It’s certainly the end of an era in popular radio fishing news, information and downright buffoonery.
The ABC’s Tales From The Tinny will finish with its last show this week, and many Top End anglers have been saddened to hear this.
When hosts Rob Smith and Tim Moore, and Producer Morgan Hartney, first graced the air waves with “GETAMULLETUPYA” some 17 years ago, it took us all by surprise.
Nothing like it had ever been aired in the way of fishing radio.
Over the years, it obtained iconic status, covering all the contemporary fishing-related issues, interviewing skilled and not-so-skilled anglers, passing on great tips and presiding over some of the most ludicrous and downright amusing fishing nonsense.
However, the backbone of the Tinny was the live interaction with anglers on the road, at boat ramps and on the water.
How many of us have been driving to Shady Camp, the South Alligator and the Daly River early on a Saturday morning and both chuckled and listened for local tips from anglers already on the scene?
As far as fishing current affairs go, Warren De With kept us abreast for all of The Tinny’s 17 years, most of which as AFANT President.
I even got a guernsey with Beard’s pre-recorded stories from the early days of fishing in the Top End.
However, talk about from the sublime to the ridiculous, to quote The Tinny’s own web page: “The Tinny also ranges widely and tangentially into the realms of the ridiculous, unrelated and totally irrelevant – much like the general conversational flow aboard a majority of the ‘Tinnies’ from which the show takes its name.”
You really only have to glance through The Tinny podcast’s grab lines to fully appreciate the accuracy of the above description. Check these out for example:
“Royal Commission into Barramundi cake controversy.
I also had to laugh at the podcast comment about the Cruiser driving the seabed to Mandorah and collecting barra roadkill.
There are fishing radio shows all over the country but I don’t know of any that have come even close to following The Tinny formula.
Its closing statement on social media included: “In what's been a disgusting amount of fishing-related irreverence – not to mention an unacceptable number of instructions to GETAMULLETUPYA – Tales From The Tinny will be wrapping for good at the end of the year.
“The show has had an incredible run… thanks to the willingness and passion of Top End fishos to share their tales of guile, cunning, gross stupidity, outlandish exaggeration and outrageous lies.”
If you’ve followed The Tinny live, or listened to any of its podcasts, you really couldn’t argue with that.
The ABC Tales From The Tinny’s ending will be a sad loss to the Top End fishing community in particular, and to a significant number of listeners Australia-wide… that is for certain.
Tim Moore (left) and Rob Smith – who conceived the idea for a left-of-field radio fishing show – were the original ABC Tales From The Tinny announcers some 17 years ago.
Andy Warton joined The Tinny to co-host with Tim Moore in its final years.
