is a slight misnomer in these podcasts, as they all run between 35 and 40 minutes. We had to clip out the songs and station IDs, as well as the extraneous guff we said about the songs and stations IDs. If you are at all unsatisfied with the runtime of The Enthusiast Radio Hour/40-Or-So Minutes, we will happily refund the entire purchase price of $0.

The Enthusiast Radio Hour Episode 1
Runtime: 40:13
Originally Aired: 1 December, 2009
(Click to play in Quicktime or right-click “Save as” to download)

News: TV preview for 2010, Silvio Berlusconi named Rolling Stone’s Rock Star Of The Year, film remakes and sequels for 2010, Cormac McCarthy sells his typewriter, redback spiders invade Japan.

Discussions: Bad Sex In Fiction Award nominees, Christmas stocking-filler books

Interview: French street art pioneer Blek Le Rat

Feature: Death Of The Week: Female taekwondo groundbreaker Rusty Kanokogi