Who’s who of Melbourne News

Melbourne newsreaders Mal Walden, Peter Hitchener and Peter Mitchell are profiled in an article in today’s Sunday Herald Sun.

All three have been in the biz for quite some time.

TEN’s Walden read his first late night news bulletin at Channel 7 in 1970, Hitchener for Channel 9 in 1974 and Mitchell for Channel 7 in 1988.

Unlike most cities, the Melbourne audience is notorious for flip-flopping on whether it prefers Nine’s 6pm News over Seven’s. It’s an inexplicable habit that baffles more than one news director. This year Melbourne started out Nine’s way, which still performs strongest amongst all of Nine’s national bulletins, but has now swung back towards Seven, and the contest is only just warming up. TEN News regularly wins its 5pm hour.

Walden, “Mr. Phenomenomenon”, has been known to step outside the traditions of straight presentation, having given lively weather reports and dubbing one story on a mile-high hostess a “waste of time”.

“As much as people will tell you, no one has ever sat me down and said this is how you should read the news,” Walden said. After this long, who would dare?

Mitchell said he never editorialises but noted, “All this stuff about Paris Hilton, Lara Bingle, we’re not massive into the gossipy side of it, but we appreciate that people are and we’ve got to run that kind of stuff.”

Hitchener, who was on the ground during the Black Saturday bushfires as news came through of the death of Brian Naylor, paid tribute to his other colleagues.

“I worked with Peter for a long time (at Channel 9) and I’ve known Mal since I first came to Melbourne in 1974,” he said.

“They are people I’m fond of and I respect them.”

Melbourne’s other key news presenters include ABC’s Ian Henderson, Nine’s Jo Hall, Seven’s Jennifer Keyte and TEN’s Helen Kapalos.

Source: Sunday Herald Sun