Six months later,<\/a> cap city radio did indeed beckon.<\/p>\nSam and Ant suddenly found themselves chucking away their winter woolies and packing their board shorts for a new life in the Top End.<\/p>\n
Like any move, it\u2019s taken some adjusting. But both feel they\u2019ve adapted pretty well so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve really enjoyed it,\u201d says Sam. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be in a city where there are people my age and fun things to do. The people here are really nice. I think we\u2019ve been accepted pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s hot!\u201d he adds enthusiastically. \u201cIt\u2019s really hot! I love it!\u201d<\/p>\n
Ant is also enjoying everything his new city has to offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great. I\u2019d never been to Darwin before. It feels like what Americans think Australia is. It\u2019s got scary animals. There\u2019s hot weather. The people are a little bit loose \u2013 but with that, they\u2019re also very relaxed. Down to earth. And like Sam said, they\u2019ve accepted us very well and the team who we work with have done such a great job ingratiating us into the culture and community up here. So yeah, we\u2019re very lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Accepting the gig was a no-brainer.<\/p>\n
Friends and family members told them \u2018It\u2019s amazing up there. It\u2019s like a different world.\u2019 <\/p>\n
Hooked as soon as she heard Sam and Ant as a radio duo, Hot100 Content Director Sarah Passalick was convinced Darwin would welcome them with open arms.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe really sold us on it,\u201d says Sam. \u201cSo it was a pretty easy decision after we spoke to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
An easy decision. But a huge call as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a big decision,\u201d Ant admits. \u201cIt\u2019s a long way away and you are a bit more isolated from friends and family. But the more people we spoke to who work in radio, they just said the same thing \u2013 \u2018You have to do it. It\u2019s an amazing opportunity.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Ant says the team at the ARN station did their best to facilitate their move.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey helped put us up in a hotel at the start. Our good friend Jac (Cowan), who does the Drive show, helped us both find accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Ant says Cowan (pictured above with Sam, Ant and Hot 100 Mornings host Xy McEwan) has also been instrumental in helping them get out and about and build their social network.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are awesome people up here who we\u2019re working with who can help make those challenges a lot easier, whether it be on-air or off-air.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now, Sam and Ant\u2019s main goal is to immerse themselves in the local community and connect with listeners.<\/p>\n
Sam says \u201cThe way I look at it is \u2013 Hot100 is Darwin\u2019s mother, and we\u2019re the step dads. So we\u2019ve got to get on their good side and get to know them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to make a lot of noise and do a lot of community driven things in Darwin. The community feel up here is really, really strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we want to work as hard as we can and learn a lot. Obviously, there are a lot more facilities up here. We\u2019re developing our skills on-air. It does motivate us to keep going and hopefully take it to the next level sometime in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it doesn\u2019t hurt to have a bit of \u2018Territory toughness\u2019 about you.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve got to be a bit Territory tough ourselves,\u201d Ant smiles.<\/p>\n
Exactly how tough is \u2018Territory tough?\u2019<\/p>\n
As Sam explains \u201cThere\u2019s a guy up here who broke his pinky finger and instead of getting surgery to fix it, he just said \u2018Cut it off.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the toughest thing I\u2019ve ever heard!\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam and Ant can be heard weekdays from 5:30am to 9am on Darwin\u2019s Hot100.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Going from the frosty winters of Goulburn to the tropical heat of Darwin is quite the seachange, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[240219,33024,64,63,240220,134,240221,240222,240223,136,240224,240225,240226],"class_list":{"0":"post-470289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-anthony-johnston","9":"tag-arn","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-eagle-fm","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-hot100","15":"tag-hot100-darwin","16":"tag-jac-cowan","17":"tag-music","18":"tag-sam-and-ant","19":"tag-samual-mansfield","20":"tag-xy-mcewan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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