However, few have the experience or poise of Ray Williams.

The Post columnist is currently celebrating his 70th year in the press and says he has had a rich career, even if his bank statement hasn’t reflected that.

Mr Williams is renowned for his social and political commentary and take no prisoners attitude when it comes to holding our leaders to account, with decades of knowledge to back up his well- informed opinions.

He started his career in media at the age of just 15. The year was 1943, the world was at war and radio was becoming an important medium for transmitting information to the public.

When 2GF in Grafton were looking for an announcer, he applied for the position.

“(The) real men were in the military, so they employed me because of my background in studying what was then called ‘The Art of Speech’ and experience in theatre work,” Mr Williams explained.

He recalls the building being surrounded by sandbags – in case of a Japanese air-raid – and being provided with an axe to cut down the antennae wires, which would have been an impossible task. He also recalls how primitive the station was.

“(It) consisted of two turntables, two pickups – we had to change the needles after every record – two microphones, a console with two switches and four attenuators (faders), an audio rack, one transmitter and a small library of records…” he said.

“The station had been operating for about nine years. It was unbelievably primitive. My father said he was pleased I got the job ‘But do you think it will last?’ he asked…” After the war, Mr Williams studied to become a qualified radio technician.

In 1947, he transferred to 4CA in Cairns as senior announcer/ technician before moving to 3BO in Bendigo two years later.

At the age of just 21 he was appointed acting station manager, with a staff of 20 working below him. However, his accent up the ladder was to be short lived.

When the manager returned he received a call from head office and was offered a job in Fiji as “third in charge of a threeman station”.

“(It was a) real blow to the ego but I headed off by flying boat for four years in what was then a British colony. It was a huge learning experience,” he said.

“In the four years, I went through a hurricane, with winds hitting an estimated 175 miles per hour (nearly 300kph), killing 40 people, destroying one home in 10 and blowing down one of our antennae supports, temporary repairs included tying one end of the antenna to a coconut palm… “Then an earthquake, estimated at 7.5 on Richter Scale, followed by a tsunami washed into our studio at about a metre high and into our old transmitter.

Eventually I was able to get power back on and the old transmitter worked after having salt water washed into it.”

However, all of his experience weren’t like something out of a disaster movie.

While in Fiji, he was introduced to a young New Zealand girl named Wendy. She was the best thing that ever happened to him and went on become his wife and mother of their three children.

In 1953, he was responsible for organising all broadcasts for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s royal visit. This included PA broadcasts along the route and liaison with visiting newsreel and radio teams, including the BBCs top team of broadcasters.

“My team consisted of 11 people, including four amateur actors I had trained for the job, who had ham radio operators as their technicians. The BBCs Godfrey Talbott and Winford Vaughn Thomas, (who were) huge names in those days, said what I had assembled would have taken a staff of about 500 with the BBC,” Mr Williams said.

He also fondly remembers his many interviews with Queen Salote of Tonga, which he believes were amongst the best he had ever conducted.

In 1954, he returned to Australia and moved to Goulburn, where he was appointed assistant manager of 2GN. He went on to start Australia’s first independent country news service and was placed in charge of it.

He had a passion for news and soon became a media commentator.

In the 1960s he started broadcasting his views in a daily segment called “That’s the way I see it”, and in both 1979 and 1980 he was recognised by the Australian Radio Association as “Australia’s Best News Commentator”.

In the early 80s, he left radio and began working for the Goulburn Post. Not long after, he started writing regular column, “Williams’ Word”, the best of which was published in a book “Words of Williams”, when he retired in 1993.

He has conducted thousands of interviews in his time, including one with Colonel Maummar Gaddafi. However, he says his favourite interviews weren’t the high profile ones.

“Most of the great interviews you do aren’t with the top people, it’s with ordinary people,” Mr Williams said, “They are the ones with the best stories to tell.”

He is a true journalist, with informing the public at heart, and says his greatest disappointment with the modern media is the tendency for bias.

“The sad thing for me is that some sections of media have become political operators.

They have become propaganda outlets and that’s an insult to the journalists they employ. In all my time it has never been suggested from the top that I lean one way or the other,” he said.

He said journalistic integrity should be put above all else. As long as there are facts to be reported they should be accurately.

That’s what the public deserves.