Headlining this Friday’s National Radio Conference, Michael Parkinson will talk about the changes in the journalism trade since he began his career 50 years ago. “So much has changed, everyone’s on phones now, nobody goes out and gets drunk any more… it used to be a ruffians’ trade,” he told radioinfo today.
Michael Parkinson is still working on his keynote conference speech, but it will have something to do with the changes he has seen in the media since he did his first interview half a century ago. In those days a film or a sound recording had to be physically transported back the studio for replay, but now it can be sent instantly by phone or satellite.
Fundamental changes to the way journalists transmit their stories have also had an effect on content, according to Parky.
Although most famous for his television interview shows, Parkinson has also had extensive experience in Radio, having worked for three BBC Radio networks (Radio 2, 4 and 5), and also for London talk station LBC, where he did a morning interview show that followed Mike Carlton’s breakfast program during the 1990s, when another Aussie, Charlie Cox was program director.
He told radioinfo he likes radio as an interview medium because people “feel comfortable” with the intimacy of radio and are more likely to open up to an interviewer, whereas tv has so many distractions such as lights, floor managers, cameras and audiences, and it is harder for an interviewer and interviewee to be at ease.
Comparing Australian radio with Britain he says the medium seems to be more important in this country than in the UK. He recalled the first time he listened to Australian radio when he was here in the 1970s. It was the truckies strike and John Laws was the only person the truckies would negotiate with.
His conference talk will also undoubtedly contain stories about people he has interviewed, such as a young musician named Mick Jagger who was his first celebrity interview. When asked how long he thought his fame would last, Jagger told Parky, “about a year.”
Parkinson would have loved to interview Frank Sinatra but “could never get near him.” He also met Nelson Mandela in South Africa, but never had him on his talk show. “It just wouldn’t have seemed right to put such a man into a tv talk show studio, but I did meet him when I went to South Africa as part of the Food Aid project.”
One of Parkinson’s most difficult interviews was with Meg Ryan, who Parky revealed, was sitting in the dressing room before the show facing one wall, while her minders were at the other end of the room not speaking to her. “I’m not sure what happened, but I thought that if she was like that with her staff what chance was I going to have… It was hate at first sight.” He was right. See the clip below.
Parkinson is also interested in how celebrity and fame have changed since he began his career: “It used to be you had to achieve something to be famous. Now people want to be famous just for being famous, without doing anything to earn it. It’s tedious. I’ve had enough of it.”
That, and the changes in the modern television industry are the reasons why he does not do his tv interview show any more.
Parkinson was inspired to become a journalist by his ‘heroes,’ BBC radio reporter Alistair Cook, iconic US tv presenter Walter Cronkite, and Humphrey Bogart, who played tough investigative journalists in several movie roles.
Parkinson will speak at the CRA Conference this Friday and is in Australia until mid November to present Parky, the one man show.