Every Tuesday morning, Dee Milenkovic steamrolls into the VOX FM 106.9 studio in Unanderra, bringing a unique blend of energy and music to the volunteer radio station.
"Vitamin Dee" is a breakfast show for the Illawarra’s community radio station, which has been operational for more 25 years. The station broadcasts music from the 1950s to the 1980s, and has programming in a wide variety of foreign languages. In January 2022, VOX FM was named Community Group of the Year at the Wollongong Australia Day Awards.
Dee, like all the station's presenters, is doing it for the love of it.
"When I started in radio, I wanted to present programs that were all about positivity and energy and good vibes, because there's so much negativity in the news. And I wanted my program to be a safe haven, two hours, where you get guaranteed safety from the ugliness of the world. It just was a natural kind of a thing that, you know, I'm Vitamin Dee. I bring energy to the situation."
Every Tuesday Dee gets up at 4.40am to get to the studio for her breakfast slot. Afterwards she has a full working day as a teacher. Growing up in Wollongong with a Macedonian mother and a Serbian father, Dee is grateful for what she calls “the typical wog life”. Her father worked in the mine, seven days a week. She is also a loving mother of three children. “They are amazing, amazing human beings, I’m so proud.”
Dee is full of beans and her optimism and zest are inspiring. She says she wasn’t always like this.
"I never thought that I would do this [presenting a radio show]. I lived my life as a shy, very enclosed person with a very small world. I was very, very afraid of all sorts of things. So in the last five-ish years, I've been on a quest to live the life that I've missed out on. And I've completely changed who I am …
"There's not enough joy and positivity in the world. And because I feel as though I've missed out on so much in my early life, I'm like a puppy dog."
"I had some seriously crappy things that happened in my life. And thankfully I've come out of the other side. Some people, when they experience traumatic events, experience post-traumatic growth and become better and brighter and bolder and more loving and more compassionate. And I'm fortunate that that's been me."
