Brian Wilshire
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Brian Wilshire (his last name is pronounced "WIL-sha") was born at Strathfield (Sydney's inner west), New South Wales Australia on March 30, 1944. His radio career started in November, 1969. A radio talkback host veteran who has worked in stations in places like Tamworth, Canberra and Sydney. Since 1979, his radio show has frequently been very high up in the rankings of his time slot. His program averages twice the audience share of the station as a whole, a huge achievement. His radio station, 2GB, is nearly always the highest rating radio station in Sydney. It is currently the longest-running program in the city, and is also the highest rating at night, with (as of May 2006) a 17.7% audience share. The signature of the show is the tune, "Hanky Panky", recently changed from his "Happy Whistler" theme.
His radio program is on 2GB from 9:00PM to 12:00 midnight on Mondays to Fridays. From 9:00 to 10:00, notable guests such as political analyst Dr. Keith Suter, naturopath Russell Setright, and pharmacist John Bell come in to talk about their fields of knowledge and expertise. After 10:00, these is usually the "Free-for-all", where listeners can call in and discuss any topic they want. This method of discussion is highly unusual in the radio world. He has a diverse range of segments on his show; ranging from the "golden years of Australian radio," optometrists (All About Eyes).
Differences in the mid 1990's included the show starting at 7:00pm, and segments on like a dating segment, computer segment, and a "where do you get it" segment. Changes are mostly due his political views, such as denying the ozone layer effect, anti-globalization, and being overall very anti-establishment -- especially big business and politicians. One example is a comment made about Australia's sovereignty being lost in 1986 and ever since then Australia is not under the order of the Queen.
Programmers at 2GB radically changed the timeslots and content of each talkback show host since becoming the number one radio show in Sydney 3 years ago. This occurred almost simultaneously to when radio host Ray Hadley (ex 2UE commentator) joined the team. Recent consensus is that Brian's political views have been toned down due to the changes. However, his views still garner media harassment on shows like Media Watch,and the occasional death threat.
Wilshire is a longtime sponsor of Hatchbackworld -- a car sales yard that sells only hatchback style cars in Haberfield. He personally knows the owners of the business, who used to give away Brian's bestseller "Fine Print," and "Monday School." Wilshire is a self-proclaimed atheist, and has many interests including snow skiing, car racing (having won his class in 1993 at Bathurst), writing books, and playing in jazz-like bands called "Stringybark" (as a drummer).
On December 16, 2005, Wilshire was forced to make a public apology, after saying on air that many middle eastern people are "inbreds" who marry their cousins, and thus not open to education: "Many of them have parents who are first cousins whose parents were first cousins," he told listeners. "The result of this is inbreeding - the result of which is uneducationable [sic] people … and very low IQ."
[edit] Wilshirisms
Wilshirisms are sayings of Brian Wilshire. They include:
"Wilshire's Wireless" -- an old way of saying radio. "I'm the man crying out in the wilderness" -- describes him being a 'whistle blower'. "Panel of Expert Listeners" -- People who can phone in on issues he is not aware of or understands. "Free-for-all" -- Describes a usual segment which people can phone in to discuss "anything on their mind." "A little bit of hanky panky" -- his joy of expression of his most recent theme song. "Taking the polies out to lunch" -- Controversial powerful members of the community who do corrupt deals with politicians.
A recording from the John Laws show (who is on another radio station called 2UE) quotes him as once saying "the people that listen to Brian Wilshire are a great deal more intelligent than the people that listen to me." - It's not John Laws, it's a guy who used to work on 2GB a while ago doing the midnight slot. He just sounds like Lawsy.
At the end of his show, his little daughter Pam says "Goodnight everybody, I'll see you tomorrow." Wilshire also introduces Jim Ball (who follows him at midnight) by saying "Jim Ball is waiting in the wings to keep you company through the wee hours."
