KG: Tonight we cast the Spotlight on a deadly woman of the airwaves, Paulette Whitton. Paulette began her career in broadcasting in 1987 at Radio Redfern and has since worked in TV and radio for the ABC. Paulette now works at Koori Radio based in Sydney, where she hosts 'Blackchat', a current affairs magazine-style program which won her a Deadly Award in 2006 for Broadcaster of the Year.

Paulette Whitton, Koori Radio: I was one of these kids who had no idea what they wanted to do past school and the only thing I knew I loved was music and I thought, "Well, I'll become a DJ." So I went off and I went to a mainstream radio school out in Sydney's west, and I hated it. I thought, "No, that's not what I want to be," and one of my friends - one of my mother's friends actually, she's the daughter of Auntie Ruby Langford, and she said, "Well, tell Paulette about Radio Redfern," and so I ended up going in there and had a bit of a look-around and they ended up saying, come on and do your own show every weekend.

DETERMINATION...

Paulette Whitton: I was often told that Aboriginal stories just don't rate, you can't do Aboriginal stories all the time, but that was what I wanted to do. So I thought, well, my goal is to go to an Aboriginal radio station, be home in Sydney hopefully, have a show and tell our stories and finally a position come up at Koori Radio and I was lucky enough to get it. Blackchat's a daily, Monday to Friday, 3-hour program on air. It's a current affairs, magazine-style show, I'd just sorta describe it as. We have a group of regulars that we use on a monthly basis as well. We cover issues surrounding education, employment, law, politics, history, health, arts and culture. I don't do it for awards or anything like that, and that was just a beautiful appreciation of the work that I do, and it was a really special moment for me.