The Independent is looking back at our best Friday features of last year, and this is one of them.
Doug Aiton was king of drive-time radio in Melbourne for a decade in the late 1980s to late 1990s. With a string of memorable interviews including Sophia Loren, Jimmy Stewart and Michael Parkinson, Doug celebrates his 80th birthday today and talks to Justin Flynn about a stellar career behind, and in front of, the microphone.
Radio came relatively late for Doug Aiton.
Before his decade-long stint as drive-time presenter on what was then 3LO, Doug began his working career in newspapers.
Born in Melbourne on August 25, 1943 his family moved to Geelong in 1948 where he would later attend Geelong College.
Beginning work as a copy boy at the Melbourne Herald, days were spent, in his words as a “general messenger boy”.
It wouldn’t take long to earn a cadetship and then a journey to London for a three-year stint at The Times.
“Really enjoyed it,” Doug says.
“And I ended up, fortuitously, in the Foreign Department. And there was only about four of us in there, but we were responsible for the foreign content of the correspondents around the world.
“So we’re in touch with them all through the day and organising them and they were organising us and we put out the Times foreign pages.”
Returning to Australia because his visa expired, Doug started reporting for The Age as a feature writer.
Eventually radio came calling some time in his late 30s, first with 3AW and then with the ABC where a glittering career propelled Doug to the pinnacle of the 4pm to 6pm weekday slot.
With exposure came fame and fame was accompanied with a public profile.
“I didn’t like being well known,” he says.
“It’s not my nature I think. I would have been terrible in television because they recognise you physically. Not many people recognise me physically in radio.”
Soon Doug’s show became compulsive listening throughout Victoria and especially Melbourne.
The show became revered for Doug’s ability to attract international stars with his easygoing interview technique.
He was never a ‘shock jock’.
“If anything, I was noted for my noncombative stuff,” he says.
Perhaps ahead of his time, Doug employed female-only producers.
“I thought it offered a balance,” he says.
“Women gave a better idea of the whole problems of the community. When there are men producers and men announcers, women don’t get a say in what goes to air.
“We’d be in the office all day planning the program, two females and one male, and then we’d go to air having decided on the program.”
The difference between print and radio journalism was profound.
“People were interested in me whereas they weren’t interested in me when they just saw my byline,” he says.
“I found that quite a bit of pressure because people would react to my interviewing rather than what I was interviewing about.
“Some of the people were very nasty, too, but I grew out of that and just accepted it.”
Such was his reputation, before long, celebrities and prime ministers were queuing up to be on Doug’s show.
American actor Jimmy Stewart extended his time on the program because he enjoyed it so much.
Doug interviewed screen siren Sophia Loren in her Melbourne hotel room.
“She opened the door, went to a phone and picked it up and said ‘room service, my friends need a drink’,” Doug says.
“She was 50, 52 or something by then and just as beautiful as ever.”
Although he didn’t get to interview the great and late Michael Parkinson in person, the pre-recorded version was “one of enthusiasm”.
Sir David Attenborough was another memorable conversation, as was Barry Humphries, who responded not just as himself, but also in character as Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.
“He didn’t do that often, if at all,” Doug says.
“It was a very good hour of radio.”
Prime ministers Hawke, Keating and Howard all respected Doug and his show and appeared regularly.
His relaxed style meant he was not out to shock, cause controversy or drive anyway away.
“I don’t think you should chase people out of the studio like a lot of people do,” he says.
“And good on them too for doing that. But I’m not that type.”
After a decade and strong ratings, the end came relatively quickly and very unexpectedly.
“One of the executives at the ABC decided my time was up and I’d done 10 years or 12 years,” he says.
“And so I went and I just picked up little jobs.”
The backlash was fierce.
Prime Minister John Howard personally phoned Doug to voice his displeasure at the decision.
“He wanted to talk to me, but he ran into Judy, my wife, first,” he says.
“He was in Sydney and I was in Melbourne and he said ‘do you mean to say they got rid of you?’
“I said ‘well sort of, yeah, it’s normal, I’ve been there 12 years’. And he said ‘well I’m going to make my feelings thought about this’, but he didn’t have any luck.
“And the editor of The Age was Bruce Guthrie and he was amazed that I was dealt with in that way so he kept up this support,” he says.
“He kept the story going for some days.”
The ABC’s loss was Geelong’s gain with Doug taking on a weekly program at community radio station 94.7 The Pulse.
Doug says the best interviewer in Australian radio history is his good friend Derryn Hinch.
“No one goes near him,” Doug says.
“He’s very good indeed. He’s more confrontational than I am, but he’s a very nice bloke and very unconceited.”
These days Doug is happily retired in Ocean Grove with his wife Judy although the effects of a stroke has hampered his mobility.
“I have three dogs and I’m very interested in them,” he says.
“I walk them when I can and we’re right up against a park in Ocean Grove and when I have the energy I love to walk them.
“Other interests are the internet. I’m always on the computer seeing what’s happening around the world.
“Reading – Graeme Greene particularly.”
Doug has no hesitation when asked about the one story that made everything, and everyone, stop.
“It was September 11 in America,” he says.
“The producer came and said ‘someone’s flying into the World Trade Center’. It was an interval in a program. It developed while I was on air.”
Doug will have a low-key 80th birthday on August 25, having dinner with Judy locally before a larger family gathering in Melbourne on Saturday.
Manor Suite Wine Bar at Oakdene is a favourite.
“We often go to the Barwon Heads pub for dinner and the Ocean Grove pub,” Doug says.
Anyone wanting to send a birthday card or well wishes to Doug can do so at PO Box 185 Queenscliff, Victoria, 3225.
