Christian broadcaster Stephen O’Doherty has been honoured in the King’s Birthday Awards with the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to the community through a range of organisations including Christian Media And Arts Australia (CMAA), of which he is a director.
He began his career in commercial radio and TV and the ABC, before serving as a New South Wales MP. He was the inaugural CEO of Christian Schools Australia and chaired the boards of Hope Media, Family Radio and Sunshine Coast Christian Broadcasters.
He hosted the popular Sunday night talkback show on Christian radio called Open House. He said the Sunday night slot provided “a great opportunity to not only reflect on the week that has been but, even more importantly, prepare people for the week coming up.”
Stephen told Hope 103.2 in 2017: “I started out as a young man with a passion to be in radio and do news and current affairs. In the 80’s I was in my early 20s and was given the opportunity to be one of the pioneers of the news talk format in Australia. I did the drive time format program on 2GB. We were the first commercial, all-talk station. It was a very exciting time to be in radio.”
“I had such a love of radio, and [at the time] it was about the pursuit of ratings as much as anything else. I’ve had a long time since then to reflect on the role of radio in our society, and have come to believe that community radio, and Christian community radio, are coming into their own now as media we have to have — for democracy to be strong.”
“I was a very tenacious interviewer, and I think one of the features of our program the Sundown Rundown was that I’d get the Premier or the Prime Minister on, and I’d ask them a question, and keep pursuing the question until I got to an answer. So it became a contest between me and the interviewee. I’m still tenacious, I still want to get to the truth. But what happened in my mid-20s, my broadcasting phase, was that I became a Christian; I accepted the truth about Jesus and what He did. I’m still tenacious about the truth, but I’m looking for truth now that reflects a sense of God’s truth.”
“An interviewer is in a very powerful position, potentially, and to get somebody on the air, and pursue them to the point where you make them embarrassed or make them squirm, or in some way bring them down, is not respectful. It doesn’t help the debate, nine times out of ten, but sometimes it is necessary, and our society depends on robust seeking-after-truth. That doesn’t mean robust destroying of individuals. So I think what changed for me as a journalist in my 20s when I became a Christian, was I started pursuing the truth of an issue rather than bringing down the interviewee.”
Stephen told Eternity News in 2017 that he had been thinking for a long time about how to build the capacity of Christian community radio stations in Australia’s capital cities, so they can have strong news services grounded in a Christian foundation. “It’s one of the reasons I left Christian Schools in the end. I invested 15 years helping to build the profile and impact of the Christian school sector and, at the same time, I’d never lost my belief that both media and education are critical to help build a better society,” he explained.
As a commentator on politics and social issues he has been a regular panelist on the ABC’s The Drum and Weekend Breakfast and has also appeared on Q&A. The ABC wrote: “Stephen has a passion to see Christian radio continue to thrive as a significant part of Australia’s community broadcasting sector. He represents CMAA on the Community Broadcasting Roundtable.”
He has also been been very active in music as the Musical Director of the Golden Kangaroos, a community concert and marching band based in Sydney’s north. He has conducted school and community bands for more than 30 years. Stephen is also the patron of Studio ARTES, a unique service providing meaningful community and vocational experiences for adults with a disability in suburban Hornsby.
Photo: New Hope 103.2
