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Neil Mitchell is signing off from *3AW for the last time this morning \u2014 kicking off his final show with a song he has played as a sharp-edged mark of the departure of other public figures: Another One Bites The Dus<\/i>t.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I play it for myself,\u201d Mitchell said, before welcoming his opening guest right out of the fadeout from Queen.<\/p>\n
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Neil Mitchell is stepping down from his morning show after more than 30 years.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Jason South<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cI could be playing that for you,\u201d he told his interviewee. \u201cThe polls are bad, you look tired \u2026 what are you doing wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n The man on the other end of the phone was Anthony Albanese, the headliner on the last show of one of the most extraordinary runs in the history of Australian radio \u2014 and it was vintage Mitchell, who has been locking horns with political leaders since Albanese was in primary school.<\/p>\n His departure led the news on his own station on Friday morning, a reflection of his stature as a major Melbourne player in his own right. Every newsroom in the city has had an ear on what comes out of his studio for several decades, and this morning was no exception as TV cameras and photographers captured his final hours on air.<\/p>\n But they would all be evicted for the last half hour of his show. That, he promised, would be just him and his listeners for one last stoush. \u201cI should warn you, I haven\u2019t had much sleep so I\u2019m a bit dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n This was a send-off that seemed unimaginable when Mitchell first donned the cans back in 1987 as a fill-in for the long-time king of talkback Derryn Hinch. He was more of a traditionalist than Hinch \u2014 the self-proclaimed Human Headline, who more than lived up to that name. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it would last, I thought it was going to be a year of mucking around,\u201d Mitchell said on his 30th anniversary in 2017.<\/p>\n But like Hinch, Mitchell had print in his veins \u2014 a former Age<\/i> reporter who covered Trades Hall when Bob Hawke was a union leader, later editor of the afternoon institution The Herald, <\/i>he was driven more by news sense than a taste for the sensation and splutter of an Alan Jones or Ray Hadley.<\/p>\n He was 36. John Cain was premier, Bob Hawke was PM, Diana and Charles were still married, there were three TV networks plus Aunty and SBS, no internet, you could smoke pretty much where you wanted to, and more than a million Melburnians read a newspaper \u2014 a paper one \u2014 every day. Collingwood hadn\u2019t won a flag in 29 years. Pat Cash was Wimbledon champion.<\/p>\n He\u2019s now 72, with much water under the bridge.<\/p>\n He has been a ratings giant, and the foil of nine premiers and nine PMs. He has enraged progressives \u2014 so much so that Daniel Andrews boycotted his show \u2014 but irked conservative leaders, too: Jeff Kennett threw a glass of water over him, and Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison avoided his studio. In a polarised era critics have often been dumped in the knee-jerk conservative barrel \u2014 he\u2019s been assumed variously to be a foe of lockdowns (not true); vaccines (he wasn\u2019t); and same-sex marriage (nope, he supported that too.)<\/p>\n Albanese was kinder than some of his predecessors today: \u201cOne of the things we can all agree on is that the pace of change is a bit too fast sometimes \u2026 but you\u2019ve been a constant in people\u2019s lives. You are a person of great integrity and you have my respect and my best wishes.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitchell is at pains to stress he is not retiring. This morning he flagged ongoing podcasting, radio and TV spots and a regular newspaper column.<\/p>\n What about a book?<\/p>\n \u201cNobody\u2019s interested,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m an observer, not a participant.\u201d<\/p>\n After 36 years as a lightning rod and agenda-setter in the city and the nation more broadly, many would argue with the modesty of that assessment.<\/p>\n