Edwin
Maher

Speaker Profile

Edwin Maher won a loyal following largely because of the eccentricity of the pointers he used to indicate weather patterns; from ice sculptures to carrots. He is now in Beijing where he presents the English-language news on China Central Television.

Maher began his career as a journalist in New Zealand before moving to Australia, where he worked as a reporter and announcer. Weather forecasting 'wasn't anything I wanted to do', he says. Twenty years ago he was enjoying a prolonged stint at the ABC in Melbourne, switching between local radio, Radio Australia and TV news, when he was asked to fill in for a regular weather presenter.

'I didn't have a clue what the heck I was doing,' he recalls. 'I said on air the technology was new and I found it baffling, and sent it up, I guess.” He thought that would put the kybosh on further weather forays, but 'they said they liked the easygoing style' and he became a regular.

He adlibbed instead of writing a script, which made him popular with producers because he could fill in if the show was running late or be brief if it threatened to run over time.

Thirteen years later there was an Edwin Maher Appreciation Society, a book (Confessions of a TV Weatherman), and a rap song featured on ABC TV's Rage (Your Weekend's Gonna Be Ruined, But It's Not My Fault!), frequent Living Legend listings and a busy schedule as a public speaker.

But for Maher this successful, good-humoured career crumbled to insignificance in 1999 when Robyn, his wife of 33 years, was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Maher quietly stepped aside to stay full time with Robyn, who died two years later.

He then developed a new career via Maher Media Services, chiefly in voice training.

Almost four years ago, he was twiddling the dials on his short-wave radio at his Mornington home when he picked up a message from China seeking assistance in training broadcasters in English. He emailed them with his credentials. 'They got back to me, not to ask if I was interested in coming but to say the hiring process might take some time,' he says.

Urged on by the family, Maher went to China and has been in Beijing for 3 1/2 years. In the beginning, in addition to his training duties, he presented some news programs on radio.

At the time, a Briton was the sole foreigner introducing a show on the government-owned CCTV. 'Then I became the first non-Chinese face to read the news on CCTV,' Maher says. 'They described my accent as being neutral.'

When he is on duty as a presenter, he anchors the news program for a half-hour. Maher works for CCTV's Channel 9, which is available across China and showcases the country to the wider world via satellite, including on Sky TV in New Zealand, but not in Australia.

All stations in China carry advertising, including the English-language CCTV9, whose domestic audience alone is several million viewers a day.

Travels from China