The West Haven resident, now 80, would join the Four Corners team in its infancy as a research assistant after an impromptu hiring in March 1962.

Four Corners, the nation's first TV current affairs show, reached 60 years on air in August.

Mr Martin remembers the show's first runs in 1961 with a skeleton staff of just six and his impromptu hiring on the team.

"There was a controversial story about Broome that Michael Charlton had done and it had this ending where a taxi driver said 'ah yeah, the ass has fallen out of Broome'," Mr Martin said.

"I thought it was fantastic so I walked up to his office, stuck my head in the door to say as much and suddenly I had a job there.

"Four Corners really started a trend but originally it was almost a family occasion. Looking back on it now it was a very small production.

"Michael Charlton was there and Bob Raymond was the producer, there was a secretary as well.

"There was a camera crew assigned to it but in those days the program would go cap in hand to the camera department to say 'please can we have a camera crew'. Peter Layden became the main cameraman but quite often you'd need another camera crew because a second story was always being developed."

Mr Martin has fond memories of creating programs about the emergence of teenagers in the commercial world and a 'Sydney By Night' program looking at the city's underbelly between midnight and dawn.

"I was working on Four Corners by about March in 1962, working in the talks department until 1964. I was put in as a research assistant and we would map out the program sometimes two or three weeks ahead," he said.

He also remembers sitting in on ABC meetings in the explosive aftermath of Allan Ashbolt's investigation into the Returned Services League's influential role in politics. The then-prime minister Robert Menzies described the story as a wretched program designed to discredit himself and the government.

"After a brief time and the blowup of the RSL program, Michael and Bob left so it was suddenly no longer a family, but it did now have resources thrown at it all over the place," he said.

Mr Martin moved to Channel Seven to work on the Seven Days television series and later found work in the Canberra press gallery for 7News.

He continued his career working for the BBC, Guardian and Observer while overseas in England and Europe in 1971. He returned to home to work on Frost Over Australia with British broadcaster Sir David Frost and became an adviser to Gough Whitlam's Australian Labor Party for the 1972 election campaign.

He became a senior adviser to the Minister for Media over the next two years, saw the rise of colour television in 1975 and was appointed a commissioner for the Australian Film Commission for five years from 1975 to May 1980.

Mr Martin later became a press secretary to the speaker in Australian National Parliament and a technical writer in Canberra working contracts with IP Australia, the patent office and Defence Housing.

Four Corners grew to become a leading force of investigative reporting in the nation during that time, he said.

"Suddenly after a few years of Four Corners there was Seven Days, Project at Nine, Telescope at Ten," Mr Martin said.

"It was interesting to see how that area of documentary television had developed with talent.

"That style of show started to capture really significant audience numbers, even though it sometimes got into trouble with government and pressure groups.

"You're always going to get that negative feedback and if you don't, then maybe you're not doing your job in a current affairs."

Four Corners has upheld its title of longest running series on Australian television, amassing 62 Walkley awards and 23 Logie awards along the way.

"These kinds of democracy checks are absolutely essential and they are now so much better at what they do than what we did in my time," he said.

"We can stop and think about the recent investigations like the French secret service blowing up that Greenpeace vessel (Rainbow Warrior), the inquiry into Queensland police corruption and they had the first proper analysis of the terrible conditions of indigenous Australians.

"Over the years Four Corners has had some ups and downs but they have got on to some important stories at the national level. It's good to see they have the research teams behind them to get these stories."

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