INFORMATION and entertainment have proved a lucrative combination for local television production company MRG International headed by Russell Goodrick.
Programs including the Motor Show, All About Food and flagship project The Real Estate Programme have made MRG International one of the market leaders in local television production.
“In my early years I was involved with radio and journalism and I was on the road as a journalist here and in the eastern states,” Mr Goodrick said.
“I left Channel Nine in 1985 and I ran my own public relations company. Channel Nine approached me in early 1996 and asked if one of my clients would sponsor a program on real estate.”
This Saturday, Channel Nine will broadcast the 250th The Real Estate Programme and MRG International has plans for a new series, expected to go to air in the next few months, and a documentary project.
Mr Goodrick said that, in the early days, critics of the The Real Estate Programme asked whether the Saturday morning time slot would attract the right demographic for the show and the advertisers.
“In the early days there was always doubt there was a market for the Real Estate Programme,” he said.
“Therefore it was expected by most that it might last the first series of 13 weeks.”
A couple of different real estate programs were developed in the 1980s and Mr Goodrick was aware of the difficulties these shows had experienced.
“I talked to Channel Nine regarding ideas they had and I knew in the ’80s there were programs that had come and gone,” Mr Goodrick said.
The Real Estate Programme appeals to the personal investors because it educates the audience and allows people to approach investing or buying property with some understanding of the market, he said.
