Andrew Daddo airs on 702 ABC on weekdays, 7-10pm.

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Sue Javes
March 17, 2008
Playful manner on air ... Andrew Daddo.

Playful manner on air ... Andrew Daddo.
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He has been criticised for being bland, a bit of a dork and too
commercial for the ABC. Yet it seems Andrew Daddo has taken to the
role of evening presenter on 702 like the proverbial duck to water.
When James O'Loghlin resigned in early December, there were plenty of
aspirants for the prized shift. Mark Trevorrow, Jon Casimir, Libbi
Gorr and Mary Moody auditioned but when Daddo's two-week trial
stretched to two months, it became clear he was the favourite.

The ABC has delayed announcing the decision until contract
negotiations are finalised but both parties say it's a fait accompli.
One complication has been working out the nuts and bolts of how Daddo
will combine the radio job with his filming commitments for Seven's
holiday program, The Great Outdoors. Daddo says it won't be that
difficult, despite the perception that he's constantly roaming the
world.

"Seven could very easily have said, 'Mate, too hard,' but everybody
has been really good," he says. "We've still got quite a few overseas
stories left over from last year and this year I'll do the stories
closer to home."

Daddo, 41, lives in Fairlight with wife Jacqui and their three
children. For someone who says he hasn't got an ambitious bone in his
body, Daddo has covered a lot of ground in broadcasting. He stumbled
into TV when his older brother, Cameron, left Channel Ten's afternoon
cartoon show for bigger things. "They needed someone in a hurry and
Cam suggested me. It was a bit nepotistic. I've just managed to sneak
out behind his coat-tails. I went back to uni halfway through that. I
really had no idea what I wanted to do."

Since then, he has had a variety of acting and television roles, from
playing Professor Plum in Cluedo and a stripper on stage to hosting
The World's Greatest Commercials and Carols In The Domain. He has been
with The Great Outdoors for five years. He has also established
himself as a successful children's author, with 11 books published
since 2000.

"I used to write Jacqui love letters and she was the one who thought I
might be able to write," he says. "A publisher gave me the nod but it
took a long time for me to get up the courage to send him anything. My
first effort was appalling but he got me working on something else and
I finally got cracking."

Like O'Loghlin, Daddo has a playful manner on air and doesn't take
himself too seriously. He once described his role on The Great
Outdoors as that of an illusionist or "turd polisher" - the job of
making yet another hotel or swimming pool look desirable to armchair
travellers.

This is his first job in radio, unless you count a weekly fishing
program on 2KY last year, which he doesn't. "It was a laugh. None of
us really knew what we were doing. Possibly it helped but I doubt it."

He has worked, however, with one of radio's greats, Mick Molloy. In
year 6, they performed together in a school play at Mt Eliza,
Victoria. "He was the narrator and my twin brother and I were
roosters. That's when Mick started to show his acting stripes and I
didn't."

Andrew Daddo airs on 702 ABC on weekdays, 7-10pm.