Derryn Hinch reclines in his office chair playing with his Greek worry beads. They seem superfluous, given that he does not have much to worry about.
The most employable, most sacked person in Australian media history has rebounded once again, returning to 3AW where he made his name and fortune in the 1980s. At 59, Hinch is overjoyed at being invited back to the talk station that made him a household name as morning host between 1979 and 1987.
Sacked last year as morning host of struggling 3AK, the human headline is in the headlines once again as 3AW drive host from 4pm to 6pm. Hinch is back in the boys' club - his smiling face adorns the walls of 3AW's foyer - and he is back in the money with a rumoured yearly salary of $200,000, which he tops up with pocket money by doing live advertisements.
So, when most men his age are thinking retirement and golf, Hinch is firing up once again for the latest chapter in his 43-year media career.
It is a career that has seen him enjoy success and excess in the 1980s with a $1 million salary, a career during which he has been sacked 14 times, jailed for contempt of court, been down and out with debts of $4 million - which he has since repaid- and been parodied as Derryn Hunch by Steve Vizard.
"It's a great feeling. It's good to be here," Hinch says in his 3AW office. "They've been very good to me. I know it sounds very coy, but to get any job when you are 59, you are bloody lucky."
3AW also feels lucky as it attempts to rebuild the brand and the ratings trashed by Hinch's predecessor, Stan Zemanek. Since Hinch took over the microphone on February 3, listeners have spoken: his drive shift has soared in the ratings, up 4.5 to 15.1, listeners alienated by Zemanek have flocked back, and more importantly for 3AW, his program is attracting, shall we say, a more intelligent listener than those who followed Chairman Stan's vaudeville act.
His colleagues say Hinch is a dream to work with and they are impressed that the seasoned broadcaster is receptive to ideas. Station manager Shane Healy is amazed at the energy Hinch has brought to the job. "He is approaching it like a 30-year-old," Healy says. "He has approached this opportunity with fervour, vigour, focus and exuberance."
Healy says Hinch was the right person for the job, and that he should not be judged on his recent lacklustre performances on 3AK or 3AW where he hosted theNightline program in 2000.Nightline was a case of Hinch riding the wrong horse, he says. "I think he is on the right horse now and I'd be surprised if the audience don't judge him positively."
Hinch's return to 3AW is impressive given his somewhat rocky history with the station. He resigned in 1987 to pursue a television career with theHinch program; he then returned in 2000 to hostNightline but was sacked after ratings slumped. The hard-hitting Hinch and soft and cuddly senior citizens did not mix.
And it seems all is forgotten between Tony Bell, managing director of 3AW's parent company, Southern Cross Broadcasting, and Hinch after Bell last year dropped defamation action against Hinch over comments made on his 3AK morning show.
Talking about his ill-fated foray onNightline, Hinch says he feels vindicated after management apologised for sacking him. "Senior management told me they shouldn't have sacked me the last time - it was a mistake. They knew what they were hiring me for.
"To be crude, I guess I did burn down a couple of nursing homes and I upset a couple of old people who said, 'we used to fall asleep to Phil and Bruce', and I said, 'well, they didn't hire me to be a sleeping pill for insomniacs."'
Last year was not a good year for 3AW: its rating as the top talk station was usurped by 774 ABC Melbourne whose morning host, Jon Faine, stole Neil Mitchell's crown. Then there was the drive-show debacle where Zemanek brought a level of buffoonery never quite heard before on Melbourne radio.
Consequently, 3AW was desperate to climb back to No.1 and restore credibility to the drive program with a hard-hitting current affairs presenter similar to former host Steve Price, who moved to Sydney as 2UE breakfast anchor last year.
Before Price vacated the 3AW drive program, he took ratings to a high of 16.7. Zemanek ended his stint last year with a low of 10.6. The competitive Hinch has his sights on rating 17.1 in the next two or three years "because I think Price's highest was 17".
To shed light on why 3AW went awry last year, management carried out research that revealed the drive program needed to be more newsy. But Hinch, as a potential replacement, was identified as a "has-been".
This did not deter Graham Mott, general manager radio for Southern Cross Broadcasting, who says Hinch was hired because he is a proven performer.
"While some people may have said he is a has-been, the majority still see him as a very credible current-affairs presenter."
Hinch's perceived liability, that he is too old and too recycled, has become his asset. If war breaks out, 3AW would rather have the former newspaper editor and foreign correspondent in the chair than someone fresher but less worldly.
"He can handle the big stories, he is not afraid of having an opinion and you know where he is coming from. He has a great journalistic ability to sense a story and run with it," Mott says.
Hinch's track record sidelined other contenders for the job, including Ross Warneke, Nick McCallum and Steve Murphy.
There are several versions about the events leading to Hinch's appointment: one is that Hinch coveted the job and lobbied hard for it, ringing Mott, program director Clark Forbes, Bell, producers and other people of influence.
Hinch denies this, saying he was approached by Mott. But a well-placed source says Hinch hit the phones in a big way. "Hinch never lost interest in working for 3AW the whole
time when he was off 3AW nights and back to 3AK," the source says.
"He's smart enough to realise that there is only one commercial station that is going to be successful and that is 3AW. 3AK is always going to struggle."
Another version is that McCallum was close to signing a contract and was edged out by Hinch. McCallum says he was on the shortlist but knew the more experienced Hinch would win out.
One person not happy about Hinch's appointment is Warneke. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride, Warneke has filled in for Mitchell for eight years and covered big stories such as the Port Arthur massacre and September11. He thought his time had come for a permanent gig. Warneke toldThe Age: "I was extremely disappointed and believed I deserved better."
It is also understood that Steve Price, who still wields some power at 3AW from Sydney, is a fan of Hinch.
For Hinch, all his Christmases have come at once. The yuletide theme has even been woven into his joke about his history of Christmas sackings. What do Santa Claus and Hinch have in common? Both have white beards and no job in January.
Even a caller on Hinch's first day back at 3AW a fortnight ago got into the spirit by wishing him Happy Christmas. "I said 'what are you talking about?' and she said, 'you're never around at Christmas so I thought I'd get in early."'
In the 1980s, Hinch made his name as morning host on 3AW, and 3AW made its name as a talked-about station. Hinch enjoyed a six-year winning streak and holds the record for the highest-rating morning program: 21.4 in 1984.
This is his first stint in the fast-paced drive shift and he says he has no desire to one day reclaim the morning shift.
Hinch is revelling in his new lifestyle. He can sleep in (he's had years of 5am alarms), and stay up late to write his top-secret movie script.
But he has had to give up his habitual long lunches, which he has enjoyed every day for 25 years, and jokes that the restaurant trade will be poorer for it. No more Flower Drum, today it's a homemade salmon omelette with Turkish bread. Hinch still enjoys a drink or three, and has his evenings and weekends spare to wine and dine.
The thrice-married Hinch is single, but apparently very popular with the ladies.
"My love life is non-existent. My sex life's fantastic," Hinch jokes. Despite popular perception, his manager, Marina Paul, is not his girlfriend, but they socialise often.
Paul has worked with Hinch for four years and says she has never seen him so happy since scoring the 3AW job.
"It's the first time I feel he is where he belongs," she says. "His whole attitude has changed. He is looking well."
Media commentator Mark Day, with whom Hinch shares a "civil" relationship, dismisses his sparring partner as a "one-trick pony" who was a safe choice for 3AW, but questions if the station can keep "recycling old people" forever. "The audience may be familiar with the Hinches and Mitchells of the world, but at some point you've got to ask yourself: who's out there who is new and interesting?
"Let's see him not blow this one, because he's had a bit of habit of sacking himself or getting himself sacked."
Even a colleague of Hinch at 3AW questions how long the Bearded One will last. "There'll be some sort of blue. It's the way it always happens, just look at the history."
That would indeed be a shame, because Hinch is quite happy where he is.
Talking about shame, Hinch wants to clarify that, as the host ofHinch and keeper of The Shame File, he never coined that famous phrase. "I never said 'Shame, Shame, Shame.' Vizard did."