It is his job to wake up the people of Ipswich with their favourite music and funny anecdotes. Reporter Matt Bunn joined Nick Pandolfi on Town 102’s breakfast show to find out more

If the comments made by Gav the Milkman and Jason are anything to go by then my first foray into the radio world was a success.

I must admit though that the positive comments I received when it came to an end were not what I was expecting when I got up at the crack of dawn for my appearance on Nick Pandolfi’s Town 102 breakfast show.

It is no secret among my colleagues that early starts don’t faze me but I don’t remember the last time I had to get up at 4am – in fact I don’t think I have ever had to get up at 4am!

But that is exactly what I had to do as I made my debut at Town 102’s headquarters in Great Blakenham for the 6-10am slot.

I regularly listen to the radio while driving in the car and it never ceases to amaze me how at ease and effortless the presenters sounds as they make their way between songs.

I did not have much confidence at all that I could even begin to replicate that.

My drive to the station was filled with dread and that didn’t disappear when I entered the studio and got my headphones on.

What am I supposed to say? Should I be asking some questions on air? Maybe I will be answering them – so many things were going through my mind as 6am came around and Nick welcomed his listeners to the show.

Fortunately I was eased into it.

To the listeners at home I was the show’s mysterious special guest for about 20 minutes until it was revealed to the town that I would be the co-host for the day.

But in that 20 minutes I picked up a lot, little anecdotes I could use – particularly about my sat nav woes on the way to the station – and it was also easy to see how much Ipswich means to the people working there.

“We celebrate the area,” Nick told me while we were off air.

“It is very easy to go on the radio and say things are rubbish but we celebrate the town. I love my home county, I love it for all sorts of reasons.”

I don’t know if it was the chats during the songs, or if I slowly just built up some confidence, but I was steadily being put at ease.

Before I knew it I was chatting with the other guests who walked through the door, talking about the stories in The Star that day and, my personal favourite, I even introduced a few songs.

Before I knew it I even had a small, well a very small, group of fans.

Texts to the station from Gav the Milkman and Jason – whose identities remain a mystery to me – said I was doing a good job.

And as the guests continued to flow in the whole show became much easier.

Guests on the day including nutritionist Ben Coomber – who chastised me over my diet – and Leanne Carhart, of St Elizabeth Hospice, who popped in to talk about the Midnight Walk.

Before I knew it 10am rolled around and it was time for me to leave and get back to the day job.

I came out thinking it was easy but any notions of the job of a radio presenter being simple were quickly quashed by Nick.

“The hard work is actually when you come off air,” he said.

“The station has grown and with growth comes lots of emails.

“My job is to ease people into the day for the first half hour and to make someone smile in the morning. Then, hopefully, they will come back.”

I would like to think my morning as a radio co-host was a success.

The station manager seemed impressed and comments from my colleagues and friends were roundly positive.

It is an experience I never thought I would have but one I thoroughly enjoyed.

There was just one problem – that 4am start – I hope I never see that time in the morning ever again.