Why this award-winning Fox veteran no longer watches cable news
Washington: David Hill's 2025 began in fear. A Los Angeles resident for 30 years, his home in the Pacific Palisades was nearly eaten up by the wildfire that ripped through the coastal neighbourhood in early January, killing 12 people and destroying thousands of houses.
Hill and his wife Joan were evacuated for eight days, but the bricks and mortar survived – thanks to a wind shift, they were told. Many friends were not so lucky.
'It's devastating,' he says. 'You drive through the area and it brings tears to your eyes … Flying out of LAX this morning, there's Santa Monica, and then there's this huge black area where the Palisades were.'
But then came better news. In the space of two weeks, the veteran Australian-born sports television producer found out he would receive not one but two lifetime achievement awards; one from the Sports Emmys, the other from industry bible Sports Business Journal.
Hill may be American these days, but it's difficult to erase the Australian instinct for modesty. When the Emmys called, he said he was already getting a similar award from the Journal. 'I think you ought to change your mind,' he told them.
They didn't. Hill will collect the gongs on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, New York time, respectively, at separate ceremonies in the city. Coincidentally, Wednesday is his 79th birthday.
'It's a massive abnormality for the same person to get back-to-back lifetime achievement awards. To be honest, it's a little overwhelming,' he says. 'I like to keep a low profile and stay under the parapet, but God almighty, this is really putting your head over the parapet.'
Hill was born in Newcastle, NSW, and got his start as a copy boy at Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper. He worked at the ABC and Seven, but came into his own at Channel Nine, where he shook up the production of sport – including the rebel World Series Cricket – under then station owner Kerry Packer.
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Lifeline 13 11 14 beyondblue 1300 22 4636 Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)
