Derryn Nigel Hinch (born 9 February 1944) in New Plymouth, New Zealand (now an Australian citizen) is an Australian media personality best known for his work on Melbourne radio. He is currently the host of 3AW's drive time radio show. He has also been a police reporter, foreign correspondent, newspaper editor, television show host, novelist and vintner.
Hinch began his career at the age of 15 with the New Zealand Taranaki Herald.In 1963, he came to Australia on the MV Wanganella and joined The Sydney Morning Herald. By 1968 he had become a foreign correspondent for the Fairfax organisation, and finally moved to New York as bureau chief. He remained in the United States for eleven years.
Hinch starred as The Criminologist in the Australian tour of The Rocky Horror Show plus, has appeared as Himself in The Wog Boy with Nick Giannopoulos. He has also made cameo appearances on Fast Forward.
In 1985, Hinch found that Michael Glennon, who had previously been convicted on a charge of indecent assault with a minor, was to be tried on new charges while still running a youth camp. Hinch, who was concerned that parents were unknowingly sending their children to Glennon's camp, first appealed privately to then Victoria Premier John Cain and the then-Attorney General, as well as the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Australia, but in Hinch's words, they "washed their hands" of the situation. Subsequently Hinch publicly identified Glennon during his trial on the third set of charges, in spite of the strong sub judice rule under Australian jurisprudence. This delayed the trial while Hinch was tried on contempt of court charges; Hinch was fined $10,000 and jailed for 12 days. This was the first time anyone had gone to jail on a prior restraint issue in Australia. Hinch appealed his case as far as the High Court of Australia, which affirmed his conviction. In its ruling the Court held that despite Hinch's motivation of warning the public that Glennon continued to hold a position in a youth organisation, it was sufficient to inform them of the current charges against him, and that the information about his prior conviction was prejudicial under Australian law. Hinch calls the incident "the thing I'm most proud of in my life."
Mick Gatto's call
On 24 June 2008, whilst discussing the celebrity status of underworld crime figures during his drive program Mick Gatto phoned in and had a brief confrontation with Hinch, ending with a death threat. After Hinch called Gatto scum, Gatto replied "I hope you go to your grave very quickly"[1].
John Laws
On 30 July 2007, John Laws and Hinch attended the 40 Years of Radio Legends [2]
On 5 December 2007, while on holiday, Hinch was abused verbally with obscenities by John Laws in unprovoked circumstances whilst dining at lunch with 2CH personality Bob Rogers in a restaurant at Woolloomooloo's Finger Wharf in Sydney.
In 2006, Hinch could be seen to have lost a considerable amount of weight and his health was believed to be in decline [3][4].
On 4 March 2007, on the Australian 60 Minutes program, Hinch revealed that he has been suffering from advanced cirrhosis of the liver, a tumourous growth had also been detected on his liver.
On 27 April 2007, Hinch went back to hospital for more scans to check the size of his liver cancer growths and said on his website daily comments that he had a well earned day off work.
On 4 August 2007, in the Herald Sun[5], Hinch revealed he has an inoperable liver cancer.
On 20 September 2010, Hinch announced that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer. He indicated that he would soon be undergoing surgery to remove a third of his liver, taking him off air for several weeks. Doctors have reportedly said that he has a 60% chance of surviving a further 5 years.
