It’s sad to hear of the passing of Australian breakfast radio pioneer and broadcaster extraordinaire Malcolm T Elliott.

I listened to Malcolm on 2UW breakfast and I specifically remember 1977, the year I discovered Malcolm’s irreverent, bombastic and off the wall humour.

The photo that adorns my channel is what I looked like in that year, I would never in a million years think that one of my personal stories from my childhood would be fodder for Malcolm’s wit but move forward almost 20 years to 1996 and that’s exactly what happened !

Malcolm was filling in for Stan Zemanek at nights and I happened to be around in the studio during a news break, at the time I think there was news about a biological control program, RHDV1 which was released in Australia in 1996 for the control of wild rabbits in South Australia.

I recounted my bunny story to Malcolm as to how my pet bunny ended up on the dinner table one Easter 1971.

I remember opening the fridge door before this and seeing a carcass on a plate in our Kelivinator fridge, trauma all round, quick call the RSPCA !

Well bunny was my pet, not supposed to be a main course, I cried my eyes out at the dinner table, refused to eat and my father told me I could not have Easter eggs until I ate dinner, well, I don’t care, you exterminated my pet rabbit for a meal, LoL

Malcolm ever so gently took the facts of the story and retold it, in the present tense and tippy toed around the grisly topic of a slaughtered pet animal and turned it into a gentle anecdote infused with that Malcolm style of humour and quizzical attitude, that was one aspect of his gifts as a performer, my pet bunny story re-imagined and immortalised by Malcolm T Elliott.

For me this event was like going through the magic looking glass, from a passive listener years ago to supplying him with some, albeit brief, content for his show.

I played the audio to my late father and he was amused and bemused as I was, him being the perpetrator of the crime.

Also in this moment, Malcolm was extremely generous in his comments towards me as panel operator as we’d worked on the New Years Eve broadcast 1995.

Malcolm was the consummate professional, he did show compassion and could just as easily go off on a manic tangent with his humour and then ever so quickly bring it back down to earth.

I respected him and he returned the compliment, everything was explained and discussed going live, there were no airs and graces, tell it like it is and we understood what the other needed in a live to air situation.

I remember one of his comedic breakfast show jingles like a commercial for All Purpose Messengers :

If you want to lose a parcel anywhere, through the city the suburbs or through the air, call your friendly unreliable courier service, the one you can use for only one purpose, All Purpose Messengers, hurry up waste time, hurry up waste time ….well, you had to be there.

Time has inexorably moved forward, the personalities of the steamship AM Radio days are disappearing before our eyes, this generation understood the discipline of broadcasting and how to connect with an audience, they were consummate professionals who understood the role of conveying information, selling and telling a story with personality and engaging a mass audience with consistency and credibility which had to be maintained day after day after day with the idea that - that one single person was always in their frame of reference and to deliver what they promised and what was expected without missing a beat.

His career is almost classically Australian radio... kicking off in the mid-'60s at 3NE Wangaratta and moving on through SR, Shepparton and UL, Warragul before trying his hand in the larger markets, 2KO and 2HD, Newcastle and 2SM, 3AK and 5AD. This includes his famous era - with a series of no. 1 Breakfast survey victories - at 2UW through the '70s. He even found time in the '80s to do a bit of academic work, with a Business Degree at the Uni of NSW.

Dear Malcolm,
I know in recent years you were dogged with health issues and everything in life was not as good as it could be but thank you for your generosity towards me and for making us all smile with your irreverence, original humour and the compassion you showed to all those who encountered you and also for entertaining us for all those radio years.

Malcolm T Elliott : 4BK U can hear the rapacious energy with humour and potential on show
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Malcolm T Elliott : Birdman Rally 1979
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Malcolm T Elliott : 2GB Audio Report
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Malcolm T Elliott : 2UE Sign Off 1997
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