Virgin Radio presenter Kris Fade, host of the breakfast show on Virgin Radio Dubai 104.4, has said he will remain in Dubai after stepping away from an opportunity in Sydney, saying: “I’m staying. Dubai is home.”
“A few weeks ago, life threw me a curveball,” he said via a post on Instagram. “A month ago I was offered my dream job back home, in Sydney.”
He said the offer carried meaning for anyone who had chased a dream. He added that his family is in Sydney, his roots are there, his childhood is there, and his “aging Mum and Dad” are there.
He said that for weeks he had spent “countless hours thinking, talking, negotiating, praying, and trying to work out what the right decision was”.
“And after all of that, I’ve made my choice,” he said. The presenter said he had “officially stepped away from that opportunity in Sydney for now”.
He thanked everyone involved at the station in Australia, including management and the team.
He said he had “nothing but respect and gratitude” for them and said he was confident the management team they have now “will do unbelievably well”.
“But sometimes life isn’t about chasing the dream you had in your twenties,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s about recognizing the life you’ve built at your forties’.”
Fade said that when he looked around, he realised that everything he had worked for was in Dubai. “My family is here. My friends are here. My businesses are here. My team is here. My future is here,” he said.
He said “a huge part of that is the company I work for”.
He added that ARN and Dubai Holding “have never felt like employers to me. They’ve felt like family.”
He said that over nearly two decades, they had believed in him, backed him, challenged him, supported him and allowed him to become the person he is today.
“Loyalty means a lot to me,” he said, adding that he could not ignore the people who had stood beside him through chapters of his life. He named Mahmoud, Josh and James within the network and said he was grateful.
Fade said he could not ignore the city and country that had given him so much.
He said he had travelled the world and had been fortunate to see “some incredible places”, but added that “there is something special about the UAE”. “The vision of its leadership is unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed,” he said.
He described the UAE as “a country that constantly looks forward”, “a country that dreams bigger” and “a country that proves, year after year, that impossible is just a word”.
He also cited “the safety, the opportunity, the innovation, the diversity, the entrepreneurship” and “the feeling that anything can happen if you’re willing to work for it”.
“Nineteen years ago, Dubai gave me a chance,” he said. “Today, it continues to give me a future.”
The presenter thanked the people he works with every day, naming Priti, Big Rossi, Nala, Laasya and Jenny. He also thanked every person behind the scenes at Virgin Radio.
“What we have here is rare,” he said. “It’s more than a radio show. It’s more than a workplace. It’s a family.”
“Walking away from that would’ve been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” he said.
The presenter also addressed listeners, calling them “the people who wake up with us every morning” and “the people who have shared their lives with us”.
He thanked those who had trusted the team with “their stories, their laughs, their tears, and their time”. “You have no idea what you mean to me,” he said.
He said he had met listeners around the world but believed there was “no audience like the Virgin Radio audience”. “No better listeners anywhere,” he said.
He said listeners had supported him through every chapter of his life, celebrated his highs, carried him through his lows, and helped turn “a radio presenter into something much bigger than he ever imagined”.
“You became family,” he said.
The presenter said Sydney would always be home and Australia would always be part of who he is, but said his heart told him that his story in Dubai “isn’t finished”. He said Dubai gave him a life, Virgin Radio gave him a platform, and ARN and Dubai Holding gave him belief.
“This country gave me opportunity,” he said. “And you gave me purpose.”
He thanked listeners for allowing “a Lebanese Australian kid” to come to Dubai with a dream and build a life beyond anything he could have imagined.
“After 19 years, I’m still here,” he said. “And if you’ll have me, I’m not done yet. Let’s keep going.”
The post drew more than 13,000 likes and 547 comments within hours of going up.
