George Donikian

Early life

Donikian was born and raised in Sydney. His father was a Greek Armenian who had emigrated to Australia from Athens in 1949, with his fiancée following a year later. He grew up speaking Greek, Armenian and Turkish, and did not speak English until the age of 7. Despite his father's wish for him to become a doctor or barrister, Donikian found his calling in sports, in particular soccer. At the age of 16, his soccer skills brought him to the notice of Jozef Vengloš, the manager of the national team, however his sporting hopes ended when he dislocated his shoulder whilst lifting weights in training.

Radio career

Donikian commenced his media career as an announcer with radio station 4AM in far North Queensland in the mid-1970s, then went to 2WL in Wollongong. According to Donikian, he was asked to go by the surname "Donekan" during his radio career—his bosses claiming that his real name was too difficult to pronounce and remember, and that the pseudonym sounded like the more "acceptable" Irish surname "Donegan". Then he went to 2WS in 1979. Then he did talk back on Radio FIVEaa in Adelaide. Then he covered the Athens Olympics for Melbourne commercial radio in 2004.

Television career

George's television career began in 1980, when during a chance meeting he impressed Bruce Gyngell, who saw him as the ideal presenter for his multi cultural I.M.B.C television Network which launched in Melbourne and Sydney in 1980. Then he was a presenter for SBS World News, then as a newsreader for the Nine Network, and later Ten News

When George first presented Ten News in 1991, he presented the weeknight bulletin solo before being joined by Nikki Dwyer the following year. He left the Ten Network in September 2011, and became a "free agent" after a restructuring of Ten's newsroom saw him shifted to the weekend national evening bulletin.