Why David Koch is never going to REALLY retire
At the age of 67, and with the alarm clock now turned off after 21 years at the helm of Sunrise, David Koch opens up on why he is adamant that he will “never” seek out retirement - and what’s next for him and his career.
Stellar
Don't miss out on the headlines from Stellar. Followed categories will be added to My News.
In a new interview with the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About, former Sunrise co-host David Koch looks back on his 21-year stint with the show, admits that he never quite got over the imposter syndrome that gripped him when he first went to air in 2002, talks about the simple parenting philosophy his beloved late father instilled in him and reveals a surprise potential new project with former breakfast TV rival Karl Stefanovic.
On how his life has changed and what it looks like since he left Sunrise in June: “It’s been terrific. I feel like a new man able to work business hours, get up at a normal time. Lib [his wife Libby] and I’ll walk along the beach, I’ll go to the gym before going into work; it’s a whole new way of life. It was just time to get a bit more flexibility. My greatest fear was that on that last show, I would think, what the hell have I done? But I didn’t have any of that. It was just right. That job isn’t a job, it’s a lifestyle. Your whole life is revolving around it. I would head off to bed at quarter to eight and try and be asleep by 8.30 and have a sleep routine and up at 3:20 – you do that for 20 years, [it] takes a toll. So I’m enjoying the flexibility. Lib, not so much of a night, because now she has me around after 8 whereas she could watch all her favourite shows on TV and now I’m going, ‘What the hell is this?’ She’s going, ‘Hang on, for 21 years you had no say in this.’ So I’m not sure she’s as comfortable with a lot of the changes”
On whether he ever sees himself genuinely retiring: “No, never. You’ve got to keep active. You’ve got to have an interest. You’ve got to have a purpose. Even if it’s helping organisations, which we do anyhow, but doing more of it in terms of community work and things like that. You know, all the studies show happiness is about being connected. I can’t fathom people who say, ‘Right, I’m just going to give up work and do nothing.’ And I think, well, good luck with that. I have an uncle – Mum’s older brother – is 99. Turns 100 next year. He was Vice Chancellor at Flinders University up until 15 years ago and would get the bus with the uni students into the uni, and it kept him young by just being active and having a relationship with different generations. Four generations around me [Koch’s mother, his wife, children and grandchildren] just keeps you grounded, keeps you relevant, really affects the way your outlook on life is. It’s so important”
To listen to the full intrerview with Kochie on Stellar’s podcast Something To Talk About, where he also shares his observations of the three very different female co-hosts who sat alongside him during his two decades on breakfast TV, listen below or wherever you get your podcasts:
On joining the Sunrise team in 2002, a move he referred to during his last episode as “the longest mistake in history”, and when he became conscious that the feeling of imposter syndrome was finally shifting: “I don’t think it ever shifts. It’s always in the back of your mind. I took on Sunrise in my mid-forties. I’d been a print journo and I was the finance nerd filling in on Seven with big finance stories. I don’t look like a TV person. I don’t sound like a TV person. No-one watched Sunrise at the time. Chris [former co-host Chris Reason] got crook and as a result of that, he couldn’t continue after he had all his operations and they said, did I want to stay on? And I had my businesses and I said, well, no, not really, because it was a straight news reading job and I couldn’t do that. I said if I can be myself, I’ll give it a go. And it all went from there. But I have never felt comfortable in media. I have great colleagues in media. I don’t travel in media circles. We’ve got a really close friendship group and we’ve got a big family that we spend a lot of time [with]. We’re all really close so that’s why I haven’t been to many Logies and things like that because, you know, I didn’t ever think I fitted in, actually, as a person. TV is a real bubble that can lead you astray. It can warp you or your sense of community or the gratitude that you should have. It can be quite destructive unless you have a solid foundation around you”
On whether he ever asked himself if he should consider moving on from his Sunrise role as he watched colleagues join and leave the team during his 21-year tenure at the helm as co-host: “It never really crossed my mind. I always thought viewers would tell me when they wanted us to move on. And it is a performance driven job. You’re rated every single day. But we kept winning and I kept enjoying it. But the end of last year, my last contract was up and I said to Seven I think I’ll finish at the end of the year, and we had discussions and they said, can you do the first six months? And we bed down the year and win the year and then it gives us clear air to the transition, which hasn’t missed a beat – which I didn’t think it would. [It’s] great because the Sunrise brand is bigger than any one individual. And when people left, it was generally for two reasons: because they either use Sunrise as a stepping stone to further their career and go somewhere else, which is fine and terrific; and then some people left because they thought the grass is greener on the other side, or they were bigger than the Sunrise brand, and that never happened, eventually. You know how you’ve got to leave a job to realise how good it was? I had never had ambitions to do anything else. I didn’t have ambitions to do primetime, anything. This was just the perfect show for me. I didn’t think I could do any other show because it just reflected my personality and who I was, and delivered everything I wanted”
When asked whether he texts his former coworkers at Sunrise with feedback now he is a viewer watching the show from home: “Oh no, I don’t do that. Although when they changed studios and had the new graphics, I sent an emoji of sunglasses and they have toned down the graphics since then, but Nat [Sunrise co-host Natalie Barr] and I catch up for lunch regularly. We keep in really close contact”
David Koch, on former breakfast TV rival and Today show co-host Karl Stefanovic: “Would you believe the two weeks after finishing on Sunrise, Karl and I and Nat had lunch together. I’ve come across Karl a number of times at different functions – really nice bloke, incredibly respectful, didn’t know him much at all. And so we had lunch together and he’s talking about wanting to do a podcast together, funnily enough. So something might come of it”
David Koch, on whether there have been regrets across the course of his career over times when he was unable to be with his children owing to work commitments: “So many. But you don’t stress about that because if you made a conscious effort and the kids know you made a conscious effort to do as much as possible, it doesn’t matter at all. You can’t make everything. It’s the important things. We always had a rule when the kids were growing up that – and my dad did this rule as well – we had the understanding that I could work as hard as I like during the week, but [the] weekend is to be involved. That’s why people say, ‘Oh, do you play golf?’ I go, ‘No, I’ve never played golf.’ Because four or five hours of a weekend, you just can’t. I couldn’t do that. I would much rather coach the netball teams or the basketball teams and be with the kids and be part of what they were doing”
David Koch, when asked to share his advice for those who, on Father’s Day, may be grieving or estranged from their father, or wondering if they will ever become a father: “Appreciate what dads bring. My hero is my dad. He’s my hero. And when he died, my great fear was I’d forget him. As a man, as an adult, people go, ‘Oh, God, you’re old yourself. You should be able to cope with that.’ So I stupidly have him as my cover wallpaper on the phone because I had this fear and he was so important in my life. So if you’ve got a situation, pay tribute. That’s a wonderful thing. If you’re estranged from your dad – and it’s easy for me to say because I’ve never been estranged from my dad – reach out. Even if you don’t get the reaction that you expect. That’s alright. You’ve taken ownership of the situation. If you’re planning to be a dad, just think about what sort of dad you’ll be. I meet really incredibly successful people and they’re successful in business, but so many of them say to me, ‘To be successful, I had to sacrifice my family.’ And I just look at them and think, what the hell have you done that for? The really successful business people are those who balance the family and give them the same sort of priorities they do themselves”
A new episode of the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About is available every Saturday from 5pm. Follow or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
Originally published as Why David Koch is never going to REALLY retire
TikTok star Pottery Boy: ‘I call it a Ghost fantasy’
With 1.6 million followers, Guy Vadas – AKA Pottery Boy – has, like Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze before him in 90s film Ghost, put a sexy new spin on the art form. Here, he explains why.
Sonia Kruger hits back at Gen Z trends
Opinion: From wide-legged pants to long socks, Sonia Kruger has some thoughts on Gen Z fashion trends – and why, you ‘don’t need to be on board, you just need to look like you are’.