Peter Hand
Peter Hand (born 1957) is an Australian radio personality and journalist, known for campaigning for reform in Australian radio, particularly commercial talk stations.
Early life
Hand began working at Channel Seven as a trainee at age seventeen. Schooled in Sydney, he furthered his education at Macquarie University and the University of Wollongong. Hand started his radio work at 2WG in 1975 then moving to 2MG. He worked at 2KA Penrith in 1978. In the 1980s Hand ran a successful advertising agency before going back to radio. Hand worked at 2GB for 15 years in the roles of presenter, producer, and reporter including election nights, Royal visits, disasters and celebrations.
Move to Illawarra
Hand's satirical approach to the talk radio genre made him a top-rating cult figure at Sydney's 2GB through the 1980s and 90s until he appeared to 'drop out' of the limelight to join 97.3 ABC Illawarra on the New South Wales south coast.
Hand has been compared in style to American author Kurt Vonnegut.
Politics
Probably Australia's only rabid liberal talkback host, Hand is known for his lifestyle and constant advice to listeners to "start your own business and work for yourself so no other bastard is your boss". He is steadfast in his insistence on social justice but also a constant advocate of market economics.
Hand also exposed Alan Jones nearly ten years before Chris Masters' Jonestown: The Power and the Myth of Alan Jones resulting in an unsuccessful campaign by Jones to remove him from 2GB. Hand survived despite devoting large slabs of his programs to critiquing what he calls the "talkback maniacs" like Stan Zemanek, Alan Jones, John Laws and even people on his own station such as Clive Robertson. With a barrister's understanding of defamation laws, Hand has never hesitated to name names as part of his journalism.