Richard the Lionheart

February 6, 2005

Photo: Nicole Emanuel

He's conquered stand-up comedy and commercial radio. But is Richard Stubbs ready for his new crusade, ABC afternoon radio? Michael Shmith meets a tireless warrior of the airwaves.

Here is Richard Stubbs, very much a man of the moment in thought, word and deed, talking not about his return to daytime radio or what he has been doing during his long absence from it, but of the Roman Empire and a month he spent by himself in Italy last year doing the old traps. "I got to go to the freaky places," he says. "Where Caesar was stabbed, which is now a cat sanctuary in the middle of a square. Then I toured around Sicily, skipped over the oldest Doric temple, but spent hours in Syracuse at a fortress that Archimedes built. Marvellous time."

One does not doubt this. Especially as he continues, warming to his ancient theme by making a modern comparison. "As I get older, I read the original sources and recognise the people: I've worked for Caesar, or I've worked for a bloke like this: people don't change. It is particularly fascinating, if you're living in such a time of turmoil, how things fit in with everything when you put them in a historical perspective instead of what we tend to do, which is look at it as a snapshot of what we see in the paper on a particular day."

Stubbs' retro view of the world is not because he is working for the ABC - how he would enliven Radio National! - and is perhaps boning up on a bit of intellectual talk-fodder for his first program tomorrow afternoon on 774. This is strictly self-educational: he has returned to university, via the internet, to do an arts degree in history. This semester, it's the Crusades. "There was a lot of smoting in the Crusades," he says. "Mindless smoting. Often smoting of Christians by other Christians."

He says his degree is just for him. "I'm not aiming to finish it soon," he says. "A couple of times I've been on holiday in Bali and had to go to an accredited centre in Denpasar to do my exams. I was supervised by a woman who was a random sniffer: she sat there staring at me and sniffing while I'm trying to write essays about Greeks in 4AD. But it was all fun."

BORN November 4, 1957
EDUCATED Wesley College, Monash University
FAMILY A son, 12, and daughter, 10
CAREER Radio: 1984-88 3XY, 1988-97 Triple M, 2000-02 TTFM/ MIX FM. TV includes 120 Tonight Liveshows. Edinburgh Festival, Montreal Festival, Melbourne comedy festivals, national tours and Sydney Comedy Store.

Richard Stubbs uses the word "fun" quite often when referring to his new job. "Look, it's not like breaking bricks: I enjoy it," he says. "Fun is why I am doing it. Having been floating around for so long, to some extent I'm a known quantity, so the ABC know what they're getting and in spite of that they've said I'm allowed as much rein as I like within the parameters of the show."

Stubbs describes himself as a comedian, and sees his role in his new program as an entertaining one. He replaces Lynne Haultain, who resigned late last year. The slot, from 1pm to 3pm, has been notorious for not attracting listeners. It has also been shortened by an hour to extend the drive program, presented by Virginia Trioli.

Joining 774 puts Stubbs at the same station with a fellow student from his Monash University days, Jon Faine. Stubbs studied economics and law, but didn't like law at all. "I looked at my group and said 'You're not my tribe'. I had to find that tribe." Maybe he is still looking for it - even if it means searching back through history.

Therefore, it is tempting to see Stubbs the radio man as a crusader. Will he ride roughshod through the ratings or has he been handed a poisoned chalice? "The idea it's the poorest house on the best street is what attracts me. You always like to look at something and say there's an opportunity here, something I can bring. I can make it entertaining. I'm the entertaining bit between news and current affairs. That's what I've been all my life."

Ratings? "I've never not taken notice of ratings; some ingrained traits are hard to get rid of."

We are talking down the road from the ABC, over a caffeine fix in the foyer of the Malthouse.

He has been at the ABC for just three days, which explains why he is on first-name terms with his two producers because he can't yet recall their last ones. The hallowed halls of Southbank are a world removed from the smoky caverns of stand-up land and the black four-wheel-drives of Triple M and TT-FM. "It's the little things that are different," he says. "I look round and it looks like a radio station. But what's missing is the sales department. A whole section of a station I'm used to seeing is just not there. A friend of mine who's a sales person said to me, 'Do you know, that's the weirdest thing about this job? You're going to be on air and none of us can make money from you.' "

The format of his show is decidedly sketchy at this stage: "Me talking, listeners chatting to me, me talking to folk who may or may not be famous, and probably other stuff I haven't worked out yet. They're the main elements."

Different from commercial radio, though. "Huge. When you listen and hear me pause every three minutes, you'll think I'm waiting for the song. That's going to be one of the big differences. Commercial formats - and I've had a great career - are by their nature restrictive. The challenge the ABC offers is they want to me to be entertaining with the room and the time to do it. That's a great, challenging freedom."

It has been a while since radio engagements. "Yeah. I've had lots of gaps. In '98 for two years I wrote a book and did stand-up tours; then I was back on the radio for three years; another two-year gap and now back again. I had choices, but I chose this because I thought it would be fun. My choices included do nothing, keep doing the corporate work - product launches, industry awards night - I could keep doing that happily. But this is fun, different, a new skill-set.

"At this moment I'm thinking it's the most stupid thing I have done, why didn't I stay in my safety zone? But I think that before every gig, and this is a gig. It has probably caught people by surprise as a career choice. But I guess I've got the luxury of being able to do what I wanted to do."

The worst show, he says, will be the second. "You put all your energy and focus into the first and then you go a bit flat. I've got to fight against those things. I'm going to ask people to take a breath, roll their eyes a bit, cluck their tongue and go 'bloody comedian!' before they pick up the phone. And perhaps ring me on air to point out the error of my ways."

So here he is: two hours, five days a week - a brave new frontier, with lots more talk. "I have sweaty nights saying 'I've never done anything like this before'. Then someone pointed out I have done 120 tonight shows. Well, this is like a tonight show, with guests and monologues. The only thing is in television, you can see your audience; with radio you have to do this Tinkerbell thing and really believe there are audiences out there."

Richard Stubbs is on 774 ABC Melbourne from 1pm to 3pm from tomorrow.