Steve Price: ‘How many old white blokes last this long?’

Having notched up 50 years in the media, veteran journalist Steve Price reveals how he has managed to last this long in the media and to also find a home at The Project.

It’s November 1972. US President Richard Nixon has won re-election in a landslide vote, Pong has become the first commercially successful video game, and Donny Osmond’s ‘Puppy Love’ is sitting at the top of the Australian charts.

At the same time, another fresh-faced teenager is dropped on the doorstep of Adelaide paper The News by his father to apply for a job as a copy boy.

An on-sale suit that had been hurriedly bought an hour earlier, coupled with Steve Price’s quick wit and confidence, saw him hired on the spot for $17 a week. Fast forward to today and the veteran journalist is now celebrating a half century in the media. He laughs as he reflects that he was terrible at school and would likely have landed a “dreary bank job” had his father not intervened.

Instead, his career led him to meet idols like Mick Fanning, interview Princess Diana and cover such world-altering events as the 9/11 attacks.

Steve Price: “I lost 10kg and I probably put 10 years back on my life. It was a really hard thing to do but I’m so happy I did it because it changed me a lot. It made me nicer.” Picture: Daniel Nadel

Fifty years is a major milestone in any industry, particularly one as cutthroat as the media. What’s your secret?

Apart from 2020, when I was on gardening leave at the start of Covid after leaving 2GB in Sydney, I hadn’t worked a day in 50 years without a deadline.

It’s a very long time, and to survive in the media for 50 years, I’ve got to be doing something right.

Your dad was instrumental in launching your career. Were your parents proud of all you’ve achieved?

Oh, yeah! Dad’s dead now but my mother is still alive. She’s 87. I’ve ended up presented with a cuttings book of some story I wrote about cricket in 1973.

My mother still rings me to criticise what I wear on television. She listens to the radio show [Price now has a daily show, Australia Today With Steve Price, which streams live on the LiSTNR app], and she hasn’t been shy of telling me when what we were doing was no good.

They were very happy that I was in the media. I think they were pretty chuffed.

You must have met some colourful characters over the years. Who have been some of the most noteworthy?

A couple I have to be careful about legally. The Corby family aren’t my favourite people, and I famously said something about them on The Project that Mercedes objected to and decided to sue.

It was settled out of court for a high six-figure sum, but for 24 hours I wasn’t sure whether I’d be covered by Network 10’s insurance policy, so it was nerve-racking thinking I could lose my house to a Corby.

I also did I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! [in 2017] and had a run-in with one of the contestants, who was once called Kate Fischer but is now known as Tziporah Malkah.

My daughter showed me a magazine story when I got out of the jungle where Tziporah said she was going to seduce me while she was in there, which surprised me when I read it.

But then it made sense because on the second night she was in there, I was having a shower – and only the person showering is supposed to go down there at a time because it’s all out in the open – and she turned up and started taking her clothes off.

It unnerved me a bit, I’ll tell you. Particularly as there are cameras, so there were also people bound to be watching all this unfold. That vision has never surfaced. Thank God. And I hope it never does.

You started in journalism when you were very young. Have you ever considered any other career paths since then?

No. I feel very lucky to do what I do. If I walked down the street and [former Victorian premier] Jeff Kennett was walking the other way, he’d stop and say g’day.

I played golf with Bob Hawke in Sydney one day. It was about 38°C and Bob was chomping on a cigar and throwing it in the leaves. We were running around stomping out the fires, so Bob didn’t set the golf course alight. Little things like that.

Steve Price: I’ve been there for 12 years now; that’s a miracle. How many old white blokes last that long?” Picture: Daniel Nadel

Have you always felt like that about your chosen career?

I certainly think that the 43 days I did in the jungle [on I’m A Celebrity] made me realise that a lot more.

It stripped a lot off you because you had nothing to do except talk and those ridiculous trials. So, you sat around and thought. I lost 10kg and I probably put 10 years back on my life. It was a really hard thing to do but I’m so happy I did it because it changed me a lot. It made me nicer.

I was very aggro running 3AW [Price was a producer, program and news director, and presenter on the Melbourne drive show from 1987 until 2002] because I thought that’s what you needed to do to be successful, to be like aggressive broadcasters like Alan Jones or John Laws. But I realise now that you don’t need to be like that.

The jungle certainly showed the public a softer side to you. What’s still the biggest misconception about you?

From the public it’s that I’m some sort of right-wing “shock jock”. I don’t even know what that word means.

Australia doesn’t really have anyone like the American shock-jock types, like Rush Limbaugh. Alan Jones probably comes closest.

There’s often a knee-jerk reaction towards outrage if someone makes a mistake or says the wrong thing. Has that made you more inclined to self-censor?

If I make a mistake, I immediately apologise – I own it.

On The Project one night I referred to Jacinda Ardern as “that woman” and I shouldn’t have. She was on holiday in Queensland while Covid was raging. And she was saying something about Covid, and I said: “That woman is really starting to annoy me.”

I should have just said Jacinda Ardern, or the New Zealand Prime Minister, was annoying me. The use of the words “that woman” was wrong.

I went on-air the next night, at my request, and apologised because it was a dumb thing to say. That’s the problem with half the politicians. They say stupid stuff and then don’t own it.

When Scott Morrison makes mistakes, he should just own it and say sorry.

When it comes to criticism, The Project seems to cop more than its fair share. How much attention do you pay to that?

It’s got a talented variety of people on the desk, and it spends more time covering issues consistently than any other TV show. It’s not afraid to have a laugh at itself with Pete Helliar and Tommy Little.

Steve Price features in this Sunday’s Stellar.

Carrie [Bickmore] is just an outstanding person; the money she’s raised for cancer research… she’s unflappable on-air.

And Waleed Aly and I, even though we have completely different politics, we have huge respect for each other. And the longer I’ve been there, the more he and I are happy to have sensible, intelligent debates about our views even if we do disagree. I don’t know why people want to write that show off.

One criticism of the show is that it’s too woke. But you can hardly be called woke...

There is a wokeness to it, but we like to bust that wokeness open on Monday nights when I’m there. The people on the show aren’t really woke. There are issues that are covered that are a bit woke that I think are ridiculous.

But I just say as much, and they’re happy for me to do that. I’ve been there for 12 years now; that’s a miracle. How many old white blokes last that long?

Originally published as Steve Price: ‘How many old white blokes last this long?’