David Bevan to retire from ABC Radio
Respected ABC Radio Adelaide host David Bevan has announced he will retire from radio next month, ending a decades-long career in journalism.
Bevan, the host of ABC Radio Adelaide’s 9 to 11am mornings program, told listeners this morning that his last show will be on December 13.
The veteran broadcaster has long been the voice behind ABC Radio Adelaide’s “front page” – the 8.30 to 9am breakfast segment – which has driven South Australia’s political news agenda and been defined by Bevan’s robust interviewing style.
“It’s been an absolute privilege to sit in this room every weekday for the last 24 years between 8.30 and 9,” Bevan said from the ABC’s Collinswood studio.
“But it’s time to say goodbye.”
Bevan started at the ABC in 1985, writing the weekend weather for the TV news before getting a journalism cadetship.
“We had typewriters, and the stories would be written on what looked like old butchers paper and you’d hand it to somebody else who would sub it.
“It seems like it was another era.
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“It was good time to learn the craft. I think if you can write a story that can be absorbed and understood by busy people… and if you can communicate to them in a radio news story, then you’ve learnt how to write – it’s the best training.”
Bevan was a court reporter for The Advertiser in the early 1990s where he covered the trial of accused Ukrainian-Australian war criminal Ivan Polyukhovich. In 1994, he authored a book on the case titled A Case to Answer.
He then covered South Australian politics for ABC Radio and TV before joining ABC local radio around the turn of the century.
He has hosted the mornings and breakfast programs with Adelaide radio legend Philip Satchell, Ali Clarke, Stacey Lee and Nikolai Beilharz, and now Sonya Feldhoff and Jules Schiller.
But his most enduring radio partnership was with Matthew Abraham.
The duo, affectionally known as Matt and Dave, broadcasted together for 15 years and were a ratings juggernaut for the ABC, scoring 34 number one wins during their time together. When Abraham retired in June 2017, the ABC had 13 straight ratings victories in the breakfast slot.
ABC Radio morning announcers Matthew Abraham and David Bevan broadcasting at the Royal Adelaide Show in 2004.“[Radio] is the most intimate form of media, but it’s also the very best media,” Bevan said, adding: “There isn’t a better job in Adelaide’s media than this one.”
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Abraham called into the breakfast show this morning and said working with Bevan was “one of the great pieces of luck in my life”.
“It was just brilliant, David, working with you,” he said.
“And I miss it, especially on the big days like Black by-elections and all that sort of stuff because you’re a towering talent as a journo and a terrific human being.
“I just value the friendship we have working on air and just the friendship that came from that – I can’t think of a more rigorous and ethical journo.
“It was a great privilege working with you, and I learnt a lot as a journo.”
Veteran Labor minister Tom Koutsantonis, who has often sparred with Bevan on-air, also paid tribute to the broadcaster today.
“They don’t make em like David Bevan anymore,” Koutsantonis posted on X.
“Our political system will be worse for his departure. He is a fierce defender of the truth armed with a political memory & healthy cynicism to match
“A man who could’ve done anything but chose journalism, thank God he did.”
Bevan’s replacement in the 9 to 11am mornings slot will be announced on Wednesday.
ABC Radio SA manager Graeme Bennett said Bevan’s legacy of state politics coverage will continue at the station.
“David has built a unique and enduring legacy with ABC Radio Adelaide audiences,” Bennett said in a statement.
“His fearless interviewing and unrivalled analysis of South Australian politics has been a hallmark of what we strive to bring our listeners every day.
“No doubt those audiences will be disappointed by this news, but can be reassured that what David has worked so hard to create will remain a central theme of our coverage of SA politics in the years ahead.”
