When John Pickup first began working for the ABC, risk assessments weren't quite as rigorous as they are today.
For instance, while working as a sound effects officer, he was given the task of recording a rhinoceros 'roaring' at Sydney's Taronga Zoo in 1961.
"The producer and myself [were] in the cage with the rhinoceros and I had my recorder ready with the microphone," the now 90-year-old Mr Pickup tells ABC RN Late Night Live.
The recording was to be used in a radio version of Eugene Ionesco's play Rhinoceros.
"I held the mic very, very close to [the rhinoceros]. No, no sound."
Eventually the herbivorous mammal did make a sound, but it wasn't what they were expecting – it was a meek squeak.
So, Mr Pickup improvised by recording a lion's roar and slowing it down to get the sound they hoped for.
Like many Australians, Mr Pickup – who was born in Manly, Sydney – grew up with the ABC and it's long been an important part of his life.
But not many can still say that they were born within eleven months of each other – Mr Pickup was born in September 1931 and the ABC was founded the following year.
"I was listening to the ABC from day one," he says. And he was working there for almost as long.
Mr Pickup fell into radio by chance after school friends convinced him to enter 2UE's Rumpus Room's Announcers Talent Quest in 1947. To his surprise, he ended up winning the male voice of the day award.
This led to a three-month contract with Sydney radio station 2UE, followed by two years in commercial radio with 2GB Macquarie, working in sound effects, before he made the leap to the ABC in 1950.
When he arrived at the national broadcaster, he started out in the mailroom, before he returned to radio. Soon he was once again working in the sound effects department at ABC Broadcast House at 96 Market Street, Sydney.
It was here in studio 218, that he recorded actors and sound effects for ABC's radio dramas.
At the time, they had a room filled with instruments to create sound effects. Many of these would be quite valuable today, Mr Pickup says.
"There were drums from New Guinea, there was an old crank telephone from the 1900s, telephone bells on boards, car doors, doors for offices and ordinary house doors, set in big wooden frames. And every other thing that you [could] want for the sound effects [were] stored in that area," he recalls.
But there was a downside to that studio – it was only good in dry weather.
"When it rained or poured, as it so often does in Sydney, [the rain] came through the roof down to the floor in a flood," he says.
"It would rain so much on some occasions that I remember actors standing at the table with umbrellas over their head as they read their scripts to stop the rain falling on the pages."
The Melbourne / Sydney rivalry
Mr Pickup's ABC career spanned more than 40 years and he worked in both radio and television across the country.
He was present for many milestone moments.
For example, he was rostered on to be the floor manager for the very first broadcast of ABC TV in Melbourne on November 5, 1956.
However, about an hour before the broadcast, he was approached by producer Bill Noonan.
Mr Pickup wasn't fussed about being floor manager, as long as the significant event was done "right and proper" and he was still involved.
So he was given the task of opening a big book entitled 'The ABC presents the opening of television in Melbourne', which was to be the opening shot of the broadcast.
But even that wasn't straightforward, and he was told he had to have his hands made up.
"I took my right hand up to makeup [and] had it satisfactorily made up. Come eight o'clock, I get the cue from the floor manager. I pick up the book, I open to the first page.
"Now, it just so happens that …. my right hand is the first animated object seen on national television."
He was also part of the first group trained up for outside TV broadcasts in readiness for the Melbourne Olympics, which started on November 22, 1956.
At the time, the ABC's coverage of the Olympics only comprised of two outside broadcast camera vans with three cameras in each.
Mr Pickup also worked as a floor manager in Melbourne during the Olympics.
Off to Broken Hill
After his stint in television, Mr Pickup returned to radio broadcasting and became regional manager for the ABC in Broken Hill.
He planned to spend a few years in Broken Hill and then move on, but it didn't work out that way.
"I spent 27 plus years in Broken Hill and [it] was just so great. Just so many wonderful people. And you were absorbed into the community," he says.
There were many memorable moments, including a visit from someone who would go on to be world famous.
In the 1960s, the ABC often had celebrity recitals and international musicians would perform in both capital cities and regional areas.
Mr Pickup remembers a then-20-year-old pianist from Israel.
"[He] does his performance, beautiful performance, but afterwards, as we're sort of packing up, he said, 'John, I would like to go back to your studio and just unwind on your Steinway over there'," he recalls.
"He said, 'please, do get a few casks of wine and ask maybe a few of your friends' … which I did."
That talented pianist was Daniel Barenboim.
"And he played on until about three o'clock in the morning. Eventually [he said] 'I think I have had enough now. I think I can go to bed'."
Barenboim would go on to a highly acclaimed pianist and conductor. He is currently the general music director of the Berlin State Opera.
Station set alight
Working as a station manager in Broken Hill wasn't always smooth sailing: in 1966, an intruder set fire to the studio.
Despite the firefighters containing part of the fire, it was clear the building was not going to be in use for some time.
The small team tried to figure out how to let management know they had lost their studio.
"We [thought we] could ring them at three o'clock in the morning, but they might not be all that happy. [Instead] let's do a news bulletin," Mr Pickup says.
Technicians set up a temporary desk which had one turntable, an amplifier and a microphone in a nearby telephone exchange.
"I sat down at six o'clock in the morning to read the news. And of course, as soon as I started reading the news, all these people listening to the program were ringing their friends," he says.
A mural of the moment he read the news from the Broken Hill Telephone Exchange can still be seen on the side of the Broken Hill ABC regional station today.
After working at the ABC for 42 years, Mr Pickup retired in 1992 — but he wasn't done with broadcasting.
He went on to set up a community radio station in Mackay, Queensland, which is still operating today.
In 2020, John Pickup was awarded an OAM for his 57 years of services to broadcasting.
When asked in 2015 about his lengthy career, Mr Pickup said he'd enjoyed every minute.
"For the whole of the 42 years that I was with the ABC, I felt rather strange that here they were on pay day coming around with envelopes full of money saying 'here take this'," he said.
"I would have done it for the love of it — it was just a wonderful career."
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