Tony’s radio journey

Veteran TV and radio presenter Tony Jones opens up about the traumatic events of his childhood and recounts his early days in radio, in an emotional interview with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell.

“Around our house, the radio was always on. And it was always on 3UZ. Alan Lappin doing Breakfast, Bert Bryant – Three Way Turf Talk … it was always on. And I just had this unbelievable desire to work in radio. I remember I would send away to 3UZ, and they would send fan cards of Don Lunn and Alan Lappin and all these great names of radio.”

Jones – whose first radio job was at 3NE in Wangaratta – had been working in a bank on Melbourne’s Swanston Street.

“Some mornings – as pathetic as this sounds – I’d get the train and then I’d walk up to Latrobe Street outside the 3AW building, and I’d just stand and look. I literally said to myself ‘I’m going to be there one day.’”