Newsman Paul Makin on the Granville train disaster - 18 January 1977

Monday, 19 January 2015

I'm indebted to Jason Morrison for this graphic account of the Granville train disaster - 18 January 1977.

Jason says:

That's one of the greatest radio reports I have ever heard and I used to aspire to be in Paul Makin's class.

Live via 2way radio.

He conveys the facts, the scene, and the person horror he is witnessing as a man.

Nothing I've heard comes close.

Paul is still in radio working in Adelaide - he and I have spoken a few times about Ms Gillard and the AWU scandal.

Jason and I were chatting about this report this morning - 50 years ago there would have been dozens of reporters in Sydney capable of reporting live like this. When Paul Makin made this report there were still many reporters in his class. Sadly today you'd be looking long and hard to find a handful.

Young graduates in journalism today are concerned with Twitter and video/photos that record events - rather than communicating and interpreting events using language. That's what makes Paul's report so gripping.

Thanks so much Jason for sending me the link, I can vividly recall sitting on the back patio with my dad and my mate Tony Reilly in 1977 as this report was relayed over 2UE (our radio was always on 2UE) during the school holidays.

fhjk

Posted at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

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