Helliar’s wake-up call
January 27th, 2008 Posted in Pets Guide Michael Lallo talks to the laidback larrikin charged
with raising the breakfast ratings for Triple M.
WHEN Triple M signed Peter Helliar to its Melbourne breakfast
slot, some former colleagues sent him flowers.
“Are you f—ing crazy?” the card read. “Congratulations!”
The senders were Judith Lucy and Kaz Cooke. As Green
Guide readers well know, the trio’s 2004 2Day FM Sydney
breakfast show %26#151; moved to the national drive spot after
ratings plummeted %26#151; ended with the controversial sackings of
Lucy and Cooke. Austereo retained Helliar, prompting accusations of
sexism.
“I wish I could put my finger on why it happened the way it
did,” Helliar says, shifting in his chair. “It was a very tricky
and uncomfortable situation. But Jude did say to me %26#151; and I’ll
always be thankful to her for this %26#151; ‘Don’t be a martyr, don’t
feel you have to walk out on our behalf’.”
Cooke is just as supportive of Helliar’s new show, which he’s
co-hosting with Spicks and Specks team captain Myf Warhurst.
“Pete and Myf are both very much of the Nice People splinter group
of show business,” she says. “I wish them every success.
“And if they need some help to reprogram the Triple M computer
to dump all the Nickelback songs, I’ve got a claw hammer they can
borrow.”
Helliar doesn’t need to be cajoled into discussing his old job.
It’s the first thing he talks about, his memory no doubt jogged by
the enormous poster of Lucy looming over our table.
“The thing with Kaz and Jude is that we genuinely got on well
and we loved being on air,” he says. “You hear stories about
breakfast-radio teams who are at each others’ throats %26#151; I
couldn’t imagine having to deal with that. No matter what we went
through, we could always laugh about it at the end of the day. And
if we couldn’t laugh, we’d just get drunk.”
Not that he expects his new job will have him hitting the
bottle. His fill-in stints on Nova FM’s Hughesy %26amp; Kate
show last year reignited his interest in radio. And Triple M, he
says, is a perfect fit for a classic rock-loving, footy-obsessed
bloke like him.
There’s also the luxury of not replacing a much-loved ratings
powerhouse such as 2Day FM’s Wendy Harmer. (Triple M’s previous
breakfast show, The Cage, was third in the FM ratings when
it finished last year).
“You can’t win if you’re trailing on someone’s coat-tails,”
Helliar says. “If you succeed, it’s because you’re trailing on
their coat-tails and if you don’t succeed, well, you don’t succeed.
We’re starting a little way back in terms of ratings and there’s a
lot to be done. I don’t expect to be troubling Matt and Jo or
Hughesy and Kate any time soon.”
He says all the bases are covered for his new show: he’s a huge
sports and film buff while Warhurst is a music and pop culture
guru. Personal anecdotes will feature heavily and his alter-ego
Strauchanie will make an occasional appearance.
“Myf was the only person I thought of as a potential co-host,”
he says. “There was no plan B. As soon as I heard she was keen to
move back to Melbourne (Warhurst was co-hosting Triple J’s national
breakfast show from Sydney), I called her and she said yes.”
Almost immediately, the backlash began. Warhurst isn’t the first
person to leave Triple J for a commercial job, but the criticism
she attracted was particularly vitriolic. Aggrieved listeners even
started a Facebook group called “Myf Warhurst is Going to
Hell”.
“Myf has just signed a deal with the devil,” it reads, “which
will see her giving away icy cold cans of Coke and flogging the
latest Creed albums on Triple M. This group is for anybody who is
distraught over Myf’s traitorous act. Sell-out!”
Helliar, who is almost genetically unflappable, becomes
irritated. “Some of the statements from Triple J and ex-Triple J
people have been so patronising towards Myf,” he says. “A lot of
them were said by people who barely know her or people who just
want to see their name in the paper. Myf’s a grown woman who’s
capable of making her own decisions. And she’s in her mid-30s
%26#151; at what point do you move on from a youth station?
“Not that she needs me to defend her,” he adds.
Warhurst, however, appreciates his comments. “He knew what I was
going through and he felt bad about the reaction I copped,” she
says. “But he shouldn’t have had to feel that way because I jumped
at the chance to work with him. He was very supportive during that
time. He’s a good mate.”
The implication that commercial radio is a “dark beast” also
riles Helliar. As long as he can say what he likes on his show, he
doesn’t care which station he works for. And some of the sniping,
he suspects, is driven by professional jealousy.
It’s hard not to like Helliar. His habit of avoiding eye contact
is endearing given it reflects a surprisingly shy side of his
personality. When he asks a question, he’s genuinely interested in
your response. Many of his peers aim to cultivate such a persona
but are betrayed by an overriding “I’m the star” vibe. Not so with
Helliar.
No wonder he’s so popular. He might not be to everyone’s liking,
but even our most enthusiastic poppy cutters have left him alone.
Helliar, however, has unearthed the few who really do loathe
him.
“I made the mistake of Googling myself once,” he says. “There’s
very little rationale in those chat rooms. Nobody’s saying, ‘Oh,
he’s not my cup of tea, but I can appreciate that others might like
him.’ It’s always, ‘I wish he’d just f— off and die’.”
For someone unaccustomed to anything harsher than indifference,
2007 was a year out of the ordinary.
First, there were his musings on Rove about what to give
Pamela Anderson for her birthday. “Hepatitis C?” he suggested. “Oh
wait %26#151; she already got that last year.”
The comment made news in London, New York and Tokyo and caused a
firestorm at home. When a hepatitis support group demanded he
apologise, he didn’t hesitate.
“But then the woman who made the complaint called to thank me
for apologising,” he says. “I told her I didn’t mean any offence,
and she said, ‘I know you didn’t %26#151; we just thought it was a
good opportunity to get the word out’. I actually felt a bit used.
There are more positive ways to get the word out there.”
Not long after, he agreed to a 2GB phone interview to promote a
children’s cancer benefit. Moments before he went on air, friend
Ben Fordham from A Current Affair called to tell him he’d
just walked into a Today Tonight sting.
“I mean, I was there to support a benefit for sick kids,” he
says. “That’s pretty low.”
A few months later, Ben Cousins failed to check into an LA rehab
clinic, prompting 3AW’s Neil Mitchell to speculate he was “either
dead or in the process of slowly dying”. When Helliar lampooned
these claims on Rove, Mitchell attacked McManus.
“Rove, the poor bugger, hadn’t even said anything!” Helliar
says. “Obviously Neil has a lot of air time to fill. But you know
what? Just because you can’t get on to Ben Cousins or his dad,
don’t put out this rumour that he’s dead or possibly dying just so
his dad has to come out and say, ‘My son’s not dead’. I saw the
press conference that Bryan Cousins had to do and I just thought,
‘You poor bloke.’ ”
Helliar has no problem defending his jokes. What’s more annoying
are the rumours that he’s, well, a bit lazy. According to some in
the industry %26#151; most of whom would never say it to his face
%26#151; his success has more to do with the good fortune of having
friends such as Rove rather than hard work. Helliar admits he’s
heard such sentiments in the past. They bother him only because
they’re not true, he says, pointing out that he’s always juggled a
number of demanding jobs.
McManus, who has hired him in a number of different roles, also
comes to his defence. “Nobody in this industry would be where they
are without a helping hand,” he says. “But Pete is a very hard
worker. Most people don’t realise how creative he actually is. The
biggest cheer at the (E.J. Whitten) Legends Game was for
Strauchanie. That came entirely from his skills and hard work as a
performer %26#151; not me.”
If anything, Helliar’s wife Bridget has to rein him in. The
couple has two sons: Liam, 5, and Aidan, 3. Helliar struggles to
articulate the impact fatherhood has had on him, worried that his
heartfelt sentiments will appear corny. But it has changed in him.
He cries in children’s movies, for example. He’s less selfish. And
he’s more likely to overreact to seemingly trivial events.
“The amount of celebrating we do when Aidan goes to the potty is
ridiculous,” he laughs. “My wife and I will be clapping and jumping
around, and then we look at each other and think, ‘This is crazy
%26#151; the kid’s just taken a dump!’ He better not expect that
reaction when he’s 16.”
His desire to spend more time with his children means he won’t
return this year to popular football panel show Before the
Game. He’s disappointed, but at least his clueless Collingwood
character Bryan Strauchan will live on.
Helliar is as surprised as anyone at Strauchanie’s enormous
popularity. After initially refuting a rumour about a possible
Strauchanie feature film, he’s now considering a telemovie. There’s
also a romantic comedy called I Love You Too in the
works.
But for now, it’s all about radio.
“My last breakfast gig taught me how important it is not to get
caught up in the politics of a radio station,” he says.
“The only thing I can control is what goes to air. All I want is
to talk into that stick that makes my voice go into people’s cars.
It really is that simple. If I can do that, I’ll be happy.”
Pete %26amp; Myf is on Triple M, weekdays from
6am.
Related posts
Tags: amp, ash, benefit, bet, game, joke, love, pecks, Pet, sap
