I have five pieces of audio that I would preserve in a time capsure to show the power, significance and magic of radio. One is Jon Faine on Saturday February 7, 2009. Black Saturday in Victoria where bushfires killed 173 people.
Jon spoke about it later saying:
“We talked to people desperately asking us which way to go. They were saying I’m at this intersection, I don’t know whether to go up the hill or down the hill or left or right and we didn’t know either and we couldn’t tell them.
“You can’t guess, you can’t presume, you can only say I don’t know and these people were saying there is fire about to engulf me, which way do I go. All I could say was, I don’t know, I can’t tell you they haven’t told us, you’ll have to make your own decision, and I don’t specifically know but those people almost certainly would have died.
I have spoken to parents of people who died who said they were on phones till they cut out and they could hear me on the radio in the background and they said you know your voice might have been the last voice they heard. God, how does that make me feel?”
Jon stepped away from his role hosting ABC Melbourne mornings in October 2019, just as another horrible season of bushfires began, and pre Covid.
On Tuesday morning July 7, with stand in breakfast host Justin Smith, Jon popped in for a visit and stayed for The Confessional, where Justin asks what don’t we know about him, what does he still want to achieve and, what would he like to apologise for.
His response to the latter lingers.
Jon, who seemed to only just have his emotions in check, apologised to his audience for not always getting it right and sometimes going too hard.
He said:
“To do your job you have to be someone other than yourself. Because part of your job is to hold power to account and so sometimes you have to take a bit of paint of someone. It’s a great power on the other side of this desk that you are wielding. Some people abuse it and we’ve certainly seen that in recent history, and some people don’t.”
The comments on social media in response include:
“So many times I speak to the radio saying ‘Jon wouldn’t have let you get away with that!’ Miss you Jon”
“Its like being a parent, sometimes you have to hold kids to account. It is not who you are, but if you dont, you’re not doing your job.”
“No apologies necessary Jon. I’d like to thank you for the wonderful support, empathy and compassion that you displayed to our community following Black Saturday. That is what I’ll always remember you for, not the times you may have played devil’s advocate. Sometimes playing that role helps to uncover deeper layers on important issues. Thank you.”
“Jon, you did a great job, day after day, year after year. It is simply not possible to do that sort of work perfectly. There’s an awful lot of us who still miss you.”
And so many more in that vein.
It is hard to hear an apology like this from someone who doesn’t owe us one. It’s a reminder too, that no one ever does things perfectly every time, we learn best from our mistakes and if we give our best, then that is enough.
Thank you Jon.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo.