Long-time ABC presenter, Russell Woolf, is being remembered as “a great bloke” with “a wicked sense of humour” following his sudden death on Monday night.
One person leading the tributes to the great man is Nadia Mitsopoulos, who hosts the Mornings program on ABC Radio Perth and co-hosted the Breakfast show with Woolf.
In a piece for ABC News, Mitsopoulos reminisces about how the first person she’d see every day when she arrived at work was Woolf and “sometimes I’d get a wave, a chat or a hug.”
“I particularly liked the hugs, followed by a fist pump and his advice to ‘stay strong and go well’,” Mitsopoulos writes.
“But without Russell, the ABC isn’t the same place it was for much of the past 20 years.”
Who was Russell Woolf?
Early in his career, Woolf was a resources reporter for ABC Rural. He went on to present Afternoons with Verity James on ABC Radio before taking on Drive for several years.
After he left ABC Radio for a while, Woolf became an MC at various public and private events, often arriving in the nick of time on his trusty red moped.
In 2014, Woolf ran for The Senate, taking the frontline with former colleague Verity James in one of many campaigns to Save The ABC.
Later, he went with his wife, Kylie, and daughter, Bronte, to live in Minneapolis after Kylie landed a job in the United States and tried his hand as a stand-up comedian.
But in 2019, Woolf returned to ABC, resurrecting his radio career and bringing comfort to those fans who’d missed him from the airwaves.
Mitsopoulos says less known out of all this “was his role as a mentor and teacher to me and so many others in the industry.”
“Being in his company brought so much joy for so many people. I was so lucky to be given this gift every day at work,” she says.
“I loved having him as my sidekick. He had an endless capacity to make you smile and an infectious laugh that instantly filled everyone around him with happiness.”
Source: ABC News.
