Of the countless hours of conversation he has brought to air in more than two decades as a broadcaster, Richard Stubbs finds those that come around only once a year the most challenging.
As the ABC 774 Afternoons host prepares to anchor a special live broadcast from the shores of Gallipoli on Anzac Day, this grandson and nephew of World War I veterans reflects that on this one day of the year, the things you do not say and the things you do not ask are as important as anything you share with your listeners. Talking with veterans of any war, he says, brings a sense the stories matter more, which makes the questions matter more, too. They come with an obligation to history and an obligation to let the storytellers determine how much history they are able to share.
''I think they are the only interviews I get keyed up and nervous about prior to them, because the people I'm going to talk to rarely tell their stories,'' Stubbs says.
''This is the one time you get people to tell their stories and the stories are so important. They're important for us, because we listen and have some appreciation of just what they went through. But they're really important also because 99 per cent of veterans don't talk [about the war], so their families, their grandkids, are left wondering why their grandpa and dad are the way they are.
''You realise that these conversations you have with vets are always on similar themes, no matter the war, and I think it helps others who haven't had those conversations understand why their dad was weird when he came back from Vietnam or why their grandfather was the way he was ever since Korea.
''I have a real sense of the importance of it and that it will possibly be historical.''
Stubbs has been a fixture on Australian radio, TV and comedy stages since the 1980s. He has interviewed film superstars, politicians and famous writers. But it is the experiences of covering Anzac Day events in Australia that are most potent.
''I never get particularly nervous at all with movie stars or rock stars or authors or any of those people. I'm happy to see them, but I'm not nervous about it. They're professional, I'm professional, it'll all be fine.
''But dealing with these conversations [with veterans] that are incredibly personal, potentially traumatic and with someone who doesn't talk much, I really feel the weight of it, the weight to get it right,'' Stubbs says.
''It's really important for others to hear what they went through. But you can't ask, 'What's it like to bayonet someone?'
''It is a dance where you try to help the person talk about the things that they want to talk about. You're not going into territory they don't want to talk about,'' the broadcaster says.
The ABC Radio team doing the Gallipoli broadcast all carry with them personal histories that resonate. For Stubbs, there is the great-uncle who survived the carnage of the battle for the Nek at Gallipoli, only to be killed two years later in France.
Alongside him will be producer Serpil Senelmis, who is of Turkish heritage and has previously visited the Gallipoli battlefields.
''She'll give us an opportunity to hear why the Turkish think Anzac Day is an important day and why Gallipoli is important.''
Ollie Ward, Triple J's content director and a veteran of the New Zealand army, completes the trio. Stubbs says of Ward: ''He'll be able to bring that New Zealand perspective and also on the military side of things.''
Stubbs says the team is conscious this year's broadcast is, in many ways, a dress rehearsal for the extensive commemorations planned for the 2015 centenary of the Gallipoli landings - and he will be back on Turkish soil for that momentous event.
''It's important of itself, and the plan is for the team to do it all again for the centenary. We'll do a good job on this and then we'll review it and we'll do a better job for next year,'' he says.
Anzac Day commemorations
The special broadcast airs nationally on ABC Local Radio from 11.30am to 1.30pm, which includes coverage of the dawn service from Anzac Cove. After that there will be another broadcast of ceremonies from Lone Pine. In Melbourne, ABC 774 airs its traditional dawn service coverage from the Shrine of Remembrance, hosted by Rafael Epstein. Later in the morning, Ali Moore and Prue Bentley host coverage of the Anzac Day march down Swanston Street.
