By George, how news has changed

It’s now fifty years since news legend George Donikian began his media career as a young announcer at 4AM in Far North Queensland.

Over the last 20, he’s observed an alarming shift in the way news is delivered. And his assessment of it is damning.

Technology, he notes, has taken an extraordinary leap in that time. The introduction of smartphones was a turning point, and not necessarily for the better.

By 2007, suddenly everyone had a camera. Not just journalists.

Talking all things radio and television on the latest episode of the Food Bytes with Sarah Patterson podcast, George says “The way I see it is, a journalist goes through a huge learning process. Learning how to cope with the responsibility of the facts and the information that they’re revealing and putting to air, or publishing, or posting.”

“Unfortunately, ever other person who is using mobile technology today to publish and post doesn’t have nearly enough experience or nearly enough understanding of how dangerous a weapon it is – or how magnificent a weapon it is.”

“We have this situation where the world is filled with misinformation, conspiracy theories and – dare I say it – propaganda at a level that I haven’t read of since the dark days of Nazi Germany … a narrative which fooled a whole nation of people and scared the rest of the world.”

“This is the world we live in.”

It’s certainly a world far removed from George’s blissful early radio days in the tropics. It was the mid-seventies, and working at 4AM was a joy.

“They were such wonderfully hospitable people,” George says.

“The team up there was young and ferociously ambitious. They had a companion station that they were up against called 4CA. We had just built a satellite studio in Mulgrave Road in Cairns to take them on! We were the young bunnies.”

Young George had driven his 240-Z Datsun all the way from Sydney’s eastern suburbs to the Atherton Tablelands.

He was accompanied on that momentous trip by his dad, who wanted to make sure George settled in OK.

They stopped off at Coffs Harbour, Childers and Townsville along the way.

“That was the most wondrous journey that a young man could have with his father,” George fondly remembers. “It gave us time to talk about a million things.”

After nearly two years at 4AM, George moved on to his next radio gig at Wollongong’s 2WL. He lived right on the beach and would walk to work.

“It was a time when I learnt another layer of radio from another group of people, who were not more professional, but certainly were more experienced.”

One day, George decided to send an audition tape to Mike Webb, a founding director of Sydney’s 2WS.

George landed himself an on-air job at the then-brand new station, but was told he’d have to change his surname.

George’s dad suggested he remove one ‘i’, making his on-air name George Donikan.

It had a certain Irish ring to it, and, six weeks later, George got a phone call from the organisers of Sydney’s St Patrick’s Day Parade, asking if he would host the event.

Why not? Thought George.

“I’ve rocked up to the venue at The Rocks in Sydney, and I’m wearing my green tie. There I am with my long, black hair, and they’ve gone ‘You’re not Irish!’”

“And I’ve gone ‘Ah! To be sure! To be sure!” George says, laughing heartily.

But the arrangement turned out to be a cracking success. George ended up hosting the parade for the next eight years.

In 1980, a chance meeting with TV guru Bruce Gyngell saw George chosen as the very first news anchor for the multicultural broadcaster which would become SBS.

“Gyngell said to me ‘OK, you become public property on Monday. You’ve got to understand that if you’re out after twelve by yourself, you’re either looking for trouble, or it’s looking for you. Right, Donikan?’”

George explained that Donikan might have been fine for radio, as nobody saw his face. But for TV, he’d need to use his actual surname.

That was fine by Bruce.

And so, George introduced himself:

“Welcome to SBS World News. My name is George Donikian.”

Next day, a newspaper headline famously screamed ‘Donikan changes his name to make it sound more ethnic.’

Yes indeed – how the world has changed.

Images supplied.