Malcolm T. Elliott is an Australian radio personality born at Sacred Heart Hospital, Moreland, in Victoria, on the 13 May 1946.
Early life
He was as a child besotted with Melbourne Radio personalities Nicky and Graham. His other heroes were Norman Swain and later Donn Lunn.
Elliott started out as a printing compositor with Leader Group newspapers in Melbourne, and claims that he hated every minute of his five year "imprisonment". So much so that he developed his rebellious streak that was later to help him climb the radio ladder as a popular "off the wall" broadcaster.
Radio
He entered radio at the completion of his apprenticeship in February 1967 at 3NE Wangaratta, and after being told that he would never get the Breakfast show from Bruce Way, moved after only six months to 3SR Shepparton where he not only hosted the breakfast show but was Way's competitor.After an ill fated eight weeks in Tamworth, he returned south and read Television news Albury at AMV-4 Albury.
In 1970 he was selected to join the 2SM newsroom and became one of the many journalists to cover the first Papal Tour of Australia. After coming to the attention of News Directors around Australia for his never say "die" approach to news gathering he was invited by Michael Schildberger and Rhett Walker to join Melbourne's number one station 3AK as deputy news director.
The call to personality radio beckoned and after a visit to see friends in Adelaide he joined 5AD hosting the 8pm to midnight shift and also put his journalist experience to the fore by launching a halfhour evening News programme Newsday.
He came to fame nationally with a crazy breakfast show on radio 2UW Sydney from 1973-77 and with side-kick Peter Shanahan the pair rated 16.5% the highest ever in that station's history. In 1974 he was awarded a Logie for being New South Wales most popular radio personality. In 1974-75 he was one of five nightly panelists on the Nine Network's Celebrity Squares. His television work also included IN WOLLONGONG TONIGHT on WIN-4 in 1980, as a last minute replacement for Eric Walters (ex-TEN-10) who felt uncomfortable with the propposed format.
He also worked for the ill-fated mellow rock 87-2GB in 1976-1977, 2KY 1980 and 2UE 1988-89 and 1992-2004.In the 1980s he worked as Marketing Director of News Limited, Westfield, RCA Records, CMS Computer Enhancements. He hosted 2GB afternoons from 1992-93. From 1993 till 2004 he was the number 1 rated Sunday Morning 9-noon presenter at 2UE Sydney and 4BC Brisbane as well as night time fill-in for Stan Zemanek.
Shapelle Corby
Whilst filling in on Sydney Radio 2GB during the Indonesian trial of Australian Shapelle Corby, Malcolm T. Elliot gave the following view regarding Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono:
"believe right now Bambam Yodhoyono is sitting up there and his hands are tied because it’s a legal matter. Wham Bam Thank You Mam Yiddi-yono is going to be called into all of these — well, that’s what he is, isn’t he — have you ever seen them? Whoa, give them a banana and away they go"
He also gave the following incite into the Indonesian Legal System:
"Malcolm: The judges don’t even speak English, mate, they’re straight out of the trees if you excuse my expression.
Caller: Don’t you think that disrespects the whole of our neighbouring nation?
Malcolm: I have total disrespect for our neighbouring nation my friend. Total disrespect.
And then we get this joke of a trial, and it’s nothing more than a joke. An absolute joke the way they sit there. And they do look like the three wise monkeys, I’ll say it. They don’t speak English, they read books, they don’t listen to her. They show us absolutely no respect those judges."
15 May 2005
Shapelle's lawyer at the time later revealed in a HBO documentary Ganga Queen that they had fabricated key elements of her defence.
Semi/Retirement - Today
On the 11 June 2004 he underwent [[Cardiac surgery|quintuple [5] heart by-pass surgery]] after suffering shortness of breath whilst on holiday at his new Northern Rivers home. He left 2UE and moved to the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales in October 2004.His international date files have been used extensively with Alan Jones Breakfast Shows on 2GB and 2UE'S IT HAPPENED TODAY since 1990, and were also fetaured in WEBSTER'S CD ENCYCLOPEDIA.
He currenly works as a free-lance radio presenter around Australia and is a free-lance Travel Correspondent for various newspapers as well as Radio Historian for a number agencies including Jocks Journal.
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Last updated on Wednesday July 23, 2008 at 02:46:03 PDT (GMT -0700)
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