Page 24 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2016
www.MelbourneObserver.com.au
Death of Melbourne radio veteran ● From Page 23
● The ‘new-look’ Bruce Mansfield at Channel 0 with Channel 10 doing hosting announcements and Young Talent Time, but if it hadn’t been for the success we have had on the breakfast show I could be just another hack announcer.” Times were good. Bruce told Dave Pincombe of Melbourne Winners Weekly: “I’m very satisfied with what I’m doing and I’m making the most of it. You never know when it will stop.” And stop it did. Junior Herald reporters Andrew Bolt and Terry Friel, in a story headlined ‘The day they had each other for breakfast’, reported on John Blackman’s shock departure from the 3AW partnership with Bruce Mansfield, to defect to a new ill-fated network being assembled by Kerry Packer. Bruce stayed on for another four years, teaming with Darren James. When sacked by 3AW General Manager Mike Petersen, the pair took their program across to 3AK. Within a year, that was all over when Italian businessman Peter Corso bought the radio station from Alan Bond - and the entire 3AK staff was fired. And that was the end of the era for ‘Uncle Roy’. Or as Damien Murphy of The Herald wrote: “Radio is probably the most cut-throat and no-beg-pardons of the media industry.” But ... as is often the case ... something better was just around the corner. On a Sunday night at Christmas 1990, Bruce Mansfield teamed with Philip Brady to present the Remember When program on 3AW. Says Bruce: “We were employed really on a two-week basis. Every two weeks if the sponsors renewed it meant they had the budget to re-employ us. “And then for about the first two months of the program, we were really flying by the seat of our pants, because we didn’t know whether our next show would be our last.”
Bruce Mansfield and Philip Brady re-ignited their 3AW Nightline partnership, just 12 months later. They have regularly been at or near the top of the ratings tree, which meaures the number of listeners turned in to the station. Since commercial radio started 86 years ago in Melbourne in 1925, only a handful have been able to hold a career stretching 50 years. Late in 2015, the 3AW management cut the Mansfield-Brady on-air time to two hours, to make way in the early evening for a talk program hosted by Steve Price, featuring Andrew Bolt. Ratings for the abbreviated Nightline program in 2016 have increased. During Bruce Mansfield’s illness, relief personalities to team with cohost Philip Brady have included Patti Newton, Andrew McLaren, Mike Brady, David Mann and Simon Owens. A part of Melbourne radio has now gone forever.
● Bruce Mansfield returned briefly to the studio in early 2016
● John Blackman and Bruce Mansfield topped 3AW ratings with their 1980s breakfast show When Alex Kenworthy was sacked in controversial circumstances from the Nightline program by 3AW in 1991, 3AW boss Tony Bell said Bruce Mansfield and Philip Brady would be taking over the program “until a permanent replacement can be found”. Twenty years on, the search must be ongoing. Bruce and Phil are still there - produced by Simon Owens. Other producers over the years have included Wes Turnbull, Paige McGinley, Ken Francis, Peter Adams and Nathan Zwar. One year (2000) in the 20-year chain was broken when Bruce Mansfield was at 3AK after the contra-for-comment controversy. He had been sacked by AW for accept● Geoff Manion interviewed on the Mansfield’s Melbourne ing goods and services from sponsors, in return for on-air mentions. TV program on Optus Channel 50 in 1997
● Interviewing the Rev. Jeremy Whales, Mayor of Cheltenham, UK, from BBC Studios, Gloucestershire
● TV producer Gavan Disney with Bruce (as ‘Uncle Roy’).
● Airline chief Niki Lauda provided free flights for Bruce.
● Broadcasting back to 3AW from BBC Gloucestershire
● Bruce Mansfield and Ash Long appeared on Bert Newton’s Good Morning Australia in the late 1990s