Melissa Collins grew up in Kedron in Brisbane, when Kedron was a bit of a daggy place to live. The daughter of a detective, ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘where’ ‘what’ and ‘when’ usually had fascinating and sometimes gruesome answers. As a result, a budding storyteller with an insatiable curiosity about people was born.

With a voice once described as a ‘big warm hug’, Melissa got her start in commercial radio at a time when women were usually relegated to support roles in brekkie shows. Melissa insisted on presenting her own programs and continued to do just that for commercial and ABC radio stations in Queensland and New South Wales.

These days most of Melissa’s work hours are spent in a room with a microphone, sometimes with a producer on the other side of a glass wall, sometimes by herself in a purpose-built studio at home, sometimes with a view of another part of the world as a backdrop (the Andes from a hoatel room in Santiago, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles etc).   Sure it’s an unusual  existence, but it means there’s a great deal of flexibility for other  passionate pursuits of travel, writing and interviewing interesting people.

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For many years Melissa shared other peoples intimate stories with her radio listeners. She loves to tell stories that inspire people to see what appears to be common as remarkable. Utilising her many years of broadcast experience, Melissa is, from time to time, a guest interviewer and podcaster