Clive Robertson
The rather sad news came through yesterday that broadcaster Clive Robertson had died at the age of 78 after a battle with cancer.
People who have been around this blog for a very very long time would be aware of my fondness and appreciation for Clive’s broadcasts. He was of course well known for his television work on Newsworld and similar shows, however I am most fond of his radio work. The period of time he spent in 2007 and 2008 hosting 2UE’s New Day Australia program is a particularly cherished memory as I often worked overnight during this period in a job which often had a distinct lack of work needing to be done during the overnight hours, interspersed with moments of frantic activity, and listening to Clive made the night much more enjoyable.
Clive had the incredible ability to just talk…about anything really, and be interesting, entertaining, funny, informative, and follow a stream of consciousness without losing sight of the original subject, and do this for hour after hour after hour without it ever getting old. Clive was perfectly capable of taking a routine weather report and detouring into a raft of stories while still providing a weather forecast and taking up most of the hour doing it.
Clive was equally able to converse with any caller about pretty much any subject and make it riveting radio for the listeners. Well, almost any caller. There was that woman whose name escapes me who would usually call in around 4am to have a very loud rant about Zion and Israel. She would always start off quietly and escalate into a full-on rant and rave at a level short of yelling, and then abruptly, sometimes mid-sentence, exclaim “thank you!” and slam the phone down. Clive tried to converse with her one night but it was not possible to interrupt her.
And then there was the time he took an inebriated lady’s call who had been on hold waiting to speak to Stuart Bocking on the show preceding Clive’s. She wanted to speak to “Stuart Bottles” and seemed rather put out to have been answered by “Dr. Cliff”. Clive seemed quite chuffed at his newfound doctorate.
I chatted with Clive about many things, including some of my peculiar dreams. Clive seemed to be entertained by them, but was disappointed to appear in my dreams considering I am male and he preferred to appear in the dreams of females. He cooked rice in the microwave of my kitchen while Bruce McAvaney and Dennis Cometti commentated in one dream, and somewhat crankily drove a bus in another. Clive also thought this website was very strange and I should see a physician about it. I was most entertained when Clive, aficionado of all things trains, took the time to explain why my dream about carriages of a City Rail train disconnecting from each other and then later reconnecting was impossible.
Here is the audio of Clive explaining to me the issues with the train dream, among other issues I apparently have.
Always great fun talking to Clive.
Clive also, one night, after a conversation with me about something-or-other probably quite mundane as usual, played Huey Lewis & The News’ Hip To Be Square in my honour.
Clive came and went from radio a number of times. One of his more recent outings on the airwaves was alongside Mike Jeffreys at 2UE. Those two make a fantastic duo and it was great radio. I had hoped that in Mike’s current role at 2GB, Clive might make a cameo appearance but alas it wasn’t to be.
A genuinely nice, interesting and gentle man, misunderstood by many, cherished by many more. Vale Clive.
Samuel
Add comment December 13th, 2024 at 04:22am