Frank Avis Post Radio
Posted at: February 24, 2010
Related Topic(s): Movies, Golf There's not a lot happening in my old trade: it's mostly superficial.
I guess the big headline in recent weeks is the legal action by veteran journalist Ray Chesterton who has taken John Laws and 2UE to court, alleging defamation.
As mentioned previously I used MOVIES as a central plank in my news content. I always ran the highest grossing US and Australian films weekly and actually did 30-second movie previews at some stations, eg 3MP which was regarded as pretty adventurous in those days.
Not only that but when I ran a story about a major movie coming out in the US I always tried to answer the audiences' question: When can I see it here? My staff and I always attempted to put ourselves in the position of our audience, so that we were able to fulfill their expectations. We really tried to "own" this whole movie-theatre entertainment area. Indeed I remember when Cats was opening in Sydney we managed to track down one of the top cast members from New York so that in the 6PM news on Sydney's opening night our audience heard the star say, "Hi. I'm so-and-so and I play so-and-so in the Broadway production of Cats. Everyone here in New York wishes Sydney a magnificent opening night. May you run as long as we have here on Broadway." It was about targeting the audience and happily reminding them about that. Often.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that showbiz has always been a major interest. With that in mind I offer another list: Frank's Top Ten Movies.
- The Third Man
- Gone With the Wind
- Casablanca
- The Maltese Falcon
- Shane
- Dr. Strangelove
- The Best Years of our Lives
- The Philadelphia Story
- On the Waterfront
- Some Like It Hot
I hate leaving out Henry V (Oliver's), The Red Shoes, A Streetcar Named Desire, Rebecca and Singin' In the Rain.
The "arts sector" will never forgive me for omitting Citizen Kane while I apologise to lovers of European movies for failing to include Z, Bicycle Thieves, Rififi and The Cranes are Flying.
Strangely enough my top choice, The Third Man wins by a length. Few will agree with me I know.
An astonishing script, Carol Reed's direction sneaking through the bombed out streets and tenements of Vienna after WW2, a wonderful cast headed by Orson Welles and Valli plus the most extraordinary gathering of minor characters ever assembled and finally, oh yes, that pervading zither of Anton Karas as it leads you further and further into the sewers of Vienna.
Never watch The Third Man on TV. Wait 'til you see it listed for a reprise on the big screen. Four of the greatest scenes in movie history are up there in just this one film: Welles lecturing his friend Joseph Cotten up on the ferris wheel; the first sighting of Welles hiding in a doorway; the shadows of Welles as he tries to escape through the sewers; and, the most wonderful closing shot, along a Vienna boulevard. If you're a real movie fan just sit back and enjoy the camera as it captures Cotten waiting for Valli as she walks towards him. He knows he hasn't got a chance but waits for her still hoping. She doesn't give him a sideways glance, and the zither plays out to the end.
Most of the others are obvious. GWTW is the iconic Hollywood movie. I mean how could anybody make that in the 30's? Casablanca is everyone's favourite - somebody designed Bogart and Bergman to make that movie. The Falcon is another masterpiece with Bogey.
If anybody ever asks you how to direct a movie just tell them to get a copy of Shane by George Stevens. It's virtually a blueprint of how to do it.
Dr Strangelove... Ah, Doctor... There's black comedy and then there's this amazing film. I always love the line when the US President has to stop a brawl breaking out saying, "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here... This is the War Room."
Ok so Best Years is corny I know, but it is so good. Even tough men have been known to reach for the handkerchief.
We had to get Jimmy and Katie into the top ten and what better vehicle than Philadelphia Story. I think critics of the day would have called it "smashing".
No one's made a better movie than Waterfront and has any actor been more brilliant than Brando as the longshoreman who takes on the union?
I don't think Some Like it Hot is the best comedy I've seen but overall when you look at everything that makes up the film it is very, very good. Few people forget it and I love Tony Curtis sending up Cary Grant.
(I'm not sure I should put this in writing but when it came to film comedy I would have liked to have included a Marx Brothers epic or, don't you dare laugh, Arsenic and Old Lace. There I've said it in public at last!)
In TV my favourites include:
Waking the Dead, Seinfeld, Prime Suspect, Fawlty Towers and MASH.
I hope I can get away with adding another unpublished golf story, written in early 2009. Maybe somebody will read this stuff years later and actually publish it.
The Curse of the 59'ers, by Frank Avis, Jan/Feb 2009
If you're a golf fan like me I guess you were glued to your Foxtel recently watching veteran Harrison Frazer fire an extraordinary 59 in the season's Q School, that annual battle to win a card on the rich PGA tour.
59! Harrison, what were you thinking? Hasn't anybody warned you about the dreaded "Curse of the 59'ers"?
Only four players have broken the magic 60 in elite competition and only one managed to survive "the curse".
Al Geiberger (Mr 59) was the first, firing a 59 in the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic of 1977. His once-in-a-lifetime round came on one of the toughest courses on tour with the temperature over the 100-mark and is regarded by many as the greatest round of golf ever played.
But it took just a short time for the ill luck to set in. Geiberger came down with a severe bowel disease not long after his magic round,which made it impossible for Al to play at his peak. He recorded several titles in the Seniors, playing under some difficulty, but only captured one more championship on the regular PGA tour. It was the start of the curse.
Chip Beck recorded the 2nd 59 in PGA Tour history during the Las Vegas Invitational of 1991. From that point "the curse" gave Chip a nice old working over. At least he managed to get one more PGA victory on his resume before the wheels fell off. After that final victory in 1992 Chip Beck virtually disappeared off the radar. He bobbed up from time to time as "the man who shot 59" but his game basically just vanished.
If Chip's collapse was mysterious what happened to David Duval borders on utterly bewildering. Duval shot his 59 in the 1999 Bob Hope Classic at La Quinta. And he fired it in the final round, with all the pressure on. As a matter of fact he canned an eagle putt on the final hole to join the short but magic list of those who went under 60.
For a time Duval was up there with the golfing Gods. He made two Ryder Cup teams, captured the 2001 British Open and, for a brief time, took over as the World Number 1. But The Open was his last PGA Tour win. Duval disappeared into a black hole. At one point he was fighting to keep his world ranking in the 800's. It was the sort of thing Stephen King writes novels about. I remember one day watching a PGA Tour event and seeing Duval break down in tears while being interviewed. Wow, I thought, David has just won on the Tour again. Nope. He'd actually just made a cut. You've got to hand it to Duval. He just keeps soldiering on,working desperately to recapture his winning form on the US tour. Never complains. Just keeps on trying. But his collapse is almost without parallel in golf: possibly in any sport.
Only one player has managed to defy "the curse" at the elite level. The superstar of Womens' golf Annika Sorenstam broke 60 on the 2001 LPGA Tour. She not only defied the curse but she looked it firmly in the eye and just kept on winning 'til her unexpected retirement 8 years later.
Several men have managed to return a 59 at the next level of competition. Notah Begay, Doug Dunakey and Jason Gore have done it on the Nationwide Tour. I hope they'll forgive me if I observe that none went on to become a household name.
"Lefty" Phil Mickelson smashed his way around 18 holes in 59 at the 2005 PGA Grand Slam,but this is not regarded as an official event,being played over just two rounds in what was virtually a glorified exhibition match.
And don't forget David Gossett had his fantastic 59 at the 2000 Q School, the same place where Harrison Frazer repeated the dose in recent days. Again, Gossett hasn't exactly set the house on fire on the PGA since then so the dreaded "curse of the 59'ers" remains reasonably secure.
What about Harrison Frazer? Is he destined to be the first man to stare down the curse and prevail on the main tour?
Well, I remain unconvinced. It's never easy to make predictions about golf but if pressed I'd be suggesting Harrison would find 2009 a pretty tough old assignment. You need to stay in the top 125 money earners for the year to keep your full playing rights for the following year. My feeling is he won't make it. Sorry Harrison but the curse is the curse. If David Duval couldn't beat it what hope do you have!
Frank Avis, 2009
(Editors note: Actually Harrison Frazer had the last laugh on Frank. He didn't make a lot of headlines in 2009 but he still managed to finish 112th on the money list, retaining full playing privileges for the next season.)
Well dear reader that's probably enough of my regular ramblings. I'll be back in a while with some cricket trivia including the best test team, as assembled by the legendary Australian opener Arthur Morris. I'll even toss in my best ever team and name the best cricketer I ever saw. If you disagreed with my movie choices imagine the fun you'll have with this lot!
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Frank Avis Post-Radio
Posted at: January 24, 2010
Related Topic(s): Golf, 2000s I continued my attempt to find a niche in the golf writing business but with little result. They loved all my "Letters to the Editor" (I won several packs of golf balls) but my articles rarely made it up the ladder.
So forgive me if I include a couple of pieces that I felt were pretty reasonable again as a record of my post-radio work and just in case somebody finds them of interest sometime in the future.
The Shark and the Demons, by Frank Avis, 2006
This is the 10th anniversary of the famous "Augusta melt-down" by Australia's Greg Norman. The Shark who turned 51 in February, may tackle the occasional British Open and the odd event on the Seniors and/or Regular Tour but that's probably pretty much it. Even his most devoted fans now realise it's over - it just wasn't meant to be. I'm going to argue in this article that when they come to write the history of this golfing era Greg Norman will emerge as one of the legends, not just because of how he dominated the game for so long, winning two British Opens on the way, but for how he came to lose half a dozen other golfing majors. What fate did to Norman is already part of sporting folklore. I suspect it will become even more fascinating to golf fans 50 to 100 years from now. Detractors will continue to argue that The Shark just didn't have "the right stuff" on Sunday afternoon and to an extent that's obviously true. But honestly, when you take this journey with me and look at those astonishing defeats I believe you'll wonder, as I do, why fate couldn't have been just a little kinder.
The 1984 US OPen, Winged Foot
This is the Championship where Fuzzy Zoeller waved the white flag of surrender believing Norman had nailed a 40-foot birdie at the 72nd. Actually it was a par and pushed the two into a play-off 24 hours later. Norman returned the compliment, waving his white flag as Zoeller gave him a good old fashioned working over, 67 to 75.
The "white flag" routine remains one of the most endearing memories of the 80's.
The Shark's play-off round was obviously way below Norman's expectations but remember Zoeller chose this moment to play a superb 67. How many players do you think have won a US Open play-off with a 67? I'm prompted to ask, "Why Fuzzy? Why did you have to do it against Greg?"
This is a question which will return to haunt us in the following pages.
The 1986 Masters, Augusta
Norman was leading the final round with the greatest of them all Jack Nicklaus, at the end of his illustrious major dominance, back in 9th place. Nicklaus was 46 years old and no one, not even his most ardent fans, entertained the thought that there was the remotest possibility of one last famous charge by the "Golden Bear". Jack made the turn in 35, managing a birdie at the 9th, and then proceeded to take Augusta apart with a finishing 30. That included eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie. It remains one of the most devastating finishes in golf. By the time Norman got to the final hole he needed a birdie to win and a par to tie. He pushed his 4-iron wide and couldn't get up and down. But let's remember Greg still fired a final round 70, normally more than enough to win the Green jacket (What wouldn't he have done for a 70 in 1996?). But it didn't happen this afternoon not with the Bear launching one of the greatest back-9 assaults in Masters history. That most respected of commentators Peter Allis in his book "The Open" says, "In my opinion... Jack Nicklaus is by far the best last-round player ever born." No argument at this end, Peter. Not that we begrudge Jack his '86 title. Such a genius is entitled to make one last charge but funny isn't it that he chose to do it this particular day, this year against Greg Norman.
The 1986 PGA, Inverness
Norman should have had this one all sewn-up well before the amazing drama of the 18th. He led by 4 at the start of the day and was still 4-up at the turn. But the Shark had another episode of those infamous "major wobbles" and found himself all square with Bob Tway by the 14th. The two were still locked in combat four holes later. Tway hit his approach into the bunker while Norman made it on to the fringe of the green. Anybody with a spare $100 would have put it on the Australian. After all this was Bob Tway in the bunker, not Seve Ballesteros. But the young American up-and-comer proceeded to hit out of the pot sending the ball 25 feet straight into the cup.
Michael Williams in his book Grand Slam calls it "one of the most savage acts of fate the game has known".
I don't want you to think I'm turning paranoid here but do you detect a pattern developing?
The 1987 US Masters, Augusta
You thought '86 was a bummer at Inverness? Wait till you got to '87 at Augusta. This time the Shark came home with a 72 to find himself all tied up with Seve Ballesteros and young American, Larry Mize.
Seve had to trudge back to the clubhouse after the 10th leaving Norman and Mize to fight it out on Augusta's most difficult hole, the 11th. Everybody knows now how Mize hit his 3rd from well off the green, sending it 46 yards bang, smack into the cup.
We see it over and over again on TV. It's one of the most replayed moments in sport. It also happens to be one of the most extraordinary shots in the history of golf. Fate is at it again.
1989 British Open, Royal Troon
Norman came home with a wonderful 64 to force a play-off against fellow Australian Wayne Grady and America's Mark Calcavecchia. It was all settled on the final hole of their 4-hole playoff when Norman went for the driver and smacked it 325 yards into a fairway bunker.
Critics still berate Norman for not playing conservatively but Wayne Grady says it was one of the greatest drives hes ever seen. No one had made it to that bunker all Championship - no one thought anybody could. Rarely has a ball been hit so well... Too well. Norman, typically, chose to attack only to see the famous claret jug handed over to Calcavecchia, when the Shark couldn't find the green from the sand. And we can't let this occasion pass without mentioning that Calcavecchia missed the fairway, crashing through the crowd into the rough. The American then proceeded to pull his Ping Eye-2 5-iron out of the bag and hit his recovery to within 6 feet. (No wonder they're banning square-grooves!) I don't need to quote a golf writer, I'll just quote the man himself, "It's the best shot I ever hit." (Mark Calcavecchia, 1989). There are dark forces at work here, folks.
1993 US PGA, Inverness
Norman closed with a 69 to go into a play-off against Paul Azinger. The Autralian, fresh from his victory in the British Open, had a chance to win on the first play-off hole and a chance to stay level with Azinger on the second. He lost the title courtesy of two dreaded "lip outs". Jaime Diaz ,writing in the New York Times, says, "Norman watched two putts in sudden death roll hard against the left edge of the hole only to spin out."
If you ever get the chance to watch a replay (and believe me you will) you'll see how he hits his putt on the first play-off hole just about perfectly. He's 20 feet away and a couple of feet out the ball starts turning beautifully towards the hole. Surely it's in, it can't miss can it? But right at the end, it hits the edge and does a big power "lip out".
Keep watching as the two go to the 2nd play off hole. Norman is 4 to 5 feet away, needing this putt to stay alive. It's looking good, really good, but it's déjà vue time. Again, it hits the edge and does a repeat "lip out". Surely, after 1986 Norman is entitled to a bit of fortune at Inverness, but no, the demons are at it again.
1995 US Open, Shinnecock Hills
35-year old Corey Pavin was four shots adrift of Norman at the start of the final round and still 2 shots away at the turn. But Pavin's 3 birdies at the 9th, 12th and 15th pushed him into the lead. He delivered the coup de grace on the 18th, electing to hit his 4 wood in order to carry the bunkers guarding the green. Has anyone hit a better 4-wood? I mean it's the final hole of the US Open after all, but Corey flushes it, the ball sailing on to the verge between the bunkers to hop on to the green, 5 feet from the hole. He misses the birdie but par is enough to upstage the Shark in yet another Major.
It's not Pavin's "shot of the day". Not his "shot of the tournament". Nor indeed is it his "shot of the year". It's the "Greatest shot of his life" and, yes, you guessed it, he played it against Greg Norman.
1996 US Masters, Augusta
By the time he gets to August in '96 the demons are playing beach volleyball inside Norman's head. But he launches one last attempt to get hold of that green jacket, including a marvelous first round 63, putting Greg 6 shots clear of the field going into the final round. The only thing is he's drawn to play the last 18 with his nemesis, the ice-cold Nick Faldo. This is the last person Norman wants to see on the first tee. Somebody made Nick just to win majors. On a Sunday afternoon he is relentless. Faldo won just 7 events on the US PGA Tour, 3 of them were the Masters. Try that for a conversion rate.
Actually, the Shark hangs on pretty well for 8 holes. All he needs is a break, a sign that Faldo is human. But the British genius is in the middle of one of his greatest ever final rounds. A tough, uncompromising 68. Finally, the pressure valve stops working and Norman self destructs with bogey, bogey, double-bogey. It's his last chance at the Masters and the critics are right: he blew it big time.
I can't help but add a PS here, more than a decade later.
2008 British Open, Royal Birkdale
I wonder did you happen to notice the final round in this Open championship, when a 53 year old Greg Norman led by 2 shots? Now the Shark fell away with a 77, to finish third behind Padraig Harrington and Ian Poulter.
Did you also notice how two "lip outs" in a row derailed Norman on the back 9.
Oh, and just for the record the winner, Harrington, also hit one of the greatest shots in Open history to wrap it up on the 17th. Faced with a 249 yard second shot on the par-5 he pulled out his 5-wood. Did he fade it slightly into a bunker, pull it into the cabbage on the left, to give Norman one last chance? Come on, you know the answer to that? You've read the script. Whack. Straight on to the green, finishing 3 feet from the pin. Eagle. All over Irish Rover.
Let me summarise this amazing tale. Norman was overrun by one of the greatest final rounds in Masters history, engineered by a man in his mid-40's. He then suffered two shattering defeats due to extraordinary chip-ins. Now if this had happened in a 10-year period on tour or indeed in the whole of the player's career we'd just shrug and accept it as "the rub of the green". But it didn't... It happened in just 12 months.
Zoeller, Nicklaus and Faldo all won their last majors against Norman. Tway, Mize, Calcavecchia, Azinger and Pavin all won their only majors against Norman. The Shark is one of only two players to have lost all four majors in play-offs.
I suppose there are dozen to 15 truly memorable incidents in the history of the Majors including the great Nicklaus charge at Augusta in '86. The Gene Sarazen albatross at the Masters in '35. The Larry Mize pitch-and-run at Augusta in '87. The Tom Watson chip-in at the US Open in '82. The Bob Tway bunker shot at the PGA in '86. Ben Hogan's 2-iron at the '51 US Open. The Corey Pavin fairway wood at the '95 US Open and of course the pitch by Seve Ballesteros from a "car park" at the British Open in '79.
As I say about 15-or-so truly memorable moments burnt into the history of Major Golf.
Did you know, 4 or them were executed against one man - Greg Norman. I rest my case!
In recent months we've had a couple of amazing stories relating to golfers' off-course activities.
There is the stunning Tiger Woods' saga which has seen the superstar retreat into a far corner of the house, pull all the curtains shut and threaten to stay there for the foreseeable future. As I write this the 2010 season is underway, Tiger is still incommunicado and PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem is probably thinking of retreating to the far corner of his office and pulling his curtains shut.
I know the other players hate losing to Tiger all the time but boy, do they want him back. Like desperately. I share Retief Goosen's view and express surprise that Tiger has taken so long to go public. The longer he locks himself away the harder it's going to be. He should get out there as quickly as possible, face the flack and win a couple of tournaments. Then it'll all be history. At the risk of being grotesquely politically incorrect, let us all remember, "Men are engineered to be overwhelming attracted to women, women are engineered to like men being overwhelmingly attracted to them. That's how it works. Get over it." (By way of an aside I was talking to a few mates prior to hitting off at Wallacia during the middle of this drama and we were talking about a weekend newspaper which ran pictures of all 14 of Tiger's alleged mistresses. One of the blokes looked at the whole page of photos and remarked, "Hey, look at that... They're all white." Woooo, where were the black lovers?)
Prior to the Tiger's demise we had the absolutely awful Greg Norman-Chris Evert affair.
The two came down with an over the top attack of mid-life hormones. Norman walked out. Chris walked out and they spent over a year publicly swooning over each other. But as anyone who's done Year 1 genetics will tell you the sex-attraction hormones last only 18 to 24 months. After that you're on your own. And after 18 months or so it suddenly stopped for Greg and Chrissy. I have to say that Norman's behavior after that was a pretty good lesson for Tiger. Greg actually had to Captain the President's Cup team shortly afterwards and he bravely walked out into the spotlight and took it on the chin. This was a totally class act from one of the golfing good guys. A pity the same class hadn't emerged when he so publicly dumped his loyal wife Laura. To be honest, I can't believe how Greg and Chris behaved. They were everywhere in public. When they decided to get married it was like the filming of Elizabeth Taylor's "Cleopatra". They took over a whole island resort, closed down the local airspace and turned on the most opulent ceremony since the last most opulent ceremony (whenever that was). What was even more stunning was that Greg had his daughter in the bridal party and his son as best man. It's difficult to know just what impact this had on his ex-wife,who had to sit and watch all of this happening with her two children by her father's side.
I can't think of any act more crass in recent years. And I still can't believe Greg allowed this to happen. Clearly Chris wasn't bothered by all the hoop-dee-doo and we have to assume that Greg was so infatuated that his normal good judgment just went out the window. But where were his friends with some honest advice? Surely there was a gatekeeper somewhere in the inner circle who could have intervened. We know they were madly in love and wanted everyone to know it but this was a time for public dignity, something low key and personal. Someone needed to point out to Greg and Chris the old adage "less is more". Where in heavens name where his parents? What were they thinking to allow their son to publicly humiliate his former wife? The bottom line is that the whole affair did significant damage to the public image of two great sports icons. Fortunately both are normally such class acts that they will quickly regain their public standing but for that brief time, to those of us watching from the sidelines, it all seemed so wrong. (The Palm Beach Post, in Florida not Sydney, has just reported that Greg and Chris have completed a quickie divorce.)
Look this is all getting much too long and complex, so it's time I think to wrap up this particular chapter and prepare for the next.
Just a late note, as we go to press Mike Carlton has retired from the business to tend his family and the "hot goss" in Sydney this week is that radio legend John Laws will actually come out of retirement in 2010 to join the 2SM Super Radio network run by Bill Caralis.
Radio is sort of like the universe – volatile. We'll keep you posted on these and other moves in the months ahead.
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Frank Avis... Post Radio
Posted at: January 1, 2010
Related Topic(s): 2000s I interviewed a lot of celebrities and news makers in those 45 plus years but my three favorites remain: Sir Edmund Hillary, Neil Armstrong and Harrison Ford. Now there’s a trio for you.
And the one link that pulls them all together is humility. Each man was humble. Whether this was genuine or not I can’t say for sure, but if they were acting all three were pretty good. They convinced me.
Hillary was the first person to walk on the roof of the world, as co-conqueror of Everest in 1953.
He was genuinely self effacing. We kept prodding him to tell us who really got to the top first... Was it him or Sherpa Tenzing? Hillary never blinked an eyelid. And he kept saying that the only reason he was first to the top was that his name, along with Tenzing, just happened to come up on the roster for that day.
He reminded us how many other people were involved in the conquest.
Armstrong seemed to be an incredibly introspective man. There was little doubt that he didn’t want to be there in the middle of all of the publicity about the landing on the Moon. He was very convincing, telling us over and over that while there were three astronauts up there making history, there were thousands of others down on the Earth keeping the lifelines operating. And he said that if any one of those failed the mission would probably have been a disaster.
Ford: We all loved him. He was a major star when he came out here to publicise Witness (excellent movie by the way) and it was just like talking to the bloke next door. When we asked him about movie stardom he said that every time he felt he was getting too big for his boots, and he noticed his head starting to swell, he’d go down to his workshop and start building a birdhouse. When he’d finished he’d look at it and say, "There, I’ve actually produced something real... Something that has a purpose." A bit of carpentry quickly brought him back to Earth.
I promised my top five list of best-ever voices. Here we go:
1. Mike Carlton
2. Brian Henderson
3. Steve Leibman
4. Michelle Aleksandrovics
5. Denis O'Kane
(Note: Obviously there are several voices I would have liked to have included. Two come to mind immediately: John Bailey, as I’ve said in previous chapters, "One of the best presenters I’ve heard anywhere," and an old 2SM name Terry Mabb whose voice was made for radio.)
I’ll take if from number five. Denis (I christened him DOK) had a wonderful voice. I guess he’s not as widely known as some of the others but he read news conversationally without losing any conviction.
He kicked off in Sydney - I think with 2SM - and moved south to Melbourne for the second half of his career.
Michelle: I’ve already written about her natural style and charisma.
I’m not sure where she is now... It’s my fault we’ve lost touch because I’m getting too lazy... But the truth is she was really, really good and should have been one of the best known women in modern radio. (Ed’s note: the two have now been reunited, well by phone anyway. Michelle is working as a Senior producer at SBS. Frank and Michelle have promised to have coffee in the new year and it may be appropriate that we publicly announce the time and place so that any parties interested can join their table... Er, just kidding!)
Steve sounded great during those heady days at 2SM. He had the voice and the style. In many respects you remember Steve as the voice of that era. He didn’t do himself any harm at Channel 9 either. Still going strong on TV.
Hendo: This guy was a radio marvel before he became a God on TV.
He didn’t lecture you when he presented this news. It was like he was sitting in an armchair next to you and telling us what happened today. I absolutely loved Hendo when he paired with Mike Gibson on 9 News. This was perfect TV news.
Mike Carlton: He has this classical, international accent combined with a strong, male presence.
I worked with him when 2UW switched to MIX 106.5 but you wouldn’t say that we were close, although I worked my tail off at 4.30 every morning to find funny/unusual stories which would add something different to his show.
A bit of a footnote here. When Carlton left MIX he made the strangest decision I could imagine by taking over the drive slot on ABC Radio. I was genuinely astonished that he’d make this move, something that the commercial sector would generally regard as just one step short of career suicide.
It turned out to be a huge success. Mike was perfect for Aunty, giving the ABC this lovely commercial/street smart "edge". I gave up on radio to be honest in the late 90’s because it became so engineered and plastic it wasn’t worth listening to, but I couldn’t get by without my "Carlton Fix" on good old ABC Radio in the afternoon. It was tragic that he opted to go to UE. I know the money was huge but it was a bit like Mike Gibson quitting 9 to go to 10 for the money. Carlton and ABC afternoon radio were made for each other. I can no longer listen to ABC Radio, sadly. I hope you don’t mind another tirade here and remember that you’re listening to an old man, no longer in the trade, who thinks the golden era of radio was back in the 50’s.
You also need to take into account one of the unwritten rules of life: that the older generation always regards what the new generation is doing as absolutely awful. Nothing compares with the old days.
But seriously, most radio today is dreadful and ABC radio may be even lower than that - Appalling - is that what I’m looking for? When you listen to some of the stuff, well here in Sydney anyway, it’s as if a senior bureaucrat walked into the front office at the ABC and picked the first six people he saw to go on the radio. I don’t know exactly how to describe the overall image of ABC Radio in 2009, it just seems to be so colourless. I know this opinion is not shared by ABC listeners. They remain loyal through thick and thin.
Well, it’s a bit on the thin side at the moment. I should add, as an afterthought, that watching ABC News on TV is just as frustrating: it’s almost as if the presenters are petrified that some viewer might discover that the reader is actually human.
When you go back to the days of Michael Charlton, who hit the screen like a guided missile, you’ll understand the extent of the loss. Even good old James Dibble is looking like as extrovert.
Sorry about that. I should have just shut up. None of my business really. And to be fair to the ABC I have to add I was forced to watch one of those breakfast shows on commercial TV recently and my feeling was it was probably written for a bunch of 14 year old giggling high school girls. So the malaise seems to be general or is it just me? Anyway, getting out of radio I kept looking around for something productive to do and I finally decided to put two interests together, journalism and my love for golf, to see if I could do something in that direction. After all, I’d interviewed many of the golfing greats of the last 40 years so surely I’d picked up something? (The answer to that question by the way if it means does watching and interviewing elite golfers actually help you to play the game? No.
I decided to do a story on 18 holes on 18 separate golf courses and call it "The Sydney Challenge". I personally checked all of the holes and they even wanted to toss me out of Bayview when officials found me on the course, checking out a famous par 4 one day. I’d got permission from the Pro Shop but the official decided that wasn’t good enough and gave me a bit of a lecture.
Anyway I thought the concept came up rather well and was very happy when it found its way into print in the comparatively new publication Inside Social Golf. I’m enclosing the article for your perusal, with a warning that the next few pages are really pointless unless you’re addicted to sports/golf journalism.
Well, what did you think of that? If Col Denovan is reading this in Victoria he might like to pack his clubs into the car and come north to give the "challenge" a try. Okay, I’ll even caddy for you mate.
I’m now advised that that the length of this entry has entered the red zone so may I thank you for reading my latest effort and promise another page or two in the near future, when I’ll print a few more of my articles (yet to be published) and continue my ramblings. I should also warn you my career included a lot of cricket and VFL/AFL coverage, along with a love of movies, so you may well get a bit of that stuff along the way, including my 10 Best Ever Movies of all time (Alex Shabs will no doubt have his say about that).
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