THE OPEN HOUSE SHOW

Open House is a live, three-hour talk radio show airing across Australia on Sunday nights, exploring life, faith and culture from a Christian perspective. We feature compelling interviews, engaging talkback, and discussions on current and breaking news topics. Listen in and you'll hear inspiring stories of faith, grapple with the big questions of life, have a laugh, and catch the odd live music performance along the way. You'll also make friends with a team of experts we call our "Housemates", who drop in regularly to chat about film, TV, books, music, sport and new media.

Since its beginnings in April 2006, the show has grown to become a nationally-syndicated program. Feature guests have included national and international names like Eugene Peterson, Andrew Denton, Joni Eareckson-Tada, Tim Costello, Chuck Colson, James Morrison, Gloria Gaynor, Steve Waugh, Sara Groves, Anne Rice, and astronaut Charlie Duke... as well as a host of everyday people doing extraordinary things. Search our archives to listen to our past interviews.

For the first five years of Open House, the man behind the microphone was founding host Sheridan Voysey, who built a loyal audience with his warmth, depth, and engaging interview style. In March 2011, he moved on to new horizons, and handed the microphone over to the equally brilliant Leigh Hatcher.

THE OPEN HOUSE HOST - LEIGH HATCHER

About Leigh: Leigh Hatcher is one of Australia's most experienced broadcast journalists and news presenters. He began his career with the Macquarie Radio Network at 2GB in Sydney, and in 1975 he was appointed to the National Press Gallery in Canberra for Macquarie, in the midst of the tumultuous events surrounding the sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
He went on to be news director of radio stations 2CA Canberra and 5DN Adelaide, where he eventually became programme director and hosted 5DN's 'Newstalk' breakfast programme.

Leigh switched to television in the early 80's, returning to Canberra as political correspondent for the Seven network, then moving to London for two years, where he was Seven's European correspondent.

He worked for 10 years as an on-the-road reporter and sometime newsreader with Seven in Sydney, and was their Chief Olympic Correspondent in the lead up to the 2000 Olympics.

In 1997, he undertook a year of full time study at theological college.

Since 2001, Leigh has been a news presenter at Sky News Australia and since 2006 has hosted the morning 'First Edition' programme with Sharon McKenzie.

He's also the author of 'I'm Not Crazy, I'm Just a Little Unwell', a book which tells of his two-year journey through Chronic Fatigue Syndrome from 1998-2000, and which birthed a popular online forum, www.notcrazy.net.

Why Leigh is a part of Open House: 'Though I've worked in television for much of my career, radio has always been my first love. There are lots of ways in which my life, my faith and my work will come together with this wonderful opportunity to host Open House'.

Things Leigh loves besides Open House: Leigh is married to Meredith and they have four children, Tristan, Amy, Johanna and Sophie, and one precious grandchild, Reuben. In his spare time he's is a swimmer, does bonsai, and plays bass, drums and jazz guitar (though not all at once!)

THE OPEN HOUSE PRODUCER - CLARE CHATE

About Clare: Ever since she could put pen to paper, Clare Bruce has been stringing great volumes of words together, and loving it. Her first serious written piece was a small essay on the virtues of books, when she was five years old... and the words haven't stopped coming ever since. After completing her BA Communications in 1998, Clare spent ten years working as a writer for suburban and regional newspapers, and the occasional Christian magazine. It was the perfect preparation for her role as the Open House Producer, which she began in 2008.

Why Clare is a part of Open House: Clare considers her job to be a gift and a calling from God, in fact the best job in the known universe. If you try and tell her your job is better, she won't believe you. Given that she loves playing with words so much, being a talk show producer is pretty much her dream job, because putting words together is what it's all about. Every day includes things like writing interview scripts, composing emails to potential interview guests, responding to enquiries from listeners, and crafting website blurbs like this one.

Things Clare loves besides Open House: Clare also loves playing keyboard at her church, watching obscure movies and docos, hiking and camping with her hubby Warwick, and all kinds of other things related to people, food, music, and the outdoors.