Ian ‘Dano’ Rogerson and his family will be the subject of an Australian Story episode next week. Rogerson has an autistic child and the doco will examine how the family copes with Autism.

WSFM co-host Jono Coleman, and a cast of family and friends will also be seen in the ABC TV program that airs on ABC 1 on Monday evening 10 August.

Ian Rogerson is a popular and successful national broadcaster and media personality who in the 1980s was
best known for his professional partnership with Jonathan Coleman. As “Jono & Dano”, the pair had a 10 year
run with top_rating radio shows and a string of national television programs.

While Jono Coleman went on to carve a successful career in Britain, Ian Rogerson all but disappeared for a
decade, returning to national radio earlier this year.

This week Australian Story fills in the missing years. Ian Rogerson threw in his career – “career suicide”,
according to many in the industry – to care for his autistic son Jack.

Back in 1999 when Jack was diagnosed, there was little help for parents on what to do for their autistic
children. But Ian Rogerson and his wife Nicole were determined to do whatever they could to enable their
son to lead a mainstream lifestyle.

The turning point came when they met Elizabeth Watson, a therapist pioneering a treatment called Applied
Behaviour Analysis (ABA).

In this heart warming story, the Rogersons and their friends Deborah Thomas, Angela Catterns and Jono
Coleman, together with Elizabeth Watson, tell of the highs and lows of dealing with Jack’s autism. A decade
on, he is a happy 13 year old attending a regular school.