Two ABC presenters share stories of 35 years in media

Two ABC presenters, Mark Gibson and Nadia Mitsopoulos, have each spent 35 years in the media industry. Nadia always wanted to be a journalist since high school, inspired by her father, Brian Burke, who was a journalist. Mark, on the other hand, was inspired by news watching with his father, who watched various news channels.

Nadia attended Curtin University for three years, doing a journalism major. She landed her first job through persistent phone calls to the news director, who finally agreed to give her a chance after eight days of calling. Mark, who also studied journalism at Curtin, switched his focus from print journalism to radio after learning about a broadcasting course at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. He got the job at Northwest Radio in Karratha, leaving his course behind.

Nadia initially earned more than Mark, working as a journalist in Bunbury and Albany, where she gained broad experience covering various topics. Mark started as a radio announcer and DJ before moving into news. Nadia's career took her to Perth for commercial television news, where she specialized in state politics. Mark moved to Sydney, working at 2GB radio station, covering crime.

In the 90s, both reporters covered some of the most horrific stories of their careers, including police corruption and paedophilia cases in Sydney. They relied on landlines, public phone boxes, and telex machines for their work, which was a laborious process compared to today's technology. They had to call people multiple times to reach their contacts and often visited their homes to investigate stories.