Michael Schildberger

Michael Julius Schildberger (4 April 1938 – 2 June 2010) was an Australian journalist, radio and television presenter, and author. He is best known for hosting A Current Affair in the 1970s.

He was the son of Hermann Schildberger.^{[1][circular reference]} Hermann had had an important musical career in Berlin prior to being brought out to Melbourne in 1939 by Rabbi Dr Herman Sanger,^[2] to escape the Nazis. He was accompanied by his wife (check name) and by Michael who was then a babe-in-arms.

Hermann became musical director of Temple Berth Israel in St. Kilda upon arrival in Melbourne in 1939, as well as taking on a number of other important musical roles including being the founding Musical Director of the Camberwell Chorale.^[3]

Michael Schildberger began his media career in 1955 when he joined The Sun News-Pictorial as a copy boy and subsequently became a cadet reporter.^[4]

In 1958 he moved to GTV 9 where he remained for the next twenty years. During the 1970s he was executive producer and national host of A Current Affair.^[4] For that role, he was awarded a 1976 Logie Award for Best TV Interviewer.^[5] While at A Current Affair he conducted the first full-length television interview with singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, who had only previously done brief group press conferences. The interview was in conjunction with Diamond's 1975-76 "Thank You Australia" tour and nationally broadcast live concert.^[6]

After leaving Channel 9, Schildberger worked for several years as Director of News for ATV 10 and FOX-FM. He then moved to Melbourne radio station 3LO where he hosted the morning program,^[4] with a short stint at 3DB.^[7]

In 1984 he founded the media production company Business Essentials.^[8]

Schildberger was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997.^[4] He achieved remission, and became a strong advocate of positron emission tomography.^[9] The cancer returned in early 2010. Schildberger died at the Cabrini Hospital in Prahran on 2 June 2010.^[4]

• The sorcerer's apprentice. Spectrum. 2000. ISBN 0-86786-300-5.
• Secrets of success. Information Australia. 2000. ISBN 1-86350-319-6.

• The Age obituary
• 1989 profile of Schildberger in The Age^{[permanent dead link]}
• Michael Schildberger at IMDb