If popular Canberra radio presenter Scott "Scotty" Masters could clone himself he would have stayed behind the microphone.
But, he said, he couldn't so the call of the smoke and the meat was irresistible.
On Friday, he announced that the show would be his last on 2CA. He loves American-style barbecue and has decided to spend more time developing the business.
"I'm 51 and I didn't want to get to 60 and look back and say 'I should have had a go at the cooking thing'," he told The Canberra Times.
He'll be with his meat smoker and a load of meat - brisket, certainly - at Alpha Fresh at Raws Crescent, Hume from July 31. The plan is to be there from 7am to 2pm from Wednesday to Friday. "Depending on how it goes, I may stretch out to five days a week," he said.
American barbecue is very different from the pale Australian version. Instead of throwing meat fleetingly on a grill, the Americans, particularly in the Deep South, smoke meat for hours until it is melt-in-the mouth tender. It's spiced differently in different regions. It is a cult.
Scotty offers "Slow American BBQ with an Australian twist" - it's the slogan on his big smoker.
He got into barbecue a decade ago. "Ten years ago, I started mucking around with it and then, five years ago, I got serious," he said.
Last year, he cooked 1.14 tonnes of beef, 843 kilos of pork, 645 kilos of wings, 350 kilos of vegies and 1300 kranskies.
In truth, though, meat has been in his bones from day one. His father was a butcher. "My dad gave me a pig for show-and-tell in kindergarten," the broadcaster-turned-pit master said (the pig was dead not alive, by the way).
He started broadcasting in 1990. He was a muso and the drummer in the band introduced him to radio in Newcastle.
He loved it and he was a natural.
"Very early on, I realised, 'This is pretty cool'. It was a match made in heaven but I didn't realise that until I got into it."
There were signs earlier. "My school report cards said, 'If Scott stops trying to entertain the class, he would do much better from a grade standpoint'."
He's been away from the mic before, returning last year after a seven-year break.
He was sacked by fellow Canberra radio station 104.7FM in 2015, and sacked in a very unpleasant way.
The presenter was on holiday from his long-running Scotty and Nige breakfast program on the Canberra FM station when he got the "don't come in on Monday" call. It was a complete surprise that denied him the chance to say goodbye to his audience.
It prompted fans to start a petition to reinstate the presenter at the station, but that didn't work, and in that enforced break he started his own marketing company Scott Masters Media and his barbecue enterprise, Smoke Masters Barbecue.
Unlike his previous departure, he had a chance to say goodbye at 2CA. "I'll miss the interaction with the listeners," he said.
