From Mal's first hand insight as a news cadet in Darwin witnessing the destruction of Cyclone Tracy to Mal the nightly face of Channel Seven then Ten news, with memories of Jack Dyer and Lou Richards, the deaths of Greg Shackleton and four other Australian newsmen, we enjoyed Mal's presentation, sincerity and warmth immensely.
Mal's story of a prisoner in a Melbourne gaol asking him for a personal favour, was very entertaining. Watch the YouTube Recording for the full story.
Mal officially launched our Rotary Melbourne's R100 Project: Rotary Safe Families. Members can find the films on our own website via the "Safe Families" Tab on front page.
Mal Walden's career spanned six decades in broadcasting and television. On his retirement in 2013 he was reported to be the longest ‘continually’ serving face on Melbourne television.
He began his media career in 1961 at Warrnambool radio station 3YB. From Warrnambool he moved across Bass Strait to Tasmania where he joined 7EX and later TNT Channel 9, also in Launceston. Between 1966 and 1969 Mal was a general announcer and news reporter for Melbourne's 3DB.
In 1969 he based himself in the Middle East spending six months on a kibbutz in Israel from where he filed news reports to Melbourne’s radio 3DB talk back host Gerald Lions.
Mal returned to Melbourne in 1970 and joined HSV-7 where he hosted a number of shows, including the popular program Jeopardy. In 1970 he also read his first news bulletin on Melbourne television before beginning a journalism cadetship with Seven.
In 1978 Mal became the first working journalist to be appointed a senior television news presenter, a trend that has since been adopted by most other Networks.
In April 1987 Mal not only read the news, he made the news. His controversial sacking from HSV7 by the Fairfax Sydney Television Group led to public protests, staff walkouts and a plunge in news ratings to an unprecedented zero. His immediate move to the TEN Network brought a record news rating of 40% market share - the equivalent of one million viewers a night.
