Aaron Kearney

Early years

Born in Newcastle, Kearney is the son of journalist Malcolm Kearney and Pennie Kearney, a former schoolteacher and now Chief Executive of welfare organisation Mai-Wel.

Kearney's family moved to Woodville, near Maitland when he was five years old. He has three younger sisters, Karlie, Salena and Amber.

Kearney was school captain of St Peter's High School and earlier attended Maitland Marist Brothers and St John's Primary School.

He studied Communications at the University of Newcastle, Australia and holds a Masters Degree and Graduate Certificate in Communications from Griffith University, Australia.

Career

Kearney began his career as a cadet journalist for Fairfax Media in 1990 and was the Chief Writer and co- Editor of the Hunter Valley Weekend newspaper before joining Prime Television’s fledgling Hunter news service in 1993, working as a police a political reporter before becoming the Sports presenter.

An all around sports-lover, Kearney has had the opportunity to cover a range of sports across Australian media. In the year 2000, Kearney was the Chief Reporter for Prime’s Olympic Team at the Sydney Olympics, and Sports Presenter and Sports Editor for Prime Television from 1994 to 2001.

He was also Master of Ceremonies for the arrival of the Olympic Torch in the Hunter in front of an estimated crowd of 50,000.

He has previously presented and produced Pirate TV, a television show about the now-defunct Hunter Pirates basketball club, and provided radio commentary for National Basketball League games.

Kearney hosted a popular sports/talk drive time program on 2HD from 2001–2003, and was a sports correspondent for Austereo Stations KOFM and NXFM in the early 2000s.

His works as a documentary producer and presenter include ‘Inner Mongolia’ - a one-hour documentary tracing a four-wheel drive expedition from the far south to the northern-most regions of Asia, ‘Hunter Holidays’ - a Getaway style program that was co-hosted with well-known Australian presenter Penny Cook, ‘Knight Fever’ – a one-hour documentary tracing the Newcastle Knights historic win in the 1997 Australian Rugby League Grand Final, and ‘Cape Town to Cairo – The Ultimate African Safari.’

The ‘Cape Town to Cairo' Series consisted of four one-hour documentaries following a four-wheel drive expedition the length of Africa from the Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean Sea. The death-defying six weeks of filming risked Kearney and his teams’ lives under extreme circumstances, dealing with everything from wildlife to rebel gangs of militia.

Kearney joined the ABC in 2005, initially presenting 1233 ABC Newcastle’s Drive radio program and moving on to present the Breakfast program in 2007. In 2011, the program returned its best ratings in 30 years, beating the main talk rival for the first time.

Since 2005, Kearney has been a sports commentator for the ABC, having called a range of major sports from the Asian Cup of football (soccer) and FIFA World Cup, to the Rugby League World Cup and National Rugby League. This commentary work was recognised by ABC Radio with an Outstanding Contribution to Sport Award in 2006.

In 2010, Kearney was awarded almost $70,000 in damages after he was defamed by Craig Stephens and radio station 2HD, when a talkback call from Stephens was broadcast by the station.

In July 2011, he was awarded a Gold Medal at the World Radio Awards in New York City for ‘Andrew’s Story, a documentary on a young paraplegic man from the Hunter. During his time on 1233’s Breakfast program, Kearney has been nominated for 30 major media awards, has won a Walkley Award for Best Use of Media, and was nominated for a Best Radio Reporting Walkley for work covering devastating storms that hit eastern Australia in June, 2007.

1233's Breakfast Story Box interview segment was named the Best Two-Way Telephone Talk Interview Show at the 2013 New York Festival Radio Awards. Kearney handed a telephone to a listener in May 2012 and it has been passed from one person to another each day ever since. Each recipient is interview by Kearney live on his show.

In early 2016, Kearney transferred from ABC Newcastle to ABC International.

Kearney is also a freelance writer, with his work appearing in Fairfax Media, football website The Roar and ABC’s The Drum. This freelance work was recognised when he was awarded the MEAA Prodi for Best Print Feature Writing 2011 for an ANZAC feature carried by the Fairfax press and the MEAA Prodi Best Specialist Journalist.

The judges said: "Aaron Kearney is a deserving winner of this award: he has demonstrated considerable talent, extending across media with apparent fearlessness and aptitude. [He] writes with style and verve, shares an intrinsic sense of sentiment and nuance, and challenges modern ideology."

Kearney’s 2011 piece "Apocalyptic Hyperbole Leave Journalism Speechless" is a widely cited in journalistic and academic circles.

Additionally, as a freelance reporter, his work has been carried by SkyNews Australia, C7 Sports Network, TV3 New Zealand, the BBC and NBC America.

Kearney worked alongside Matildas goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri as play-by-play commentator of ABC TV's W-League coverage in late 2012, while regular commentator Peter Wilkins was calling Champions League Hockey. Kearney is the creator of a Sports Commentary Training Course that has been adopted by the Papua New Guinea National Broadcasting Corporation and by indigenous broadcasters in the Tiwi Islands. An article on his course was featured in the June 2013 edition of industry journal, Walkley Magazine.

Kearney was a finalist for Travel Writer of the Year at the Kennedy Awards for "Kicking Tiwi Goals", written for Fairfax.

He released a CD, Kokoda – Steps to Healing, after completing the Kokoda Track in 2008.

Personal life

He has two daughters and is married to ABC and former BBC journalist Karen "Kip" Shrosbery.

Awards