I’ve been spending a fair bit of time talking about the start of my career in the 60s, where it all began and my first radio gig, and how after a bizarre series of events, I was chosen to host a large number of concerts.
I met some of the biggest names in the music industry both international and homegrown in Australia, some of whom I’ve had the pleasure of becoming mates with over the years.
During this period as my radio career started to grow – it was 1968 – two of the promoters I mentioned earlier, Kenn Brodziak and Malcolm Cooke, came up with the idea of a local pop show featuring a host of local talent like Billy Thorpe, Ray Brown, The Easybeats, Col Joye, Jay Justin, Johnny Young and Normie Rowe. The list goes on. The show was called Turning On which morphed into Baby John is Turning
On (I must admit a bit cringeworthy as I think about it now) but I was chuffed when Channel 7 decided to pick it up and put it on at 5.30pm, Monday to Friday.
This was my first TV show which would prove to be a precursor to bigger and better things for me at that time of the day on Aussie TV. If you’ve a mind to, you could go on YouTube and search The Valentines/Turning On and you’ll see, in glorious black and white, a clip of them doing Build Me Up Buttercup which featured a very young Bon Scott singing the chorus with Vince Lovegrove, prior to Bon of course going on to International fame with AC/DC. Memories!
To do the show required me to fly to Melbourne on Friday, record five shows before returning to Sydney and back on the radio on Monday nights at 7pm. A pretty hectic schedule but once again this practice would raise its ugly head in the coming years in several ways, I’ll explain that in coming months. The show did pretty well in the ratings for 12 months but with the ever-increasing popularity of Bandstand and the emergence of Countdown with Molly Meldrum there was a fair bit of over-exposure of some local artists, so we decided to slam the bag, but, as history will prove, not the end of me at 5.30pm on Channel 7.
Things were going along pretty well for the next couple of years when I got a call in 1970 from the powers-that-be at Melbourne radio station 3AK with an opportunity to do the breakfast session. This is the most important time slot on radio, as it sets the station up for the rest of the day, particularly as far as revenue from advertising is concerned. Do well in breakfast and it’s easier to sell the rest of the day.
This was an unbelievable opportunity for someone who’d only been in the business a very short time, so I packed up the car and drove to Melbourne to join the great team at 3AK. This included WA’s favourite son, the one and only Lionel Yorke. We got on like a house on fire and Yorkie helped me enormously with my move to Melbourne, a very different place from Sydney, especially on the sporting side of things.
I grew up in Sydney with Rugby League but of course in Victoria Aussie Rules was the king. Yorkie was a huge Collingwood fan so he convinced me I should sign up as well, which I did.
I’ll never forget that year, 1970. Collingwood and Carlton were in the grand final, so Yorkie and a few of our mates were off to the MCG for the big game. Sadly, I couldn’t go as I was hosting a pop concert at the Melbourne Royal Show featuring stars like Normie Rowe, Billy Thorpe and Ronnie Burns.
I remember listening to the car radio on the way to the gig. Collingwood were thrashing Carlton by about 10 goals at half time so I thought this is gonna be a big night of celebrations with Collingwood winning the flag. So I completed hosting duties and said to the crowd: “Well, I’m off now to have a big night with the grand final winners, Collingwood.”
All of a sudden, a bloke standing down at the front of the stage yelled out: “They lost!”
I couldn’t believe it; but he was right. Carlton stormed home in the second half and won, so I can assure you it was a much quieter night than I had imagined.
I have to add that was the case with Collingwood supporters, when they won you couldn’t get a glass up to your mouth, people were packed in so tight, but if they lost you could fire a cannon through the joint and not hit anybody.
This was the start of a very eventful time for me in Melbourne in the early seventies, there’s still a fair bit more to come and I look forward to sharing it with you soon.
Cheers, Burgo.
