You’d think that a big exclusive such as this would have been scooped by Mitchell or Laws or Jones. But no, it was Charles Wooley out of MRWorks’ Hobart studio for his networked morning show, Across Australia.
Wooley, who was off to a shaky start when he left 60 Minutes a couple of years ago to try his luck in a small city, told radioinfo that it was much harder work than he ever imagined it would be.
But much has improved since then and even more so recently since the appointment of a new producer, Tony Briscoe, who has helped refine and focus the show.
Briscoe told radioinfo, “Yesterday on the show, Charlie had one of those “rare” moments in radio where the Prime Minister, John Howard was asked to take a call from Terry Hicks, the father of David Hicks. Charlie was interviewing the PM from 9 to 9.30, and taking calls from listeners when Terry Hicks rang in…Charlie then asked the PM if he would take a call from Mr Hicks, which John Howard agreed to….it was very interesting radio”.
It would also be interesting to know whether ACMA would class such a program, emanating from regional stations but of national interest, as local content. By all accounts the locals themselves really appreciated the that fact that they had first access to programming of such quality.