Phillip Adams is one of Australia's Living Treasures and well known and loved by just about everyone except those on the conservative right. His Late Night Live radio program on Radio National is required listening for so many of us. For me, the timeslot (10-11PM) is not opportune, so I listen the next day via podcast when out walking or in the gym. The variety of interviewees, nearly always of interest, seems never ending, and is mixed with his regular commentators in Bruce Shapiro (USA) and Laura Tingle (AUS) who keep us up to date on the latest political comings and goings withintheir respective countries.
Phillip took over the mantle of LNL in 1991 and, some 28 years later, is still going.
In 2012, he released the book Bedtime Stories: Tales from my 21 years at RN's Late Night Live, and I picked up a copy for the princely sum of $5.50 from R.M.C. Stamps in Moonee Ponds in January 2019.
After a short resume of his career pre-LNL, he jumps in, discussing the many key moments of his 28 year reign, the truly memorable interviews, the celebrities, the politicians, etc, etc. Here's a quick blurb:
Reflections on 21 years behind the microphone at one of Radio National's flagship programs, Late Night Live, the people and the places which made it the cutting edge radio it continues to be today. For 21 years Phillip Adams has been the witty, smooth and informed voice of Late Night Live on ABC Radio National. In the studio he bats questions to world leaders, thinkers, ideologues, crackpots and gurus. But what about the stories that don't make it to air? the ones about the guests who don't behave, the tricky questions that must be asked, the interviewees who don't pause for breath or - worse - who refuse to speak? Here, Phillip shares the secrets of his radio days from when he was looked upon as a commercial upstart to when Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens, Kevin Rudd and so many others have lined up to be interviewed by him. He reflects on the sometimes comic, sometimes poignant, sometimes fraught art of putting together live radio, for a show where anything could happen and almost everything has.
With a book launch hosted by ex-PM Kevin Rudd, the book was immediately successful. I am so glad that I have finally had the chance to read it.
Definitely 5 stars for us devotees.
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