Mike Willesee, a shy genius who sensed his destiny

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Obituary: Mike Willesee, a shy genius who sensed his destiny

That when he lay dying as a newborn in 1942 with a blocked stomach, unable to hold down any milk, his father had prayed in the hospital chapel.

And when Clyde Packer asked him to discuss coming to work at Channel Nine in 1971, without forethought, Willesee decided he didn't just want a job, he wanted to sell Packer an entire show. It would be like, but without such nonsense as the books and wine that his former colleagues were indulging in. It would be for the people.

When he got involved with the Sydney Swans AFL team, he ended up buying it with a consortium in order to save it. But as with 2Day FM, others left in the face of mounting losses, he stuck it out with one other - Peter Weinert - only to end up giving the club back to the people as it was starting to become the sort of club the people might want to own.

"He was so humble and quietly spoken, everybody loved him," Kane recalled. When she first came to work for him, he was facing his first professional defeat.. The network briefly brought in Derryn Hinch to replace him. That failed and Willesee returned. "Everybody in the office was so pleased to see him back. He was so fair and pleasant to everybody. Everybody had these T-shirts: 'Willesee's Back'. I've still got mine.

 

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