Steve Price: Neil Mitchell leaves 3AW on top and on his own terms

One of Neil Mitchell’s proudest achievements in journalism will be the list of politicians who have refused to sit for an interview — Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and, of course, Daniel Andrews.

Neil Mitchell walks away from his 3AW microphone at the end of year the same bloke he was when he first turned it on.

Not for Neil the trappings of other media stars and their puffed-up egos and scandals. Neil has always been just a little bit boring away from the radio studio.

But as I texted him today after he announced he would be stepping away from his amazing career in three months, I told him he was honest to the end.

Honest and dogged and a more principled broadcaster you would not find.

Steve Price, Alan Pearsall, Keith McGowan, Yvonne Lawrence, Neil Mitchell and Ernie Sigley at 3AW in 1997.

Neil rescued me from newspapers at the end of 1987 and I produced his drivetime radio show until the end of 1989.

Neil back then presented a radio show like he edited a newspaper — with conviction and passion and the hunger for an exclusive and a story that would make an impact.

It was a baptism of fire back then when just a few weeks into his radio career the Queen St massacre unfolded live while we were on air.

Neil covered it live and remember in 1987 there were virtually no mobile phones.

A 22-year-old Frank Vitkovic killed eight people and injured another five in the Telecom building in Queen St just around the corner from the old AW studios in Latrobe St.

Vitkovic then jumped out a window and killed himself.

I know the live coverage of that unthinkable massacre in the middle of Melbourne mid-afternoon convinced Neil live radio was the medium he was going to be most happy in.

Just think about how many live major news events Neil has covered over the past 36 years with the same attention to detail and demand for accuracy that he’s always had.

Unlike the former Police Commissioner Christine Nixon, Neil was at work on Black Saturday as Victoria burned in those deadly fires fanned by cyclonic winds.

His station 3AW — of course at his urging — then whipped the community into a fund- raising frenzy to help the victims and their families.

He worked every Good Friday to raise money for the Children’s Hospital Appeal when he didn’t need to.

I think though what says more about my old boss than anything else is the people who refused to talk to him.

Mitchell during his last morning broadcast on Friday. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

In the early days it was Prime Minister Bob Hawke and his Treasurer Paul Keating.

Neil had run a newspaper campaign against Keating’s proposed assets test and won.

Keating it would fair to say disliked Neil, so it came as a surprise when one afternoon his office called and said Paul was in town and wanted to come in and talk to Neil on air.

At the end of a typically robust exchange Neil went to an ad break and I went into the studio – just the three of us.

I asked Keating why he had finally agreed to be interviewed and in a typically arrogant Keating way he said he had heard Neil’s ratings were no good and wanted to get in before Neil was sacked.

Thirty-six years later Neil not only was never sacked but walks away on his own terms — unlike Keating.

I am sure one of the proudest achievements Neil leaves behind is the fact politicians are still refusing to talk to him with Victoria’s worst ever Premier Daniel Andrews dodging the hard questions from Neil for years.

Some things never change. Good luck Neil.