"Greeks are political from the day they are born," George Donikian (pronounced Don-ee-kee-an) had said. "I don’t push Left and I don’t push Right. If anything I push the middle. I think discussion is the greatest thing there is as long as you are prepared to give the other person a fair hearing. I don't always do that but I try. It's how Pop taught me to be."
Born in Sydney to Greek Armenian parents who came to Australia from Athens in 1949, George remembered, "I couldn’t speak English (in class) because my parents had always used Greek at home. I remember thinking in 3rd grade that one day I would be able to read better than all the other fellows. I remember going to the beach with some cousins of mine who were very blonde Greeks. Other kids would call out to them: 'Hey! why are you sitting with those wogs?' Now (in 1982) they just call us ethnic."
Between 1980 and 1988, George "made a name for myself in what some might call the 'ethnic media'" - Australia's low-budget multicultural channel, SBS (Special Broadcasting Service). "Ratings are designed entirely for the commercial stations, not for us," George insisted. "We are creating an entirely different market. Everyone jumped on Bruce Gyngell (the founding father of multicultural television) when he said our news would be complementary and supplementary, but he was right. I would hope that if we're doing anything, we're complementing other news services, giving people a fair perspective, and adding to their knowledge of world events."
"I had visions at one stage of playing soccer for Australia until I got injured," George recounted. "My father wanted me to be a lawyer. That's what most migrant families want their children to grow up to be – either solicitors or doctors." A friend proposed a possible career in radio, "I thought radio people were born and not made. I was 17 then and, except for the John Lawses or the Bert Newtons, didn't care what the voices said in between music. My friends were on their way to medical school and I really did not know what I wanted to do. I was sidetracked into radio and the next thing I knew I was into journalism in far north Queensland. This was 1974-75 and the lessons were being learnt quickly. I learnt how to work with people, how to meet them. I also learnt that the stars were in the big cities but that you had to serve your apprenticeship. I spent 2 years there, breathing in a whole news lifestyle. It was a shock to the system."
In the end, "I think that I'm doing the one thing that I always wanted to – and that's communicate. It reminds me of the jingle we used to play in Cairns: reaching out and touching you with music. It may be sentimental but when you get down to it, that says it all. When you reach out and touch people, you're doing your part."
George also made the observation, "I was able to build on a solid background and expand rather than jump in and fall apart. I was going from one market in Cairns to a bigger one in Woollongong and then a bigger one in Sydney. I didn't get the total shock that could hit you if you went straight from being a novice to a so-called personality."
Known for his skillful pronunciation, "I can cover Spanish and Italian pretty well, Turkish is all right, Chinese is difficult. When I stuff up a Greek word, I feel like a heel...I make plenty of mistakes but I always make an effort. That is what gives it ('World News') an international, a truly multicultural flavor. Sometimes it can be very hard coming out of a foreign name and reverting to English because pronunciation of t's and th's are often so different."
George believed, "The hardest thing in the world is to be apolitical and unbiased. But a smile, a smirk, a look of disdain can say it all...I always try to tell the news just as I would be sitting here talking to you (the interviewer), with this information in front of me and passing it on. Nothing exciting. I do make an effort to use the correct pronunciation. I know how it jars when someone is clumsy with a name or a suburb that the listener knows."
