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Life on the Edge
Jay-Jay Harvey has been at The Edge radio station since it started 22 years ago, helping it to become New Zealand's most popular radio station with nearly 700,000 listeners.
She has been paint balled, pierced, shaved bald, hypnotised, and whatever else was required - all to entertain her listeners. She has married complete strangers (who are all still together), fundraised while sleeping in a shopping mall, interviewed huge stars like Tom Cruise, Lady Gaga & Oprah, danced her way to fourth place on Dancing with the Stars , and been naked in public too many times to count!
She takes us behind the scenes of some of the craziest stuff she has done for ratings and lets us peek into her personal journey in radio that includes dobbing in a workmate, numerous job offers, making out at work, changing her name twice, losing a co-host to suicide, working with her husband and fighting depression with a smile on her face.
Jay-Jay truly has lived life on The Edge.
She has been paint balled, pierced, shaved bald, hypnotised, and whatever else was required - all to entertain her listeners. She has married complete strangers (who are all still together), fundraised while sleeping in a shopping mall, interviewed huge stars like Tom Cruise, Lady Gaga & Oprah, danced her way to fourth place on Dancing with the Stars , and been naked in public too many times to count!
She takes us behind the scenes of some of the craziest stuff she has done for ratings and lets us peek into her personal journey in radio that includes dobbing in a workmate, numerous job offers, making out at work, changing her name twice, losing a co-host to suicide, working with her husband and fighting depression with a smile on her face.
Jay-Jay truly has lived life on The Edge.
240 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 28, 2016
4 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 20, 2022
Read it! It's all right not my type of book but good to see the life of a shock Jock. So glad I didn't carry on down the theatre path I'm not going be caught naked in public.
It's all about the ratings.
It's all about the ratings.
July 2, 2021
Enjoyed this book, fun and easy reading.
January 5, 2017
loved it! thank you for letting us into your life xxx
February 14, 2017
Harvey, one of the shock jocks on the Edge Radio Station, describes what it’s like working in radio. She takes us behind the scenes and tells us about some of the crazy, crazy stuff that she and her partners-in-crime do, in order to increase ratings. Actually it’s mostly Jay-Jay. She’s the one that’s been paint-balled, had her head shaved, and been hypnotised - amongst other things. And who knows how many times she’s been publicly naked, while her fellow hosts are back in the studio, laughing it up! Well, it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt… and there have been a few miss-steps – pranks that have backfired.
Apart from the cunning stunts that the Edge crew have pulled over the years, there have also been some major celebrities on their show (Ed Sheeran for one!), a fair amount of overseas travel for interviews, some fundraisers, and then… there was Harvey’s stint on Dancing with the Stars – let’s just say she wasn’t named the Scandal Queenie for nothing.
A rollicking good read, Jay-Jay Harvey has indeed lived life on theEdge.
Apart from the cunning stunts that the Edge crew have pulled over the years, there have also been some major celebrities on their show (Ed Sheeran for one!), a fair amount of overseas travel for interviews, some fundraisers, and then… there was Harvey’s stint on Dancing with the Stars – let’s just say she wasn’t named the Scandal Queenie for nothing.
A rollicking good read, Jay-Jay Harvey has indeed lived life on theEdge.
December 10, 2016
2.5
I am an expat Kiwi so not a listener of Jay-Jay's radio show, but I know who she and her husband are and understand the context of NZ culture that the book was written in. So this was an interesting enough read but honestly, it made me a bit sad too somehow. Sometimes I wondered - does the author hear what she is saying?
I'll sum it up with this thought that came near the end of the book, in response to the public upset that occurred when Jay-Jay's husband and fellow radio host Dom tweeted an upskirt-style picture of a woman's crotch area (with demeaning comment) that he'd taken from a TV screenshot where she'd been dancing:
It didn't help that Dom has upset a few women previously with his tweets and on-air comments and he has earned a bit of a reputation for being sexist and misogynist, which he isn't. It's just that not everyone appreciates his sense of humour. This was perfect fodder for the feminists and anyone anti-Dom, and I felt like I was caught in the middle of it.
I literally don't even know what to say to that, lol.
I am an expat Kiwi so not a listener of Jay-Jay's radio show, but I know who she and her husband are and understand the context of NZ culture that the book was written in. So this was an interesting enough read but honestly, it made me a bit sad too somehow. Sometimes I wondered - does the author hear what she is saying?
I'll sum it up with this thought that came near the end of the book, in response to the public upset that occurred when Jay-Jay's husband and fellow radio host Dom tweeted an upskirt-style picture of a woman's crotch area (with demeaning comment) that he'd taken from a TV screenshot where she'd been dancing:
It didn't help that Dom has upset a few women previously with his tweets and on-air comments and he has earned a bit of a reputation for being sexist and misogynist, which he isn't. It's just that not everyone appreciates his sense of humour. This was perfect fodder for the feminists and anyone anti-Dom, and I felt like I was caught in the middle of it.
I literally don't even know what to say to that, lol.
June 20, 2025
Great Book - signed by Jay jay too
i finaly read it!! and remeber some of the events in real time that she wrote about
i finaly read it!! and remeber some of the events in real time that she wrote about
November 8, 2016
What a fantastic insight into the world of broadcasting. I laughed & cried & especially enjoyed all the celebrity tidbits! This was an easy book to read (no boring bits lol) Jay-Jay is not only incredibly good at what she does but also comes across as accessible & down to earth as well. There is absolutely nothing pretentious about her! I was so sad to learn depression has raised its ugly head again while I was reading this though :( Wishing nothing but light & love to you Jay-Jay X
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews