Rick Ardon

Rick Ardon is TV news anchor that has been presenting in Western Australia for over 30 years.

Starting the Path With Writing

For the residents of Australia, It is hard not to know who Rick Ardon is. He is one of the most well known news presenters on Seven News in Perth, Western Australia. He is someone who has served news on the channel for a very long period and is still working hard with the same passion that he started with.

He was a journalist at first but after some time, he started working as a news presenter. Rick started his career as a cadet journalist at the daily paper of his local home, The West Australian. While working there, he was rewarded with the Selwyn Prior Award for Cadet of the Year. He had impressed readers with his impressive writing style. It wasn’t enough that he won some fans for the paper, he also impressed his editors. For being such a new writer, they didn’t expect him to really show anything. They just wanted him to take it slow and learn but he really exceeded their expectations. He even wrote articles that were on the same level as writers that had been there for a much longer time than he was. There wasn’t any doubt that he deserved to be recognized with the Cade of the Year award because his work was a fine example of what it takes to be an engaging and thoughtful journalist.

Becoming a News Anchor

After one year of being a journalist, he outgrew his profession. His close friends suggested that he try a new challenge. He had too much personality to just stay on the written word. He had too much charisma to keep himself out of the public eye. The people around him suggested that it would be a shame of he didn’t apply his skills to the field of broadcast television. He had enough wit and charm to make it on TV as a news anchor. Rick took the advice of his peers and decided to make a shift into the news anchor industry. Initially, he was hesitant because he wasn’t sure what to expect. He was confident in his writing but had no idea how that would translate onto television.

Rick took a professional risk and joined a television station called TVW-7. He worked there as a news journalist and started off from the bottom. He began working as a relief newsreader for a few weekends. The station’s producers knew that he was a beginner and did not want to give him too much. They felt that if he had too much on his plate, they might be setting him for failure instead of success. Rick pass his initial trial by fire with flying colors as his commendable work elevated him to become a full-time news presenter for regular weeknights.

His excellent news coverage included the Gulf War, Bali bombings, the Amrozi bin Nurhasyim trial, Monaco Grand Prix and Cannes Film Festival. Another major event covered by Rick was the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

[page-break]

The Olympics was a very big deal for him to cover. He had always been a huge sports fan so covering a mega sports event in his home country was career milestone. Not only did he get to present live coverage of a once in a lifetime sports event, he also got to talk about his beautiful country to the world that was tuning in. There are only a few sporting events that captivates the whole world. The World Cup of Soccer and the Summer Olympic games are on top of that list. Those events attract viewers from all over the world because a lot of countries have athletes representing them in those games. Rick was happy to present the results of the games and the news to Western Australians live from the Olympic Stadium and his coverage went beyond the expectations of his producers.

Personal Life

His tremendous work has won him many formal awards. He has been awarded with 10 Logie Awards for the Most Popular Personality on Television. Besides being a news presenter, Rick is also an author. He is the writer and producer of three interesting documentaries called Lives in the Balance, Rivera Rich and Raunchy and the third one he filmed when he was on a vacation in the Pacific.

Rick got married to a beautiful woman named Erin Ardon. After few years of their marriage, they had a sweet little daughter. His daughter grew up to follow in his footsteps and now works for the TV station, GWN7. Rick is a zealous lover of surfing. Growing up in Australia made him love the beach and the sport of surfing. This is the reason that he and his family is living near a beach that is located in Perth. Dwelling near the beach makes it easier for him to surf, instead of travelling long distances. He is able to have surfing adventures close to his home and family. He likes to spend a quality time on beach with a glass of wine whenever he is too tired to surf the waves. It’s been a long time in Rick’s marriage and there is no hints of tension or divorce between them.

Rick and Erin thought of starting a business together. In 2002, Rick’s wife, Erin got the approval from the City of Stirling to run a bed and breakfast. Rick was proud of Erin’s drive to run her own operation. In 2005, The Seven Network’s program called The Great Outdoors produced a segment about the property that Erin was running. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation disclosed Rick’s business relationship with the property. Some people speculated that there was a conflict of interest since Rick’s wife was running the business and he was reporting on it. The producers of the network said that there was no conflict because it wasn’t Rick’s suggestion to feature the property. They claimed that someone behind the scenes was genuinely interested in the property and wanted to do a story on it. Even though Rick is a great guy, no one bought the story that there wasn’t bias going on.

Related Biographies