3AW’s Denis Walter refuses to quit broadcasting during live on-air emergency – impressing listeners with his ‘cool’ demeanour

Radio presenter Denis Walter faced an emergency during a broadcast at the Australian Open on Friday.

An alarm at the KIA Arena in Melbourne went off, while an announcement ordered spectators to  leave the concourse.

But the 69-year-old 3AW stalwart kept his cool and continued his broadcast until he too, was forced to evacuate.

However, even after his hasty exit, Walter used his mobile phone to carry on with his show.

The incident occurred near midnight and the Herald Sun reports that the evacuation was centred on the concourse and did not effect the matches inside the arena.

According to the report the drama lasted only ten minutes and had little impact since the concourse was almost deserted.

The ’emergency’ was later reported as an accidental false alarm.

Walter has been presenting his regular Nights show from a studio outside the KIA arena on the concourse when the sirens started.

Once the alarm shattered the quiet of the studio Walter gamely carried on his broadcast. 

Walter continued his broadcast until he too, was forced to evacuate and later used his mobile to finish his regular 3AW shift

‘We have an emergency of some description happening here and you can hear the alarm and it is telling us to evacuate, so we better do just that,’ he explained above the noise.

At one point the media veteran had to throw his anchoring duties over to Simon Owens in 3AW’s main studio as he left his post.

But then the resourceful Walter called the studio from his mobile in order to finish his shift.

Later he told listeners: ‘I don’t think it was serious. It might have been just a false alarm or something set it off for whatever reason,’ he said.

The incident occurred near midnight and did not effect the matches inside the arena. Pictured: Walter at Carols by Candlelight last year