Mal Walden - The News Man: Sixty Years of Television

The News Man

Published by Brolga Publishing Pty Ltd ABN 46 063 962 443 PO Box 12544 ABeckett St Melbourne, VIC, 8006 Australia

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission from the publisher.

Copyright 2016 Mal Walden

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication data

Walden, Mal, author.

The News Man : Sixty years of television / Mal Walden.

ISBN: 9781925367492 (paperback)

ISBN: 9781925367836 (ebook)

Subjects:Television journalists--Australia--Biography.

Television news anchors-- Broadcast journalism.

Dewey Number: 070.43092

Cover design by Chameleon Design

Typesetting by Tara Wyllie

THE

NEWS MAN

Sixty years of television

MAL WALDEN

I remember (Mal) joining Network Ten in 1987 and in football parlance it was like picking up Nathan Buckley in the draft.

- EDDIE McGUIRE, television presenter

Mal you have been the public face of Victoria for so many years I have no doubt you will continue in some shape or form to continue your interest and more importantly your service to Victoria.

- JEFF KENNETT, former Victorian Premier

I have been a firm friend for a long time and even before then I was a great fan. Television is going to look very different without you there.

- BERT NEWTON, television personality

Mal they tell me youre retiring it took a lot of convincing that it was so. Have a great life. You deserve it.

- RON BARASSI, former AFL player and coach

I remember at HSV7 doing a kids show Anything Can Happen You were a gods gentleman that Australia will miss and Melbourne TV will miss more than anything else.

- MOLLY MELDRUM, music journalist

He doesnt have regard for many rules or anything he just plays it his way, which I think is a very Melbourne trait.

- ROSS STEVENSON, 3AW

I remember my first interview (as a teenager) and thinking how nervous I was that someone as important as Mal Walden would want to come and see me.

- MOIRA KELLY, humanitarian

I grew up watching him and I know both Brian Naylor and Peter Hitchener always regarded him as the friendliest of foes.

- TONY JONES & PETER HITCHENER, GTV9

Mal is a giant of the news business. A communicator who always did the job with warmth and authority, but most of all a gentleman.

- JENNIFER KEYTE, PETER MITCHELL & SANDY ROBERTS, HSV7

People love him and that was one of the secrets of his success. Happy retirement. May you never have to say phenomenon again.

- DAVID JOHNSTON, mentor and friend

Melbourne news anchor Mal Walden is one of the longest continually serving faces on Australian Television. In 2012 Mal submitted several chapters from his collection of memoirs as part of a non-fiction writing course at UCLA in California. The reaction was overwhelming.

Mal, I have felt honored to have been a part of your process. Your stories are rich with anecdote that makes it not only relevant to Australians, but anyone with an interest in the news industry or history. I have never seen a project quite like yours with such a unique body of reference and such a fascinating mingling of news and memoir. I trust it has a great future in print.

- GORDON GRICE

Senior lecturer, author of The Red Hour Glass and contributor to The New Yorker and Harpers

It was 4.30 a.m. in the Victorian town of Warrnambool when the first strident ringing of an alarm clock jolted the young man from his deepest pre-dawn cycle of sleep. At precisely the moment he reached to silence the offending sound, a fatal shot in Dallas Texas claimed the life of US President John F Kennedy.

The JFK assassination would not only influence the young mans life, but also establish a benchmark in journalism, setting parameters for an emergency handbook to be adopted by networks around the world in their race to be first with breaking news.

Within 30 minutes of his sudden awakening, the young sleeper found himself in the blocks for the start of that race and at the beginning of his extraordinary life as a newsman.

Mal Walden was 17 years of age when he successfully applied for his first job in media. At age 70, he gracefully crossed the finishing line to be recognised as the longest serving newsman on Australian television. Each year he maintained a journal in which he recorded the many serendipitous and life changing moments woven through some of the biggest headlines of our times. Today they form a record not only of his life as a newsman but an evolution of television news now in its sixtieth year in Australia.

In 1987, following an unprecedented public backlash against his sacking during the Fairfax takeover of HSV7 Melbourne, he became known within the industry as a protected species, never to be sacked again.

However, everything in life is cyclical and even the news clock is ticking. Technology and the social media phenomenon are driving news at an ever-increasing speed into a new era an era that has cast a shadow of fear over the industry.

Finally in 2013, after a career spanning more than six decades, Mal stepped down on the day of his choosing, something very rare in television. He left behind a network that had spiralled into unmitigated financial disaster, a media industry in steady decline, and many proclaiming the imminent death of news, in all its traditional forms.

One of the greatest fears among those in television is that careers can end at a moments notice. One of the joys I discovered is that they can be restored just as unexpectedly.

My survival was directly attributed to my family: Pauline and our twins Sarah and James. They inherited a public spotlight but forever kept me balanced in its luminous flux. It was a local spotlight from a network stage, and I was a single cog in a much larger wheel. But at the end of each day there was little to show for my efforts. The news stories were kept on file but a newsreaders role always went out into the ether and, apart from an occasional blooper, was lost forever.

I dedicate this memoir to those whose achievements far eclipsed mine my mentors. I also dedicate this book to all my former colleagues, some no longer with us, and the far too many who were killed while just doing their job.

I have been constantly reminded There but for the grace of God

Fear of public speaking has always ranked as the worlds number one phobia second only to the greatest fear death itself! But add the phobia of just one black sheep to the equation and suddenly there is a risk of being sucked into an unprecedented, overwhelmingly chaotic vortex of fear.