Jason Tikao, Drive Host on Coast, Talks Bucket Lists
Occupation: Drive Host on Coast
Age: 42
What are the top three things on your bucket list?
Watching Liverpool play live at Anfield at the Kop end.
Taking my wife to New York and experiencing that incredible city together.
Following Pearl Jam around on a world tour. They change the setlist every night, so no show is the same.
What advice would you give your 20 year-old self?
Save your damn money. Have a savings plan and stick to it. My 20-year old self would’ve laughed at that advice, but after taking way longer than I would’ve liked for a deposit on my house in Auckland, I would go back in time and cut up my 20-year old self’s EFTPOS card!
How do you stay motivated?
My wonderful wife is pregnant with our first child and I have never wanted to live my life more than I do now. I want to be the best husband and father that I can be for them.
Finding out we were going to have a child just made me more ambitious and hungry for success. Motivation came very naturally after that news.
If you didn’t need money, what would you do?
I would love to travel. I never had the bug as a younger man to travel, but you get curious about the world and the beautiful sights and sounds it has to offer.
I would still want to work in radio because it’s such a passion project rather than a job.
What is the best bit of advice, or quote, that resonates with you?
My radio mentor, Mike West, once told me after I’d had a bad show on air, “You are never as good as you think you are on your best day, but you’re never as bad as you think you are on your worst.” It stuck with me.
It keeps your head out of the clouds when you think you’ve had a great show, but gives good perspective when you think you’ve had a shocker. You come back the next day and go again.
What makes you feel alive?
Knowing that I’m going to be a Dad for the first time is the biggest thing right now. But the other thing is the laughter, whether it’s having a joke with my wife, cracking up in the office, or on air with Mel.
Having a laugh is what I get to do for a living, and hopefully making someone listening laugh at something they heard on the show? That’s a pretty cool feeling!