Sam Drummond profile

I recently interviewed Sam Drummond who is a producer at 3AW. Sam is a short-statured man who is willing to be profiled in my book Little People: Big Lives. He has had an interesting life with an arts/law degree from Monash University, a burgeoning career in radio and his own music festival  – Feskyval.

H has done a legal internship with Bush Heritage, a not-for-profit group that buys up land around the country for conversational purposes. If and when he gets back to a career in law it’ll be in the area of human rights. He told me, “The focus of my degree was human rights and indigenous law. So on the agenda is going to the US and working with people who are on the death penalty.”

For now, though, Sam is producing Denis Walter’s program in the afternoon featuring interviews with musicians and artists.

As a short-statured person, Sam Drummond is very aware of the media coverage given to people with his condition. After speaking with Stella Young on this topic I was interested to hear from Sam. I quote him below.

“My position at 3AW means that I’m quite often being asked to comment on the stories about dwarfs that appear in the media. It happens one or two times a year. I can’t avoid it because someone will put the article in front of me and say, ‘Hey you should read this.’ And I know that is society’s view of me. It’s down there on paper.

“My opinion is that the most dangerous thing people in the short-statured community can do is to perpetuate certain stereotypes – like the one that the only way someone with short stature can make a living is to hire themselves out for entertainment. When they do this, tall people think it’s a normal thing to do. What I believe is that everybody, no matter whether they are tall, short, disabled or able bodied, should be able to aim at getting the best out of life, out of what they can be. So the short-statured people who do get in the news make it harder for others who are trying to get along in life like everybody else.”