Phillip Andrew Hedley Adams AO, FAHA, FRSA (born 12 July 1939) is an Australian humanist, social commentator, broadcaster, public intellectual and farmer. He also hosts Late Night live, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) program on Radio National four nights a week. And writes a weekly column for The Weekend Australian.
In the continuing spirit of full and frank disclosure, I must admit that Phillip Adams had the significant influence on my early days ‘when I wore a young men’s clothes’. He was a mentor, adviser, and oracle. Similar to Pythia the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. She specifically served as its oracle and was known as the Oracle of Delphi. Many thought her mad but never miss an opportunity to seek her council.
However, most of his suggestions I took heed of, and can say without any equivocation that they were some of the best advice that I ever received.
The broadcaster is one of the ABC’s longest-serving on-air presenters, will retire from radio in June.
Adams, who has hosted the Late Night Live weeknight program on ABC Radio National for 33 years, will continue his longstanding column in The Weekend Australian magazine.
“I had always planned to die at my microphone. But I feel this would be unfair to the cleaners. So, I’m leaving the studio, Late Night Live and the ABC under what’s left of my own steam – with decades of happy memories.,” Adams, 84, said in a statement.
Adams, who affectionately refers to his listeners as his “Gladdies”, took to social media platform X earlier on Wednesday to confirm his departure.
“Vale me,” he posted.
“When I started saying I only had one listener, and then her name was Gladys, ABC management ordered me to cease and desist. Naturally, I ignored the order and the name stuck.”
Cath Dwyer, the head of Radio National, said of Adams: “Phillip is an exceptional broadcaster and public intellectual, who intrinsically understands the unique intimacy of radio as a medium.
“Over the past 30 years he’s interviewed thousands of the world’s most influential thinkers and kept us all entertained with his wit and intellect. There’s no one quite like him.”
An ABC spokesperson declined to answer whether the ABC will appoint a new host of Late Night Live to replace Adams or introduce a new program in the timeslot.
“We’ll have more to say about Late Night Live later in the year,” the spokesperson said.
In a piece he penned on September 23rd 2023, in the Weekend Australian titled:
Is it time for me to leave the ABC?
I must be one of the few Australians to have been expelled from both the Communist Party and the Boy Scouts, though not in that order. I joined the former shortly after being booted from the latter. I went from Baden-Powell’s “broomstick warriors” to post-Stalin Bolshevism.
Having joined the Australian Communist Party at 15 (bemused comrades at the Eltham branch waived the minimum-age requirement), it’s debatable whether I was pushed or jumped. The Party was imploding and if you were a rat jumping ship you were evicted. Perhaps it’s in my ASIO file. I’m proud that I was the youngest to have one! Having finally got it from the National Archives, albeit heavily redacted, it’s one of my proudest possessions.
But today I want to revisit the story of my drumhead court martial from the Scouts, one of the greatest miscarriages of justice since the Dreyfus Affair or the defeat of Scott Morrison.
I’d been a Cub at East Kew, but after moving to East Melbourne joined a troop that met in the basement of a bluestone Anglican Church in that more gentrified suburb. There I learned to tie knots – difficult for a left-hander – while chanting “DYB” or “Do your best”, one of the many Lodge-like rituals demanded by the movement’s imperialistic founder Robert Baden-Powell. The organisation was made up of Brownies and Guides (girls) and Cubs, Scouts, and Rangers (boys).
My night of the long knives occurred when I and my fellow scouts were having a furtive fag – as I recall, sharing a packet of Turf – when we heard the dread tread of the Scoutmaster coming down the stairs. Obedient to the scouting motto of “Be prepared”, I rounded up the smouldering evidence and shoved the butts into a desk drawer. Then, during inspection, when the Scoutmaster was checking our woggles (Google the term for details) the papers in the drawer caught fire and ignited the desk.
Who was responsible for this conflagration? Although Arthur Hodges had stolen the ciggies from his father, he pointed the finger at me. No brave chorus of “I’m Spartacus” from the other pubescent gladiators. I was arrested, charged, denied legal representation, and found guilty. Forced to hand over my woggle and leave. Cast into outer darkness and eternal ignominy. Now, 70 years later, I’m thinking of suing for defamation and damages, and demanding the return of my woggle.
Did the Scouting movement survive? Are there still Cubs, Scouts, and Rangers? Is there still a troop in the church basement? Is there still a Chief Scout from whom I can demand a belated apology? I recall something about the US Scouts filing for bankruptcy following allegations of rampant paedophilia second only to the Vatican’s. Fortunately, I saw no evidence of that at East Melbourne, but I must ask my betrayer Hodges. Still around, Arthur?
But even without sexual shenanigans you can see, beloved readers, that I’ve suffered long-term psychological damage – and have been unable to remain long in any organisation since. I usually attribute my leaving the Commos to ideology, or my more recent resignation from the ALP to the coup against comrade Kevin. But I now blame the Scouts. Yes, I’ve been at the ABC for 35 years – but I feel another premature resignation coming on.
Adams has enjoyed success in many careers in advertising and film production and has served on many non-profit boards including WikiLeaks, Greenpeace, Australia, Ausflag, Care Australia, Film Victoria National Museum of Australia both the Adelaide and Brisbane festivals of ideas, the Montsalvat Arts Society and the Don Dunstan Foundation. As a young man he joined the Communist Party of Australia and was a member of the Australian Labor Party for fifty years.
Adams has been appointed both a member and subsequently an Officer of the Order of Australia: and he has received numerous awards including six honorary doctorates from Australian universities; Republican of the Year 2005; the Senior ANZAC Fellowship; the Australian Humanist of the Year, the Golden Lion at Cannes; the Longford Award; a Walk Award: and the Henry Lawson Australian Arts Award. In 1997 the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter after him. A National Trust poll elected hi m one of Australia’s 100 national living treasures.
Richard Fidler (ABC Radio) said: “Phillip has served the nation as a columnist, film producer, ad man and farmer, but his greatest talent has always been as a broadcaster. With LNL, he brought informality, humanity and humour to great and weighty subjects, and a melodious voice that sat beautifully in the night air of the Australian bush, city and suburbs.”
Regular Late Night Live guest and ABC Staff Elected Director Laura Tingle said: “For more than 15 years (neither of us can quite remember how long) Phillip Adams and I have had a chat of a Monday night about the weird and wonderful world of Australian politics.
“It’s been such a privilege to be part of the Little Wireless Program, and to talk to a bloke with the brain the size of a planet, for all this time.
“Even when he is being ‘Oh Phillip!’ infuriating or luring me into saying things I probably shouldn’t.
“I know from all the people who stop me in the street how big a presence LNL is in so many people’s lives. And how beloved PA is by the audience.
“What a kaleidoscope of issues and stories he has guided us through over more than three decades on this program.
“How on earth will we get by without him.”
