Popular radio host Jules Lund has been away from radio for seven years building his business. He’s now returned to airways with his entrepreneurial show Start-up Nation on the newly-launched Disrupt Radio.
Speaking to B&T, Lund makes it clear that, despite his hiatus, he has never lost his love for radio.
“The best part about radio is that young energy and anyone can be scrappy,” he tells B&T.
Whereas in TV the “executive producers were people in their 60s who have been doing it for 30 years, radio is a lot more fun”, he says.
Given there’s a lot of business podcasts out there these days, I ask Lund why he decided to launch a business-focused radio show.
“My original ambition in this show is to try to have podcast depth in a radio format, which is more difficult than it sounds,” he says.
“In podcasts, you have a real depth of conversation and intimacy. You can really uncover some unintentional pearls of wisdom. And also just get to a level of reflection that you ordinarily can’t in radio”.
In radio, however, you have the challenge of an advertising break every three to 12 minutes, he says.
“To be able to sit and peel back the layers in that short amount of time was a challenge I was so excited about,” he says.
“The element of live is a sense of excitement, and electricity that you just don’t hear in podcasts. And I love that ingredient. I think it’s more captivating”.
The best thing about entrepreneurs is that they have been “unbelievably humbled” by the road they’ve taken, Lund says.
“I mean, the entrepreneurial journey is really tough. These people aren’t salespeople, like they don’t have an ego”.
When asked whether he himself has always been a risk-taker, Lund says “I’ve never been fearless. I’ve just been willing to feel the fear and do it anyway”.
It’s this attitude that has enabled him to do the thing many wouldn’t do in radio – take over the presenting reigns from the likes of Hamish and Andy and Kyle and Jackie O.
“When Hamish and Andy said, we’re wrapping up, it wasn’t easy for them to find a host that was willing to follow that act. And the same with Kyle and Jackie, I was very happy to guzzle from the poison chalice and I’m not afraid to fail,” he said.
It is a refreshing attitude that has certainly served him well!
