Gardening celebrity and Melbourne icon, Kevin Heinze, has presented his last Saturday morning talk program on 774 ABC Melbourne, after being told he did not fit into plans for the station’s future.
Heinze, 76, says he did not know who ABC local radio boss, Ian Mannix, was until he received a phone call.
He says he is disappointed to lose a job he has loved for 34 years, claiming he was surprised when Mannix rang him and said: “We’re finishing you up at Christmas”.
Heinze has been at the ABC for 37 years: “I thought I had more years to offer help to people and I enjoyed it.
“Had he said, ‘I’d like to see you and have a talk to you about it’, but just saying over the phone ‘you’re finishing up’ … that was the first time I’d been sacked.”
“When I was doing (the tv program) ‘Sow What’, they were always altering the times, but I accepted it and fitted in with them.”
Mannix says there was no prospect of Heinze fitting in with the station’s future plans.
“I told him he had delivered many years of really great service to the ABC and I suggested that we would give him a send off (at the Kevin Heinze garden centre) in front of all of the people who had come to know and love him.”
Heinze thanked the audience during the last show on Saturday morning:
“Thank you very much. I’m not absolutely sad that I’m giving it away, or retiring, or being told to retire, or any way you like to put it, I’m not really sad.”
Still at 774, afternoon host, Lynne Haultain, presented her last show yesterday, after deciding to call it a day.
Haultain joined the ABC 15 years ago as a Trainee Broadcast Officer in Perth and transferred to Melbourne in 1992, working as a senior reporter/presenter for Rural Melbourne and as a presenter on Countrywide for Radio National. In 1998, she moved to 774 ABC to present the breakfast and afternoon programs.
Haultain has told radioinfo: “After 15 extraordinary years – four networks, four states, many programs and the Sydney Olympics – it’s time to challenge myself in new ways.
“The ABC has offered me tremendous opportunities – for which I will always be thankful. I am keen to spend more time with my daughter and pursue new work avenues.”
Ian Mannix believes Haultain’s “professionalism and attention to detail” on every program she has worked on over the years has “earned her enormous respect from her colleagues and listeners alike.
“We wish her all the best with future endeavours.”
While Haultain’s final broadcast was yesterday, she is expected to turn up in various fill in and guest roles at various times in the future.