Veteran newsman Mal Walden reflects on his career with new book ‘The Newsman Sixty Years of Television’

Veteran newsreader Mal Walden has written a new book ‘The Newsman’ 60 Years of Television’.

Mal sat down in studio with Neil Mitchell to reflect on his career as a journalist and chat about his new biography.

He told Neil of the first news story he broke as a young disc jockey, the assassination of JFK.

‘I put Connie Francis’ ‘Where The Boys Are’ on the turntable and rang my boss. That was basically the first news story I broke.’ – Walden said on 3AW Mornings.

He says one the toughest stories he reported on was Cyclone Tracy, Mal headed up to Darwin to face the devastation, he filed reports on film which were then handed to a jet pilot and flown back to the Channel 7 newsroom. 

  

Mal Walden reporting on Cyclone Tracy from Darwin in 1974.

Losing colleagues in East Timor was also a big challenge Mal faced during his time as a journalist. 

‘The Newsman’ highlights some of the biggest stories of the last 60-years and songs that Mal associated with them. 

WATCH some highlights from the interview below

Click PLAY below to hear the FULL interview