"I studied English and education and I enjoyed study, particularly my last year.
"I did quite well in my postgrad in educational psychology, I got invited to do an MA and I'd always thought that was the route I was going to take.‘‘As an academic.''
However, he says, this plan was turned on its head when he was diagnosed with Gaucher's disease - a genetic disorder which causes fatty substances to accumulate in organs, particularly the liver and spleen.
"I was 24 years old and I was on a walking stick. Within six months I was on a walking stick and on the dole.''
Today, the disease means he requires monthly drug infusions of cerezyme, and eventually he will need a hip replacement.
Twenty-three years ago the diagnosis forced him to decline the invitation to complete a master's degree at the university.
"The study was very interesting and it was very stimulating but I got really sick.
"I wasn't depressed but I got a bit, ‘Oh dear, I'm on the invalid's benefit in Dunedin, faaaar out, this is heavy.''
Following eight months of "sitting at home, getting up late and eating toast at midday'' he says a suggestion by a friend to volunteer at Otago University Students' Association-owned radio station Radio One 91FM gave him purpose again.
"It was actually Radio One that was a lifeline for me.''
In 1995, he began working there as the creative director, writing ads for an eclectic range of Dunedin businesses.
"When I started I thought, ‘I have got nothing to do with media, I wouldn't know where to start.'
"They just said, ‘Have a go', and I did and the client who I wrote the ad for just loved it and said, ‘Look has that volunteer, have they got any other ideas?'.''
Shortly after starting at the station, Mr Chapman began his foray on the airways with weekly Saturday culture and arts show The Plume Late Breakfast Show.
The show allowed the "Auckland kid'' to challenge the predominantly Dunedin-based music being played by the station.
"For me, I was an Auckland kid.‘‘I was never a major fan of what you might call the Dunedin Sound.
"I wasn't then, I am now.
"When I was on my show I didn't care, I played funk and psychedelic jazz, rock and also some of the great New Zealand bands, including those in Christchurch and Dunedin, but the point being that I think it was at that time the station got opened up musically and there were a small bunch of people there at that particular time who were ready to do that.''
Now based in Auckland with his wife of three years, Tabitha, he spends his time preparing for and hosting Sunday Morning on Radio New Zealand National and commuting to Wellington each week to host the live pub politics show Back Benches with Hayley Holt.
He enjoys both jobs, but recalls his time at the University of Otago, and in student radio, in a way which suggests if he could do it all over again tomorrow, he would.
"I stayed there for so long because I just really loved it, and I felt I really didn't want to leave, it was such a creative, energetic environment.''
After five years at the station, he decided he had done his time.
"I was a salaried member and a proud part of the core of Radio One, but five years really was long enough.''
Shortly after putting a date in the calender to resign, he was approached by Suzanne Wilson, then station manager of 95bFM, New Zealand's longest-running independent radio station.
The Auckland station had heard his Radio One ads, and its quirky style appealed to it, too.
"At the time that was a huge privilege for me ...
"RadioB ads were really for me, and many others, the sort of benchmark in creativity ...
"And low and behold, I got the job.''
He says he replicated "exactly'' what he did at Radio One, staying five years at the station, becoming further entrenched as a fixture on New Zealand's airwaves.
Mr Chapman admits he does not often find the time to listen to Radio One these days.
"You tend to get involved in your own radio station.
"But I do tell you, I tell you something: whenever I go to Dunedin one of the first things I do, whether it be in the taxi, or in the hotel, or wherever, I'll tune into Radio One 91FM.
"I still know it.
"That's where I get attuned to what is happening in the city.
"Something like Radio One, you have got the flavour of what is happening that evening, what the buzz is, what students are talking about, it's really interesting.''
From afar, the future of the station looks bright, he says.
In 2011, the OUSA threatened to sell the station in an attempt to save money in response to legislation which ended compulsory membership of student bodies.
The station went off air for a week in protest, but came back, and by Mr Chapman's reckoning will be here for a long time.
"I think there is always a place for strong local student radio, it is one of the things I loved about Dunedin ...
"Radio is a particularly resilient format for whatever reason, so I've got no qualms with the fact that it will be there in 10 to 15 years' time,'' he says.
Wallace Chapman
Degree, qualifications: DipGrad in English and education. Name of course at the
University of Otago: English and education.
Years of study: 1987-91.
Career path: Wanted to go into academia. Was accepted for a master's but fell ill.
Favourite memory of living in Otago? The camaraderie at Radio One, shopping at Plume, nights at Bath St, coffee at Nova, so many!