Clive Robertson (Radio Presenter)
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Clive Robertson (born 1945) is a Sydney radio and television personality who has been heard on both the AM and FM bands for over forty years.
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[edit] Early life
Born in 1945 in Katoomba, New South Wales, he left school at the age of 16 to begin work on a farm, going on to work for his father (a lawyer), later doing court work, and then moving on to become an electrical apprentice as well as running wires for the Postmaster-General's Department. He later worked on the railways cleaning steam locomotives, and also driving them from time to time, which would fuel a life-long fascination with them.
[edit] Temperament
Known for his wry wit and humorous dealings with talk-back callers, his manner is one which some people find cantankerous, while others love and follow him from station to station. His tendency to speak his mind is what some people attribute to his sometimes rather precarious employment despite his popularity. The Sydney Morning Herald in 2005 noted that he had "moved house" from job to job over 37 times.
But, in a recent Mediaweek interview, close friend and 2GB broadcaster Jason Morrison described Robertson as one of the industry's great mentors.
"Robertson has a great filter for what's good and what's crap on radio and he has no issue with telling you and it's rare that he's wrong. There would easily be hundreds of people, me inclusive, who he's helped out with tips on what to do and how to do it. Most radio people take it the right way but there are some overly sensitive souls in the ranks who can't cop criticism and they're the ones who spread this rubbish that Clive is hard to work with. When I started in radio, he taught me a lesson I'll never forget. Radio is an entertainment medium and if you always remember that there will always be an audience."
[edit] Career in Broadcasting
In 1967 with the advent of Talk Radio, Robertson began his broadcasting career working at a number of stations in the South-West of Western Australia. He also started working on television, and became the first person to appear in colour in 1969. In 1972 he joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in Sydney, beginning on the Radio station Triple J (then 2JJ). During his time there his co-hosts included Caroline Jones and Margaret Throsby, and he also presented the 7pm television news for the ABC.
From 1982-1988 he was also host of the Beauty and the Beast television talk show on Network Ten. Leaving ABC radio, he then moved to the Seven Network where he started off hosting the news program 11AM, and in 1985 moved to the late night "News World" news bulletin. Robertson took a unique approach to "News World", as this quote from the 2005 Talking Heads interview demonstrates:
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- "I thought I'll muck around and then they'll take me off it, you see. And it didn't work that way...I'd have to say the order of things especially at Channel 9, the order of news items. And if I said, "Look, this is really important", I'd look at the camera and say, "This is a really important story" and set it up, and if it was an important story, then the audience think, "Oh this guy's a good filter." If you said, "Look, this is a silly item, I don't know why we're running it" and you run it and it is a silly item, you've got them. And it's not a con. What that program did is different from most news programs is gave things what they really were worth...and did that go down well with the journalists? Have a guess Peter. "He's ruling our station" and all that rubbish. I mean, we get a new item in at, say, 10.30 at night and I'd say, "By the way, you'll see this at 6 o'clock tomorrow night" and they'll say it's the latest, "you know better". "You can't say things like that." Well, you know, come on, so journalists are a bit thick as you know..."
This frankness and straight-to-the-point cynicism characterises his radio shows, in particular on talk-back.
Over the years Clive Robertson has broadcast on Triple J, 702 ABC Sydney, 2UE, 2CH, 2GB, ABC Classic FM, and others, developing a loyal fanbase.
He is currently working on the ABC Television show "Agony Aunts".
