My Personal Journey through Post-punk, Art, Music and Radio
7.Radio Work at the ABC
In 1993, a friend of mine by the name of Jamie Leonarder, who had been doing freelance work for Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) suggested my name for a program they were doing on serial killers. For this program I drew on my expanding knowledge of 20th-century murder, patterns and motives. I interviewed an astrologer in Sydney by the name of Malcolm McWalters who has looked into the astrological charts of famous serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Charles Manson and John Wayne Gacy. The main interview which I did, however, was with Robert Ressler. Since leaving the FBI in 1990 he ran his own private organisation called Forensic Behavioural Services out of his home in Virginia. He coined the phrase "Serial Killer" while working at the FBI in the 1970's. While at the FBI he began interviews with a number of notorious serial killers including Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dhamer. He then began to put together patterns and motives to aid in crime scene investigation and profiling (predicting the killer's sex, age group, family background, character and previous crimes from the crime scene analysis). He provides a consulting service to police investigators, crime scene investigators and psychiatrists and gives insights into the character of serial killers from various crime scene analyses.
Over the following years and while working full-time as a bridge design engineer I produced a further four programs for Radio National, for the program Radio Eye. These were on a variety of special interest subjects in accordance with my ever-growing and expanding interests outside of engineering. The programs were Japanese Noise (Japanese underground culture and music) (1994), an interview from Japan with European experimental sound artist Zbigniew Karkowski (produced in collaboration with ABC radio program maker Tony Barrell, one of my heroes from the days of 2 Double J) (1995), Horror Rhapsody -- the history of the use of music in horror films from the 1930s to the 1990s (in collaboration with Peter Doyle, member of The Loop Orchestra's original lineup) (1997). Art Brut (in collaboration with my friend and art brut maker Anthony Mannix) (2000). Most recently, I worked on the program Outsiders for the Night Air program on Radio National with music by The Loop Orchestra and readings by Anthony Mannix of his writings (2003).
During the course of work for these programs I carried out interviews from Sydney to overseas via satellite and telephone as well as carrying out numerous handheld microphone recordings and interviews. I also gained experience in studio production.
