Veteran broadcaster Clive Robertson has died, network reports
Journalist and newsreader Clive Robertson has died, aged 78, his former network Seven has reported.
Robertson worked across radio and television, hosting Newsworld and TV chat show Beauty and the Beast.
Clive Robertson.Credit: Fairfax Media
Based in Sydney, Robertson was a well-respected newsreader for many years, working at most TV networks. He began his broadcasting career in 1972 with the ABC before moving to Seven in the 1980s.
Robertson had cancer.
He was frank, expressive and at times controversial, and is credited with helping change the face of the news, at times inserting himself into the bulletin.
He was married for a time to actor Penny Cook, who starred in A Country Practice.
Radio presenter Mike Jeffreys, who worked with Robertson throughout his career, including at 2GB, told the station he had been in touch with Robertson through his recent health issues.
“I was getting texts up until a couple of weeks ago from him. He was Clive to the end, he was quirky to the end,” he said.
“He told me on several occasions that he was born on the wrong planet, maybe that was the whole approach. He would say whatever he felt like, and you know that overworked word – authenticity – he really had that.
Robertson in 1984.Credit: Fairfax Media
“When you saw written down what he said, sometimes it would be shocking, but when you heard him say it, it was funny, and it was what you expected from Clive.
“He was a worldwide phenomenon at one stage, because of the things he would do when he was supposed to be reading the news, and would sometimes do anything but that on TV.”
ABC broadcaster Margaret Throsby also paid tribute on X, writing: “Very, very sad to learn of the death of my old partner in crime Clive Robertson. Eccentric, one-off, brilliant broadcaster, tease, unreconstructed, his Breakfast show on 702 Sydney was essential listening.”
Also on X, columnist and broadcaster Phillip Adams said: “Vale Clive. Mr Roberson was a totally original broadcaster. An anti-shock jock.”
More to come
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