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Speaker 1: Lisa.

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Speaker 2: We've got a very very special guest joining us in

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Speaker 2: the studio this morning. We do a man who has

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Speaker 2: been bringing us the news in various forms in Perth

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Speaker 2: for well. He's into his forty fifth year. Michael Thompson

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Speaker 2: from Channel nine. Good morning, morning, Michael.

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Speaker 3: Good morning guys. Great to be here. Forty five years.

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Speaker 3: It is doesn't feel like forty five years.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't.

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Speaker 3: It's gone so quick.

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Speaker 2: Well, you've done a lot, You've been busy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it sort of, and I've quite humbled.

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Speaker 3: Nines made a primo and you have a look back

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Speaker 3: and you just think, wow.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, is it this one? Remember?

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Speaker 4: It takes me back, Yeah, it takes me back to

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Speaker 4: about the time you started.

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Speaker 2: Probably, yeah, nineteen eighty nineteen. I'm looking through some of

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Speaker 2: your photos, mate. You haven't changed a bit, I have,

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Speaker 2: although the ties are a bit thicker. There's a tie

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Speaker 2: from the late eighties right there. That that's how your

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Speaker 2: time stamper a photo by the year.

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Speaker 1: There's always like a hair there.

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Speaker 4: She hasn't got any dinner.

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Speaker 1: I've been lucky.

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Speaker 4: That's impressive.

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Speaker 1: There's a bit of a mullet era as well. Well.

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Speaker 4: Everyone had that mullet era even me. So forty five

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Speaker 4: years you're celebrating. Where did it begin? Where were you

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Speaker 4: before nine?

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Speaker 1: I was at the Daily News, which was the afternoon newspaper. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: eightly newspaper.

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Speaker 3: There were six newspapers in Perth back then, and as

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Speaker 3: Harold and Weekly Times owned the West Australian, the Daily News,

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Speaker 3: the Weekend News, Countryman. So I worked there for the

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Speaker 3: first seven years.

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Speaker 4: Two versions came out, yes.

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Speaker 3: And then you'd have a special late version. The Daily

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Speaker 3: News used to get the big overseas story, so the

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Speaker 3: Kennedy assassination of John Lennon and things like that. And

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Speaker 3: it was a cadet ship. I had to learn shorthand typing.

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Speaker 3: There were no mobile phones.

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Speaker 4: Do you remember absolutely?

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: My mother can still remember from you know, the days

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Speaker 4: when she did it as a secretary.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Maria Gabor was our teacher.

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Speaker 3: She was a tough, tough lady who we loved, but

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Speaker 3: she was really, really tough. And so that was a

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Speaker 3: skills apprenticeship and she was It's like an apprenticeship. So

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Speaker 3: you did your court rounds, you would learn about crime, sport,

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Speaker 3: the council around the medical round hospitals.

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Speaker 1: It was a great way to learn the skills of

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Speaker 1: being because of.

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Speaker 2: Course you were a crime reporter.

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Speaker 1: For a while there, I.

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Speaker 3: Was I sort of I wanted to get into sport.

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Speaker 3: I finished my cadet ship and I was really into sport.

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Speaker 3: And then before I left the DA News to go

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Speaker 3: to Channel nine in nineteen eighty seven, I wanted to

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Speaker 3: get out of sports, so I got into started to

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Speaker 3: do some crime work, crime reporting with Kim Murray, Paul

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Speaker 3: Murray's brother at the Dall News, and then when I

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Speaker 3: went to nine, I went as the crime reporter. I

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Speaker 3: did that for about four or five years, and I

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Speaker 3: loved it, and I just thought it was better to

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Speaker 3: broaden my horizons and not just be stuck in sport.

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Speaker 3: I love sport, but it was great and there was

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Speaker 3: a lot of things happening. So there were six newspapers,

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Speaker 3: but the six o'clock news was becoming a real powerhouse

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Speaker 3: around the world. And that was a very exciting time

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Speaker 3: as well, because it was the live element was something.

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Speaker 2: Because that's where you went to get the pictures off

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Speaker 2: the news because there was no scrolling back in those days.

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Speaker 2: That's everyone sat down at six to watch their news.

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Speaker 1: And if you didn't get the pictures.

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Speaker 3: So with the phone now and security pictures cameras that

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Speaker 3: are there, you don't miss much. You get pictures and

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Speaker 3: in some ways, you know, you head on collisions, freeway cameras,

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Speaker 3: you see you seeing things that we never saw everything,

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Speaker 3: So it's changed dramatically and also getting pictures out. Like

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Speaker 3: we're talking about augusta off air about a whale rescue

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Speaker 3: and how we had to fly the helicopter back to

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Speaker 3: Bumbering and send our pictures from GWN.

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Speaker 1: Well, now you've just got a fish, which can.

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Speaker 2: All the TV channels used to have a chopper back

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Speaker 2: in the day. None of them have them anymore.

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Speaker 1: We share one, Channel seven, Channel nine we share one.

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Speaker 4: We share one now, okay, which.

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Speaker 3: The accountant said, this is costing and we thought this

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Speaker 3: cannot work.

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Speaker 1: But it does work.

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Speaker 3: It works, and it's a it's a great job and

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Speaker 3: we get some amazing pictures from it. But even there

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Speaker 3: drones are getting you know, you've got to embrace the technology.

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Speaker 3: I feel like, in some ways on a bit of

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Speaker 3: a dinosaur, but it's made our job so much easier.

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Speaker 4: I loved that. I remember those days. You know, there's

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Speaker 4: early days when you were a crime reporter, and we

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Speaker 4: would go to the police rounds every morning at Police

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Speaker 4: headquarters for the morning press briefing, the briefing of what's happened,

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Speaker 4: because that's how we got our information. We went to

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Speaker 4: media conferences and there was such a great camaraderie with

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Speaker 4: everybody and what I loved it, I did And you.

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Speaker 3: Got to know, do you know when I started at

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Speaker 3: the Daily, the West Australian newspapers had their own office

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Speaker 3: at Police Headquarters which was dialed into the police system.

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Speaker 3: So you go in there and Cyril Erais was the

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Speaker 3: crime reporter for the West back then, Cyril and Kim Murray.

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Speaker 3: And I remember going down when I was shadowing Kim

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Speaker 3: and they said, oh, such there was a murder and

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Speaker 3: on the phone in the office was homicide. Pressed the button,

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Speaker 3: well you go hello, look, just come straight up. So

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Speaker 3: there was no we didn't need any idea which went

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Speaker 3: up the lift into homicide. Very different and it was

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Speaker 3: a real trust here about them because there was so

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Speaker 3: There wasn't Channel ten back then, so it was often

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Speaker 3: it was The West Australian, the Daily News, seven nine

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Speaker 3: ABC and a couple of.

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Speaker 4: Radio Alison fansh and scanners.

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Speaker 2: They used to have scanners in the news, and you'd

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Speaker 2: be listening in on the police channels.

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Speaker 1: Everything, and we'd chase them, chase them everywhere.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and you'd hear some weird stuff on a Friday

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Speaker 4: afternoon a scanners too because it picked up people's carfes.

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Speaker 1: Exactly, which was still new at the time.

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Speaker 2: So, Michael, forty five years. What an achievement, especially in

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Speaker 2: the media industry.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much.

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Speaker 2: Anything that you haven't achieved yet that you still want

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Speaker 2: to tick off you all, I'd like it.

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Speaker 3: List it's a good quest. I'd love to see the

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Speaker 3: Dockers win a flag.

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Speaker 4: Do you want to read that story like that happened?

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Speaker 3: That's one that's been hanging there that I'd really like

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Speaker 3: to do. I think that would be That would be fantastic. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: there's a it's a changing times in media, you know,

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Speaker 3: changing times.

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Speaker 1: We'd love, from.

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Speaker 3: A selfish point of view, to see nine and seven

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Speaker 3: have been a dominant figure at six o'clock news. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: the gap has closed significantly in recent years. Love to

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Speaker 3: be a part of something where it gets really really

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Speaker 3: close and we could, but we'll have to wait and see.

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Speaker 3: You're only as good as your last bulletin, but that

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Speaker 3: would be something I'd love to say. But it's been

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Speaker 3: it's been a blast. I've been so lucky. I genuinely,

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Speaker 3: I genuinely feel it's a privilege to read the news,

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Speaker 3: you know, it's I still get a real buzz out

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Speaker 3: of it, and I think I'm pretty lucky.

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Speaker 2: Well, you've been a big part of Perth for the

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Speaker 2: last forty five years and let's hope there's quite a

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Speaker 2: few years still.

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Speaker 4: The last bullet was awesome, so you know, keep going.

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Speaker 4: Thank you, Michael,