Phillip Adams spent 33 years talking to more than 50,000 guests on Radio National’s Late Night Live but the ABC broadcaster says the secret to his success lies in his earlier life as a film producer, advertising executive and human rights activist.
“I think what sets me apart from others is that I have, almost invariably, some sort of personal connection with either the guest or the subject, because of the other lives I’ve led,” Adams tells Guardian Australia on the eve of his final program on Thursday evening.
Those “other lives” were best summed up by the ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, when he told a farewell gathering that the 84-year-old’s extraordinary achievements “have been part of our national cultural story”.
Anderson said Adams has been “journalist, broadcaster, satirist, intellectual, advertising executive, film producer, farmer, author, chair, CEO … ratbag, troublemaker, sceptic and, in more recent years, a prolific commentator on social media”.
The former Late Night Live executive producer Gail Boserio, who worked with Adams for 21 years from the “telex age to the podcast age”, described why Adams drew such loyal audiences on ABC radio year in and year out: “His naughty streak, his brilliant mind, his compassion for the underdog and that irreverence for sure, but importantly, how he treats everyone as his equal.”
His gentle humour, curiosity and what Laura Tingle calls his “enormous brain” has created a loyal following of Gladdies and Poddies who have tuned in for his interviews with everyone from Mikhail Gorbachev and Arthur Miller to Gore Vidal.
Adams says he accepted the job on LNL in 1991 because “I had no social life and I could just wander in at 10pm” and he can’t believe his “little wireless program” has lasted so long.
“And so, all of a sudden, 33 years have passed in a flash but, at the same time, God, we’ve done a lot of stuff and it’s been pretty damn good,” Adams says. “I leave the show with mixed emotions.
“I have no choice. I’m going to need a seeing eye dog and a white cane shortly. I’ve got macular degeneration; I’ve got mental degeneration; some would say moral degeneration. I’ve just stuck around to annoy [rightwing critic] Gerard Henderson.”
Adams is modest about his achievements at LNL and attributes his success to his producers, who were overwhelmingly women. “I am just a marionette, just a glove puppet for my extraordinary number of producers,” Adams says.
“They all bring their own obsession with things. And I simply sit there and mouth the right words. It’s easier doing what I do but much harder doing what they do.”
We are speaking to Adams soon after news broke that Julian Assange was to be freed. Adams considers Assange “a dear friend” and has known him since he was a young hacker in his pre-WikiLeaks days. He lobbied hard for his release.
On his final show, which he pre-recorded, Adams expresses his anger with fellow journalists for not being sufficiently supportive of Assange – not knowing the segment would soon be out of date.
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“And now fucking Julian, with no sense of timing, does this to me,” Adams says with tongue firmly in cheek. “I mean, put him back in Belmarsh prison!
“No, I am thrilled to bits that the bloke is out and I hope he comes and stays at the farm with the family at some point.”
The former New South Wales premier and former federal foreign affairs minister, Bob Carr, a frequent guest on LNL, paid tribute to Adams’ commitment to Assange at his farewell.
“Victory has a thousand fathers but there is no one with a greater claim to persistence in this cause than Phillip,” Carr said.
The 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 will enjoy life beyond radio,” Gough said. “The nice thing is your voice will forever travel through the cosmos and I hope that somewhere in the far distant galaxy one day they will hear Phillip Adams and say, ‘My God, who is that man?’”
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Phillip Adams’ final Late Night Live episode, in which he is interviewed by Laura Tingle, airs on Thursday. Listen or catch up on the ABC Listen app