I'm Just a Puppet: ABC Veteran Phillip Adams Reveals What Sets Him Apart Ahead of Final Show | Australian media

P.Hillip Adams spent 33 years speaking to more than 50,000 guests on Radio Nationals Late Night Live, but ABC says the secret to his success lies in his previous life as a film producer, advertising executive and rights activist. the man.

I think what sets me apart from others is that I have, almost invariably, some sort of personal connection with the guest or the subject, because of the other lives I've led, Adams told the Guardian Australia on the eve of its final program on Thursday. evening.

These other lives were best summed up by ABC chief executive David Anderson when he told a farewell gathering that the 84-year-old's extraordinary achievements were part of our national cultural history.

Anderson said Adams was a journalist, broadcaster, satirist, intellectual, advertising executive, film producer, farmer, author, president, CEO, troublemaker, skeptic and, in recent years, a prolific social media commentator.

Former Late Night Live executive producer Gail Boserio, who worked with Adams for 21 years from the telex era to the podcast era, described why Adams has attracted such a loyal audience on ABC radio year after year: his naughty side, his brilliant mind, his compassion for the downtrodden and that irreverence of course, but above all, how he treats everyone as his equal.

His gentle humor, curiosity and what Laura Tingle calls his enormous brain have created a loyal clientele Gladdies and Poddies who logged in for his interviews with everyone from Mikhail Gorbachev and Arthur Miller to Gore Vidal.

Adams says he took the job on LNL in 1991 because I had no social life and could just come in at 10 p.m. and he can't believe his little wireless show lasted so long .

And so, all of a sudden, 33 years have gone by in a flash but, at the same time, my God, we've done a lot of things and it's been damn good, Adams says. I leave the show with mixed emotions.

I have no choice. I will soon need a seeing eye dog and a white cane. I have macular degeneration; I have mental degeneration; some would say moral degeneration. I just stayed to annoy [rightwing critic] Gerard Henderson.

Adams is modest about her accomplishments at the NLL and attributes her success to her producers, who were overwhelmingly women. “I'm just a puppet, a glove puppet to my extraordinary number of producers,” Adams says.

They all have their own obsession with certain things. And I sit there and say the right words. It's easier to do what I do, but it's much harder to do what they do.

We speak with Adams shortly after the announcement of Julian Assange's release. Adams considers Assange a dear friend and has known him since he was a young hacker before WikiLeaks. He lobbied for his release.

In his latest broadcast, which he pre-recorded, Adams expresses his anger at his fellow journalists who did not sufficiently support Assange, not knowing that the segment would soon be obsolete.

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And now fucking Julian, with no sense of timing, is doing this to me, Adams said with his tongue firmly in his cheek. I mean, hand him over to Belmarsh Prison!

No, I'm really glad this guy is away and I hope he comes and stays on the farm with the family at some point.

Former NSW Premier and former Federal Foreign Minister Bob Carr, a frequent LNL guest, paid tribute to Adams' commitment to Assange during his farewell.

Victory has a thousand fathers, but no one has as much claim to perseverance in this cause as Phillip, Carr said.

ABC Adelaide broadcaster Paul Gough, who worked with Adams on LNL in the early days, said his retirement was a sad occasion but his legacy was strong.

But I hope you enjoy life beyond the radio, Gough said. The good thing is your voice will travel through the cosmos forever and I hope that somewhere in the galaxy far, far away, someday they will hear Phillip Adams and say, My God, who is this man?

• Phillip Adams' final episode of Late Night Live, in which he is interviewed by Laura Tingle, airs on Thursday. Listen or catch up ABC Listen App

• David Marr will take over as host of Late Night Live on Monday, July 15.