Ray Martin (television presenter)

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Ray Martin
Born	Ray Martin 20 December 1944 (1944-12-20) (age 63) Richmond, New South Wales, Australia
Residence	Sydney
Occupation	journalist, television presenter
Employers	Nine Network
Salary	AU$2 million pa[1]
Spouse	Dianne Martin

Ray Martin (born 20 December 1944, in Richmond, New South Wales) is a well known Australian Television Journalist. He is best known for his various on-air roles on Channel Nine from 1978 to 2008.

Contents 1 Television career 2 Incident with John Safran 3 Awards 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Television career

Ray Martin was appointed the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s North American correspondent in 1969 . Over the next 10 years his coverage included race riots, anti-Vietnam War protests, Olympic Games and presidential elections for news and current affairs television and radio, from Four Corners and This Day Tonight to science and religion programs.

In 1978 he joined the Nine Network to launch 60 Minutes, along with reporters George Negus and Ian Leslie.

From 1985 to 1993 he presented the daily variety show Midday with Ray Martin and hosted top-rating specials such as Ray Martin Presents, Up Close and Personal and The Ray Martin Show, interviewing entertainment celebrities including Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robin Williams, Elton John, Michael Crawford, Russell Crowe and Madonna. These were among the highest-rating programs on television.^{[citation needed]}

He hosted A Current Affair from 1994 to 1998 and went on to present three series – Our Century, The Great Debates and Simply the Best – before returning to 60 Minutes to do special reports. In 2003 he resumed as host of A Current Affair. It was announced in December 2005 that he would become the Nine Network's Senior Reporter. This quashed much speculation that he would return to Four Corners at the ABC, as the fluctuating ratings for A Current Affair have decreased. Over the past few years he has assisted in reporting with some major events including the Indonesian tsunami disaster in 2005. Former Today Show co-host Tracy Grimshaw replaced Martin on ACA at the beginning of 2006. He is now a senior correspondent for Channel Nine. He has also hosted diverse television events, from the Logie Awards, Commonwealth Games, World Cup Cricket, 1988 Bicentenary Spectacular and Federal and State Election nights to the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. From September 16th 2007, Martin took over as co-host of Sunday replacing Ross Greenwood.

Ray Martin left the Nine Network in February 2008, allegedly due to differences with management over budget cuts and a time slot change for the Sunday program.^[2]

On 28 March 2008 it was announced that Ray Martin would lead the official broadcast of the World Youth Day event in Sydney from 15-20 July 2008.

[edit] Incident with John Safran

John Safran, an Australian documentarian and media personality, created a pilot called John Safran: Media Tycoon focused on the media industry. It became infamous for a segment where John turned up to A Current Affair host Ray Martin's house and harassed him in the tabloid style characteristic of A Current Affair and its peers. Ray was in contact with the ABC and specifically warns Safran in the segment that he's spoken to Roger Grant the then Head of Corporate Affairs at the ABC. Ray's connection with this executive at the ABC is suspected to be a reason the series never made it to air. The Ray Martin segment was later played on Media Watch on ABC^[3] and on Enough Rope^[4]. During the pilot episode, Safran claims to have planted a camera in Ray Martin's forehead, this is still widely disputed. The full pilot is shown on YouTube^[5].

[edit] Awards

Ray Martin has received five Gold Logie Awards for the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television, Australia’s most popular television award. He received his first at the Logie Awards of 1987 as host of Midday, then he received 4 in a row at the Logie Awards of 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996. The first two as host of Midday and the last two as host of A Current Affair. He has also received Silver Logies, People’s Choice Awards, Variety, Mo and Queensland Entertainer awards.

v • d • e Anchors of Sunday Jim Waley • Jana Wendt • Ellen Fanning • Ross Greenwood • Ray Martin

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ray Martin Biography, Information, etc ...
• Ray Martin at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
NAME	Martin, Ray
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Australian journalist and television presenter
DATE OF BIRTH	20 December 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH	Richmond, New South Wales, Australia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH