Paul Murray (presenter)

Paul Murray
Paul Murray at the 2012 Radio Awards in Sydney
Residence	Sydney, Australia
Education	Epping Boys' High School University of Western Sydney
Occupation	Radio and television presenter
Years active	2001–present
Employer	Sky News Australia
Known for	Telvison and radio presenting
Spouse(s)	Sian Murray
Children	Leo (deceased), Asher
Awards	ASTRA Awards – Most Outstanding Performance by a Broadcast Journalist 2013 Sky News Australia
Website	Paul Murray Live

Paul Murray is a conservative radio and TV broadcaster based in Sydney, Australia. He was the former regular Mornings presenter on 2UE show "A Sydney Morning". He also hosts Paul Murray Live on Sky News Australia (a panel show examining the day's news from a different perspective) which airs Sunday to Thursday at 9pm AEST.^[1] and Saturday Edition.^[2]

Career

Prior to joining 2UE Murray worked for Triple M (most notably as co-host of popular drive show 'Paul and Rach') 2005-2010, Nova969 (Newsroom/Late Nights) 2001-2004, 2SM (Newsroom) 1999-2001 and 2GB (Newsroom) 1998-2000 and again in 2004.

Murray has won a variety of radio awards (ACRA) including Brian White Memorial Award (radio news reporting) and Best Documentary (Triple M's Tribute to Vic Davies). He has also been nominated several times for best comedy segment and in 2012 was nominated for best talk presenter.

Late in 2005, Murray left Nova 96.9 to commence his television career. In November 2005, he began reporting and hosting segments for the Seven Network's morning current affairs & variety program Sunrise; later he was a regular guest on Weekend Sunrise.

In 2008, Murray joined The Shebang with Marty Sheargold and Fifi Box on Triple M's Sydney breakfast shift and also co-hosted the short-lived chat show The NightCap on 7HD. The latter program debuted with the first known public discussion of the childhood accident that left him with only nine toes.^[3][4] He also joined Sky News Australia where he began hosting 180 with Paul Murray (now known as Paul Murray Live).

At the start of 2009 Murray began hosting the All New Paul Murray Show on Sydney and Melbourne's Triple M from 7pm-10pm weekdays and on Brisbane's Triple M from 10pm-1am. Later that year, he was replaced by Ugly Phil and began hosting a drive program, Paul & Rach with Rachel Corbett.

In November 2010, it was announced that Murray would be moving to AM radio station 2UE. He hosted both Drive and Morning shows and in early 2013, he began hosting the morning show Sydney Mornings. In October 2013, Murray openly criticised the decision by 2UE to sack fellow radio host Jason Morrison.^[5]

In December 2013, after a period of declining ratings for Murray's show,^[6] it was announced that Murray was leaving 2UE (his final show was broadcast on 13 December) and moving to Sky News full-time^[7] to host the show Paul Murray Live on weeknights.^[8]

Radio show formats

In January 2013, Murray started working on a new show "A Sydney Morning with Paul Murray" which, unlike other 2UE programs, broadcasts out of the Sydney Morning Herald newsroom. The show is on air from 8:30 to 11:30am on 954AM.

Prior to working on the morning program, Murray was the host of "Drive with Paul Murray" from 2011-2012.

In March 2006, he commenced as the new Triple M network presenter from 6-7pm Monday to Thursday, with an hour long current affairs radio show titled The Paul Murray Hour. In July, the Triple M network replaced Murray's show with an 80s music hour, but in August Murray returned hosting a similar program, The Paul Murray Show, but in the 7-9pm timeslot. In 2007, Lisa Millard (Millie, Millhouse) joined the show as co-host. The show broadcast out of Sydney to multiple cities throughout Australia. Murray often announced the frequency as 104.9 MHz, the relevant frequency in Sydney. The show ended at the end of 2007, although in 2009 it was reinstated on Triple M in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

The 2006-2007 show almost always ended with the song "Watermelon Man" and included:

• interviews with media personalities
• fictitious advertisements e.g. for La De Da Magazine
• sketches satirising current events
• characters parodying other well-known voices
• Pauly's Pub Trivia
• The ever so lovely Milly
• Clubbing of baby seals
• Nude News

Pauly's Pub Trivia

This climactic competition every evening followed the common radio-quiz format in which callers call in and the first contestant answers as many questions as they can before the compere passes to the next caller. There were five questions so the winner was the person who answered the fifth question correctly.

When an inadequate number of callers rang in, Mashup (music) of The Doors' Riders on the Storm and Blondie (band)'s Rapture was played as punishment music until enough contestants called.

The quiz was normally run in the last 5 minutes of the show. Hints were given to ensure that the quiz finished on time. These got as simple as just say <answer to question>.

Initially, the prize was absolutely nothing but eventually it became the chance to hear the song "Watermelon Man", which was often the answer to the fifth and last question.

Characters

Murray's parodies of Sydney personalities include:

• Ian Waley (not Jim Waley)
• the Love Muscle (not Richard (the Love God) Mercer of Mix 1065)
• Alan Jones
• Bob Carr
• Richard Aspen

Personal life

Murray is married and lives in Sydney. He is a lifelong Wests Tigers supporter and a Holden fan.

Murray and his wife Sian's 1-day-old son, Leo, died in August 2012 due to complications from a premature birth.^[9]

Sian gave birth to a daughter, Asher, on 25 December 2014.

References

External links

• Triple M: Paul & Rach
• A Sydney Morning with Paul Murray