Andrew Rule writes about the recent death of talkback radio host, Keith McGowan, who had the "graveyard shift". He says:
"In 1990 I was driving home for an hour after midnight after finishing a late shift on this newspaper's predecessor, The Sun. Talkback keeps you alert on the road better than music, so I became one of thousands who tuned in to hear McGowan talking to the lonely, sleepless and sleep-deprived. Old people called in to talk, mostly about a past that was rapidly vanishing, of Depression and war. Almost by accident, McGowan had tapped into a vein of oral history. It gave me an idea to publish the extraordinary stories of ordinary people. McGowan loved it – and so did his listeners. Hundreds of them wrote about their lives or their parents' lives, and sent pictures. The result was Thanks for the Memories, first of what would be a series of five "Overnighters" books. When McGowan launched it at Melbourne Town Hall the queue stretched down the street and around the corner." See full story here. The books are out of print but you can get them, see this link.