Malcolm T. Elliott

Malcolm T. Elliott (born 13 May 1946) is an Australian radio personality.^[1][2]

Early life and education

Malcolm T. Elliott was born Malcolm Allan Elliott at Moreland, Victoria, on 13 May 1946, to Allan Hamilton Elliott and Marion Rose Elliott (née Walters).

Career

Elliott started out as a printing compositor with Leader Group newspapers in Melbourne. He entered radio at the completion of his apprenticeship in February 1967 at 3NE Wangaratta, moved after only six months to 3SR Shepparton where he hosted the successful breakfast show. After eight weeks at 2TM Tamworth, in late-1969 he joined 3UL Warragul as breakfast announcer, then moved to 2KO and 2HD Newcastle before returning south to read television news in Albury at AMV-4 Albury. In 1970 he was selected to join the 2SM newsroom and became one of the many journalists to cover the first Papal Tour of Australia. He was then invited by Michael Schildberger (dec.) and Rhett Walker (dec.) to join Melbourne's number one station 3AK as deputy news director. He then joined 5AD in 1970 hosting the 8pm to 12 shift and also launched a half-hour evening News programme Newsday. In 1971 he was recruited by Canadian Programmer Peter Harding for 4BK Brisbane's Breakfast show and was an immediate success, bringing attention from 2UW. In 1972 he returned to Sydney to present the breakfast show on radio 2UW Sydney from 1972–76, and again from 1978–79 and with side-kick's Peter Shanahan and Tony Dickinson (dec.) (Sydney Morning Herald) the trio (one of the first ever breakfast teams) rated 16.5% the highest ever until that time in that station's history. (McNair Anderson). In 1985 he returned to 2UW and was doing the morning show which lasted a year before leaving the station. In 1975 he was voted THE MOST POPULAR RADIO PERSONALITY in NSW by TV WEEK and awarded a Logie.- source TV week

24 Hour Lock-in

On 14 and 15 January 1974 he "pretended" to cut the electric locks on the 2UW studio doors and locked himself in the studio for 24 hours, while the other presenters adjourned to the local "City Hotel". Thousands of people filed through the studios to see him and people all over Sydney turned off their Television sets and "watched" the radio. The public seemed to readily accept the "lock-in" as the gag it was, whilst management at other stations local and interstate believed that he had taken over the station. It resulted in a spike in the next ratings figures which took 2UW to its highest ever breakfast rating to that time.

Television

His television work included In Wollongong Tonight on WIN-4 in 1980, as a last minute replacement for Eric Walters (ex-TEN-10) who felt uncomfortable with the proposed format. Elliott had worked at Channel 7 Adelaide hosting "Long-Weekend" movie marathons for PD Lynton Taylor. When Taylor joined the Nine Network in Sydney in 1973 he appointed Elliott as one of the 5 regulars of Celebrity Squares along with Bert Newton, Don Lane, Chelsea Brown, and Ugly Dave Gray, who gave Elliott the nickname of Malcolm T-shirt Elliott. He also worked for the ill-fated mellow rock 87-2GB in 1976–1977, 2KY 1980 and 2UE 1983–1984,1988–89 and 1992–2004.

Marketing & No 1

In the decade of the 1980s Elliott graduated from the University of NSW with a business marketing diploma and held a number of high-profile positions. He was Marketing Director of News Limited, Westfield, RCA Records, Domino Computers, and CMS Computer Enhancements. He hosted 2GB afternoons in 1992–93. From 1993 till 2004 he worked at 2UE-4BC as Sunday morning presenter rating number one for 7 years and at the same time was night time fill-in for the late Stan Zemanek.

Health

On 11 June 2004 he underwent quintuple bypass surgery after suffering shortness of breath whilst on holiday at his new Northern Rivers home. He left 2UE in October 2004 to retire to the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. In March 2010 he underwent twelve weeks of Radiotherapy at Coffs Harbour Hospital for prostate cancer. On 12 October 2015 he underwent heart ablation surgery and the inserting of a heart defibrillator at Pindara Hospital at Benowa Waters in Qld. On 28 January 2016 he had his gallbladder and an umbilical hernia removed at the John Flynn Hospital at Tugun. (John Flynn records)(Jocks Journal)

Currently

He is currently retired from day to day broadcasting. His international date files It Happened Today have been used extensively on 2UE'S and 2GB's Alan Jones breakfast show since 1992, and were also featured in Webster's CD Encyclopaedia in 1997. He married Brenda Holland on 30 August 1975 and had one daughter Alicia (November 1975), and divorced in 1992. He remained single for 9 years until he married widow with 3 children Pamela Miller - (née Bunt) from Glenhaven in Sydney on 17 February 2001. In 2018 he was still living at his property at Goonellabah, (a suburb of Lismore) in Northern New South Wales, and has two female Whippet dogs.

References