| THE
YEAR THAT WAS
Today was my final programme on 3AW for 2004. I am off to
New York and Los Angeles to do more research on a new book
about Australian journalism which will be published next year
by HardieGrant. It is called “Human Headlines –
My 45 Years as a Frontline Journalist.” And it will
include interviews with some of the most famous Australian
journos around the world. People like Steve Dunleavy and Desmond
Zwar and Bruce Wilson. Plus chapters on contempt of court
and defamation. And, obviously some personal observations
about some of the interviews I have done over the years. I
was going to call it “Famous People Who Have Met Me”.
Only joking.
Speaking of famous: there was a famous or infamous satirical
television programme years ago in Britain called TW3. Shorthand
for the full title That Was The Week That Was. It made David
Frost a star.
So to steal from that in this final Hinch Says for 2004 –
That Was The Year That Was. And what a year!
Today, for me, was also the last day of the final radio ratings
for the year. So far –since I’ve been back in
the Drive slot on 3AW -- we have won fifteen surveys straight.
And for that I thank you.
I also have a lot of other things to thank people for. I
was talking coincidentally earlier today to a group about
the power of 3AW and the power and loyalty of listeners.
One fantastic example was the response to a virtually impromptu
rally that I organised on the steps of Victoria’s Parliament
House. It was prompted by judges’ decisions to let two
rapists walk free. With only a couple of days notice I did
not know whether fifty or 500 people would turn up. On that
Sunday morning I returned from a Make A Wish fundraiser in
Shepparton. The car rounded the corner into Spring Street
and couldn’t go any further. Ten thousand people filled
the steps and spilled out to block the road. It was raw, angry,
concerned people power.
We had a few campaigns and a few scoops on radio this year.
One of the fastest was not even on my own programme. It was
on Sports Today. Only six minutes after Lewis Moran was shot
dead I called on air to identify him as the latest gang war
victim.
There were some entertaining underworld calls. Carl Williams
phoned in to attack me. Couldn’t answer a good question
so he hung up. But he called back, pretending the line had
dropped out.
I was pretty tough on the gangsters’ molls as well.
Their lives are, coincidentally, the cover story in The Bulletin
magazine this week. Roberta Williams complained to journalists
that she was “ sick of all this shit”. I think
I said that when you live in a sewer that’s what you
get. “ And Roberta you are a piece of it”.
And then there was Wendy Peirce. She called up to protest
after I called her a gangster’s moll and a slag. She
threatened to sue for defamation until I pointed out she had
no reputation to destroy. He response: “If I saw you
in the street I wouldn’t spit on you”. My responseI
wouldn’t piss on you if your teeth were on fire”.
But there were good people too. Like listeners who donated
money for more than 1100 Christmas bikes for disadvantaged
kids in our 3AW-Variety Club Bikeathon.
We covered sports scandals and politics with John Howard
winning his fourth consecutive federal election to put him
on the path to become the second-longest serving Prime Minister
in Australian history. New Opposition leader Mark Latham’s
year went from “promise to putrid”. He lost the
election with Labor’s worst primary vote in about eighty
years and at year’s end increasingly looks like a dead
man walking.
And there was the David Hookes tragedy and the ensuing internecine
warfare inside 3AW.
To wrap it up: I have enjoyed the banter and the boofheads
this year. Even Dawn who was concerned I was getting so excited
one day that I was risking a heart attack. At least I’d
go out doing something that I enjoy. And if that happened
I guess somebody would say “That’s Life.”
Friday, November 26, 2004
©Copyright
Derryn Hinch 2004
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