AWARD-WINNING TELEVISION NEWS HOST, JOURNALIST, AUTHOR
Melissa Doyle is an Australian television favourite with a hugely successful career spanning more than twenty-five years, from hosting Australia’s number one breakfast show for more than a decade, to the 6 p.m. news and now the host and senior correspondent of Seven’s flagship news and a current affairs program Sunday Night. She is a multi-award-winning journalist and has covered many notable news events both in Australia and around the world, including hours of uninterrupted live coverage during the Martin Place Siege in 2014. She is a bestselling author and spokesperson for a number of charities.
I’d wanted to be a journalist since I was about twelve. Every school holidays I’d go anywhere I could to get any sort of work experience: The Manly Daily, the graveyard shift at 2GB, a television station in Coffs Harbour. And if they said they didn’t take work experience kids, I convinced them to let me come in as the tea maker or newspaper sorter. Anything to get in the door of a newsroom!
I studied Communications at Charles Stuart University in Bathurst and had my heart set on TV journalism. I got a job as a cadet reporter at WIN TV in Canberra about a month before finishing uni so luckily they let me use on-air reports as practical work so I could graduate. I filed an average of two stories a day and I was the weather girl for our nightly 6 p.m. bulletin.
THE EARLY CHALLENGES
I honestly don’t remember the early challenges! Maybe I’ve blotted it out. I remember working hard, taking every opportunity, giving anything a go. I do remember being frustrated when I couldn’t always get the breaks I wanted. The weather position became available not long after I started at WIN, and I remember finally convincing the boss to give me a go in the role one Friday night. I said if I was terrible I’d never bug him about it again. I don’t think I was very good, but I did get the job. I had the same attitude when I knocked on the door at Seven News. I offered to work for free just to be given the opportunity to prove myself.
Career breaks can be the combination of a few things – right place at the right time – but you’ve got to be good enough to walk through the door when it opens in front of you and have worked hard enough to actually get there. And sometimes you have got to back yourself. I think it takes a few years to work out your strengths and weaknesses. And I think both are equally important to recognise and embrace.
HOSTING A BREAKFAST SHOW
It was an incredible opportunity to work on Sunrise. We were able to build a show from the ground up into what it is today. I remember celebrating when we got to 50 000 viewers. Because we started under the radar, we were able to find our own way, totally by ourselves, stand up for issues we believed in, give the program soul and heart, and let it grow naturally. Viewers started to come along with us for the ride and we really created a Sunrisefamily. We could try a new way of doing things – we became ‘Mel and Kochie’ instead of the more formal Melissa Doyle and David Koch (my co-host). We read viewer emails on air and campaigned for issues that hadn’t traditionally been getting attention in that sort of format. I am very proud of what we achieved. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it was tough though. Getting up at 3 a.m. for fourteen years. Having two babies during that time. Sleep and nightly TV were two things I missed for a very long time.
Note: the page shows “Charles Stuart University” — the real institution is Charles Sturt University, so you may want to check that against the original.
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