Eps. 4 FUN in the 50's!

Join ex 3GL staffers, Rod McLure and Gary Newton on Episode Four of The Station | Remembering 3GL as they explore the vibrant landscape of 1950’s radio. 

From pivotal sports moments to community-driven fundraisers, delve into an era of innovation, entertainment, and the enduring spirit of local broadcasting in Geelong.

_________________________

Again, thanks for listening to our podcast The Station | Remembering 3GL!

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You can reach out to Rod and Gary by email with your comments - thestation3gl@gmail.com

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Transcript

  Hello everyone, here we go again with episode four. Yes, it's episode four already. I'm Gary Newton, former 3GL announcer. What else did I do? I wasn't a panel operator. Oh, well, I was, I suppose. I did uh, did a bit of paneling and stuff. Join me, joining me again. I wrote it, I didn't write any ads but I did, no, I didn't write any ads but I did read a few.

Joining me again on the station, remembering 3GL is Jack of All Trades, master of plenty  Rod McClure. You, you had been, you've been a panel operator. 

Very briefly, yes. One time? You said panel operating, I think of cars, but of course you mean panel operating.

I'm not talking about panel beating. No, I'm talking about panel 

operating, as in working the switches and things. Yeah, that's, yeah. The knobs. I did that briefly, but no. And you wrote copy? I did write copy. You were very successful with that. 

Yes, yeah. I'm much happier behind a desk. Typewriter than a microphone.

yes. As this is becoming obvious,  

and of course,    you've done a lot of research into the history of three GL L and that's given us the opportunity to tell a few stories, delve into the past, talk to some  people who are   involved. And play little snippets from them, et cetera, et cetera. So today  we are gonna look back at a, a decade where radio and just about everything else, I guess, went through something of a transformation.

We've decided to call this episode fun in the fifties. Yeah.  A lot was going on in the fifties.   Television for the start. Television arrived. Yeah. The transistor radio was invented Out went the valves in, came the transistors. The queen paid us a visit. Rock and roll ruled. Not necessarily on 3GL back then.

The Olympic Games were in Melbourne. Oh, and wait for it, the Cats won back to back premierships. Oh, I'm 

happy about that. And needless to say, 3GL, the Geelong advertiser station, was there to cover it all. 

I'll bet they were  and very excited too. Come 1950, it was  only five years since World War II had come to an end, so no doubt  people were still trying to, to move forward and, and rebuild   Their lives.

Yeah. And radio. The, the wireless was all part of that in the first half of the fifties. Pre television. In some ways, radio continued to be a bit of a, a variety show with music, news, quiz shows, serials, sport, outdoor broadcast  comedy kids programs, basically something for everyone. Yeah. And three GL L was no different except that in three Gl L's case, of course, unlike most other provincial radio stations, three GL L had to compete with Melbourne.

radio stations that infiltrated Geelong. 

Yeah, and that's why local content was always important, and Reg Gray, 3GL's long serving general manager, he was well aware 

of that. Local content, I think, really sets a station apart, and  none more so than Geelong and 3GL. When it came to catching the ear of the listener, sport, of course, was always to the forefront of Reg's mind.

Yeah, you only have to look back  to that groundbreaking coverage we talked about once in one of the other episodes, the 1932 Warrnambool to Melbourne bike race. 

Yeah, and  that was the year when 3GL broadcast its first Geelong footy game from Corio Oval. By the time the 1950s rolled around, 3GL and its  Totally unbiased.

Footy coverage had built up quite 

a loyal following. It certainly had. And as I think we've mentioned previously, when 3GL began covering the football, it was only able to broadcast Geelong's home games and had to take the away matches on relay from one of the Melbourne stations.  

And in some cases, when 3GL got permission to cover matches played at other grounds, 3GL wasn't always allocated a position in the broadcast area.

I think Reg said that there was the odd occasion when they covered the game in a building overlooking 

the ground. There was no way they weren't going to cover the court. 40, that's for sure.   But come 1951, and the timing could not have been better, 3GL was given a designated broadcast box at the MCG.

To quote the Geelong Addy, it is the first time in the history of radio in Victoria that a provincial or country station has been granted the facilities for a direct broadcast from the world famous Premier Australian Sports Arena, the MCG. It also is   A recognition of the 16 year service which 3GL has given to football enthusiasts in continually broadcasting league 

games.

And the Cats certainly did 3GL proud, winning back to back premierships in 1951  and 1952. Under the headline, Radio's Blair, the Geelong Advertiser reported that bounce off time in Melbourne was switch on time in Geelong. The Addie reported that radios went into action as the crowd roared at the MCG 

John Hyde 1951 Premiership player for the cats.

Well,  the biggest thrill of course, of all time.  The roar of the crowd, and then you got around to the outer where all the Geelong people were  and you know, you just floated around.  It's just something that  you know, you never forget.  

Can you imagine how 3GL's commentators Reg Gray and Ivor Grundy must have felt sitting up at last in their own commentary position at the MCG about to watch and broadcast to thousands of listeners in Geelong and further afield the biggest sporting event of the year.

With the cats in it. 

Yes, and the broadcast was sponsored by Homecrafts Furniture. And of course there was no  no barrack allowed by the commentators. The cats went about their business. I 

suspect there might have been a little bit of  barracking going on, but perhaps it was very subtle. In 1951 it was Geelong.

Versus Essendon bombers were without staff or forward. John Coleman who had been suspended despite the loss of Coleman Essendon, were four points up at halftime. But in the third quarter, the cat stormed back to kick 5.3. That's five goals. Three  to a point. And final scores were Geelong 11 15 81 to Essendon 10, 10 70.

It was Geelong's first premiership since 1937. And to top things off, Bernie Smith won the Brownlow medal, and George Guinen won the goal kicking. 

Come  1952 and Reg and Iber were back again. This time Geelong were playing. The Magpies in front of a crowd of 81, 000. The game was pretty much over at three quarter time.

With the Cats going on to win a 13 8 86 to 5 10 40. Premiership player. Best on ground. Plus, club best and fairest, all in the same year. Jeff Williams, Cats star from 1952. 

When you look back on it, I suppose that's rather a unique, a unique record, isn't it? And   it was just one of those things that     came along, that    I was helped by the   the players.

As I said, the   the whole atmosphere of the club was tremendous. And   yes, when you look back at that, it's rather a unique    something I was very fortunate to be able to do. 

Yeah, go Katz. Back in Geelong three gel would've been on hand when 8,000 screaming fans welcomed the team at City Hall and the mayor Councilor Morris Jacobs, who had been president of the Geelong Footy Club when they won the 1931 and 1937 premierships.

He addressed the crowd 

referring to the Kat's coach Reg Hickey. Councillor Jacobs said, I was one of those instrumental in bringing Reg to Geelong some 20 years ago. He was just a green and ugly looking boy.  And he's not much different tonight. That drew a big laugh from the crowd. But I'm sure, I'm not sure what Reg Hickey would have thought of it. 

But   anyway, football, rowing, bike riding, horse racing, the trots, greyhounds, even boxing and wrestling. As David Cockburn once told me, if it moved, Reg would want to cover it. David, of course, 3GL's chief announcer for many years, and we'll have a special episode on David in the near future. 

Something 3GL took on relay, which was a major event in the early to mid 50s, was a description by radio legend Jack Davey of the Red X Round Australia Road Trial.

All kinds of cars competed in the event, and they weren't allowed to be modified in any way.  I 

do remember as a kid, a very, very young kid, that the Riddick's Road Trial grabbed everyone's attention, and was described as an around Australia car marathon.  In 

1954, the Addy reported that Jack Daniels Jack Davy would provide up to the minute broadcast reports on 3GL.

246 cars took part in the race, and only 127 finished in the allotted time. Unfortunately, Jack Davy's vehicle, which was one of those that  well, just didn't complete the course. 

Radio star Jack Davy and his custom liners on his way. Jack ran into plenty of bad luck.  Irrepressible Jack Davy leaves his custom line outside and runs across the line because he was forced to withdraw, officially, due to trouble way out west. 

Still, he and his car completed the 

course. And  the race, and I do remember this fellow, the race was won by Jellicknight Jack Murray. Ah, famous name, Jellicknight Jack. Yeah, Jellicknight Jack, and he used to apparently let off sticks of Jellicknight just for fun. And according to reports, some people were amused by this and others were, didn't think it was quite so funny. 

 No, 

fair enough. Back on the local scene, there were all kinds of sports related programs on 3GL that became very popular with listeners. The footy team show on Thursday evenings was a must for all Cats fans, and 3GL would always get the Geelong team to announce before any other stations. Fair enough, too.

And Saturdays at 6. 15, 3GL would devote half an hour to broadcasting local sports results. The local clubs, football, cricket, tennis, bowls, whatever, were required to broadcast Phone or drop in the results to the 3GL studio, where they will be put into some kind of order and handed to the announcer to read as best he could.

I'm not so sure that they were put into any order, to be honest with you. Right, I recall that procedure seemed to carry on through my early days at 3GL 

as well. And just quickly, David Koper used to have a nice story, and this gentleman's still around, he's got a sense of humor, his name was Russell Twitt, and he was a terrific fast bowler, and his name would always appear in the sports results, and David,  the name Twitt used to, he knew it was coming, and he would dread it because he was going to laugh, and he couldn't help himself.

So he'd say, Russell Twitt. So, Russell, if you're out there, I know, you know, I'm sure you've got a sense of humor, and you'll see the funny side.  

In the 1950s, it was also a case of, you know, Put on your dancing shoes. Live ball and dance broadcasts were very popular. 3GO announcers regularly got doled up to the nines to broadcast these events.

To quote 3GO Women's announcer June Thomas, the suppers were particularly worth turning up for. June also said that Chief Engineer Jack Matthews particularly liked covering the dances that were down the coast. Jack loved to surf, said 

June.  Let me read you an ad that appeared in the Geelong Advertisement.

May the 10th, 1950. It was brief and to the point. The Bowen Heads Firemen Broadcast Ball. Friday, May 19th, 8pm to 1am. Balan Matron of the Ball. Novelties and Supper. McCarry's Buses Leave from Hooper's Corner. Admission 4 shillings. 

Ah, did you go along? 

Very funny.  Radio drama was also a feature of 1950s programming.

Shows such as Night Beat with crime reporter Randy Stone. Randy Stone? What was he like?  Very Randy, I guess. 

Night Beat. Hi, this is Randy Stone. I cover the night beef, the Chicago Star. Dossier 

on Demetrius, that was a crime thriller. Dossier  

on Demetrius. The 

Caltex Theatre, which was radio's equivalent of the Sunday night at the movies. 

Welcome to the Caltex Theatre. A full hour of dramatic entertainment broadcast over a nationwide network of stations throughout Australia. They were 

all popular, huh? Yeah, all popular on 3G. 

Now, most of these shows were produced and recorded in Melbourne or Sydney and sent to radio stations around the country.

On the lighter side  radio quiz shows were also popular with listeners all around the country. And one man in particular was a  a very big favorite. His name, Jack Davey. One time, Jack Davey could be heard four nights a week in four different shows. 

Those shows were give it a go. Ask me another, the Julek show.

And the Ampol Show. 

The Ampol Show! 

Welcome to the Ampol Show, number please, with Jack Davies! 

Hi ho, everybody!  

He had lots of exposure on 3GR, didn't he? He certainly did. 3GL by this time was producing its own radio stars that were household names to local listeners. People such as Craig Kelly, Bill Ackfield, who went on to become Ackie and Jackie, of course.   Ernie Carroll  Ina Strawn, June Hunter.

Ron Bond and Happy Hammond were just some of the personalities keeping Geelong listeners amused and entertained. And many of those 3GL announcers like Bill Actfield, Ernie Carroll, Happy Hammond, like I said, set a pattern that would see 3GL become a stepping stone into capital city radio and even television.

You know, an advertisement in the Geelong Addy on March, or in March 1950, invited listeners to   join Ina, Happy Hammond, and other 3GL personalities in the studio for a new lunch hour show at 1. 15pm. The show would feature community singing, a quiz, prizes, fun, and laughs for all, and studio guests were asked to be seated by 12.

45. 

Radio in the fifties, pre television, was always on the lookout for ways to amuse, entertain and surprise its listeners.  

Like the time when two young women agreed to stand in the window of Anderson's furniture store and be hypnotised while listening to the voice of a hypnotist, a man named Kingsley, who was in the 3GL studios.

Hundreds of people turned up to watch, and apparently, according to reports, the two women were hypnotized and sleeping peacefully within five minutes. 

Yeah, but wait, there is more. Huh? Yeah, how about this? On Thursday, January the 25th, 1951, the Geelong Advertiser informed its readers that 3GL would be part of a national broadcast.

With a potential audience of 7 million Australians. All glued to their radio sets to hear a coverage of telepathy or thought transference. 

 Wow. The advertiser advised that the Piddingtons, husband and wife, Sydney and Leslie, who had just returned from a sensational tour of the United Kingdom, including a command performance, would present the most unusual event in the inception of radio.

At 

cruising at 300 miles an hour, more than 5 miles over Sydney, in a giant Qantas overseas airliner, Mrs. Pittington would attempt to receive messages from her husband 30, 000 feet below, that had been picked out at random by independent judges in the Macquarie Auditorium.  Well, I presume she got it right.

I mean, you couldn't disappoint seven men and missus, could you?  Could I just quickly, Gary, just drop in this, because I think it's rather interesting that   Sidney Pittington, he was a prisoner in Changi, a Changi War prisoner during the Second World War, and he discovered that  keeping the morale of prisoners was very important, and he got together with another fellow prisoner, Russell Braddon, and develop a mentalism act to entertain the troops.

And that's where this whole business that he and his wife later turned into a worldwide sort of phenomenon began as a prisoner of war in Changi. I think that was just a lovely little one. Good luck to him, you know, getting something out of it after what he went through. 

Absolutely. Absolutely.  So in February 1952, 3GL Breakfast announcer Craig Kelly was featured in a photo in the Geelong Advertiser promoting the 3GL Bathroom Baritone Contest.

 The photo showed Craig Kelly holding an umbrella. While interviewing a prospective contestant who was seen in the photo naked from the chest up, presumably singing in the shower. 

Yes, the Bathroom Baritone Contest was held as part of the Master Plumber's Exhibition at the Geelong West Town Hall, with a major prize of 50 pounds.

They were getting a bit 

racy back then, now, weren't they? Yes, daring, yeah. During the 1950s, Friday lunchtime programming had a special feature aimed at the man on the land. It was called, appropriately, The Countryman's Hour, and was originally hosted by Ernie Carroll. It included Country Women's Association news.

 A market update and  a young farmers session. 

Yeah, the countryman's hour was followed by  birthday greetings and then the hospital hour where friends and families of people in, in hospital could send in their requests and 

cheerios. That was all part of what Reg Gray would have seen as being a service to the community and a good example of that was a program called Good Neighbours.

The program was presented with new Australians in mind and went to air Sundays. To 

quote Reg, this program had the aim of making non English speaking migrants feel a bit more at home here in Australia. Continental music was the mainstay of Good Neighbours, supplemented by various announcements in a variety of languages.

This kind of block programming was common in the fifties.  Certain programs were designed to attract, A certain audience, the turnoff factor for other listeners didn't, didn't seem to be 

a problem. No, and there was probably no better example of that than a paid segment called Advice to Waterside Workers.

It went to air at 6. 30 during the breakfast session and required the breakfast announcer to inform the waterside workers where they were to report for work each day. Each worker had a number and the announcement went something like this. 

And this was still going in the 70s, I might add.  It went the following men  to report to work today at 8am at Cresco Wharf to unload the row bank.

Two, twenty one, twenty three, forty four, fifty, seventy nine, ninety one, 

you get it, you 

get it. I think we could go on for anything, thirty seconds to five minutes, or even longer. Yeah, for sure. Right, so just a little footnote, in May 1952, the old 3GL transmitter, which had been something of a landmark on top of the Geelong Advertiser building, was demolished.

It had sat atop the Addy since 3GL came on air in 1930, and hadn't been used since the new, more powerful transmitter was installed at Grovedale in 1938.  

It seemed like at 3GL in the 50s, announcers and technicians spent as much time out of the studio as they did in it. Outdoor broadcasts were many and varied.

And more often than not, there was a worthy cause attached. Yeah, and the Geelong Hospital regularly received assistance in a variety of ways from 

3GL. 3GL's hospital auxiliary, a popular component of the women's session, was always asking its members to contribute their time and skills in a variety of ways to donate items ranging from Food to bed socks.

Yeah, the children's show also had various activities and competitions where the hospital was the beneficiary. But on a larger scale, 3GL for many years got behind or organised fundraising events such as Hospital Sunday and Mother's Day appeals. 

Yeah, on May the 13th, 1951, Reg Gray ensured that 3GL threw its support behind the Baxter House Maternity Hospital Building Fund.

The overall target of the appeal was 80, 000 and Reg decided that the best way 3Geo could make a contribution would be to conduct a radiothon. However, the business manager of the hospital, Mr Taylor,  wondered whether any more money could be raised because he felt the community had already been generous.

In  the money that they'd donated. 

Yeah, well, Reg was unperturbed and he encouraged three child listeners to dig a little deeper into their pockets. 

And as luck would have it, the Radiothon was conducted on Mother's Day, an ideal day to be raising money for a maternity ward, I would think. 

Couldn't have been better.

From 8 o'clock in the morning, the telephones started to ring. And they didn't stop until the conclusion of the appeal. 

just before midnight. 

In addition to the studio activity, 3GL had two cars equipped with mobile transmitters traveling around the suburbs and residents were advised when the cars were in their area so they could make a donation and send a cheerio over the air.

At the end of the day, the amount raised was three thousand pounds and Mr Taylor described it as a magnificent response. He said, when you consider just how much had been raised previously, I think the final result tonight.  Following the success of the 1951 Radiothon, 3GL fundraisers for the Geelong Hospital became an annual event.

In 

1952, on the Day of the Appeal, sponsored sessions were taken off air and 3GL devoted all its services to raising money for the hospital. Six cars with two way radios were put to use, with Enos Strawn, Craig Kelly, Dick McCree, Ernie Carroll and Ron Bond all out on the road. 

And there was a unique touch when the broadcast featured a message from world renowned Australian soprano, Gladys Moncrieff, who had spent a number of weeks in the Geelong Hospital following a car accident.

Yeah, 

and the Geelong Advertiser reported that   in the greatest response ever made by Geelong and District citizens to an appeal for charity, 9, 685 was raised. 

The Addy went on to say many people sacrificed a few minutes of Sunday morning sleep as they went to their doors, still in their night gear, and handed over their donations.

Children rushed out to the 3GL car wearing their pyjamas to give their contributions and to send a cheerio. That's pretty 

good. According to the Addy, every home had a radio at full blast and every radio was tuned to 3GL. The following 

year, 1953,  over 9, 000 pounds was raised once again. Great effort. 

Oh, and there is another  event that happened.

A certain visitor paid a visit to Geelong in 1954.  Her name was Elizabeth. 

Ah, you mean Queen Elizabeth, I think. Ah, yes. The young queen had been on the throne for less than a year when she and the duke embarked on a tour down under which included a stopover in Geelong. 

And once again, the Geelong Advertiser encouraged its readers to follow the Royal Tour with 3GL.

It said that 3GL, as a member of the Australian Federation of Commercial Broadcasters, would combine with the ABC to give a full coverage of Her Majesty's visit to Geelong.  And I was there   to give the Queen a wave. Really? Yeah, I would have been in grade two, I reckon, at Swanno, Swanson Street State School.

I don't think the Queen noticed me among the  150, 000 strong crowd, but I was there waving my little flag. Good 

on you, little rod waving away at the Queen. It was pretty cute.  Well, on that high note, we might just  wind up this episode of The Station, remembering 3GL. Oh, 

before we do, we should mention, of course, that there was a little sporting event that took place just up the road from Geelong in 1956.

Oh, yes. I think it was called  the Olympic Games. 

That's right. Yeah, that's right. It does deserve a mention, particularly when you consider that, according to the Addy, the Geelong Guild Amateur Athletic Club provided Australia with the greatest number of track athletes from any one club in the 

country.

That's pretty amazing, really, and 3GL celebrated that achievement with a show called The History of the Guild Harriers.  Those athletes included, by the way, the great John Landy. Yeah, what an athlete he was, that's for sure. 3GL brought its listeners on relay from other stations with full coverage of the Games, including the opening ceremony by His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh.

I declare open  the Olympic Games of Melbourne.  Celebrating The 16th Olympiad of the modern era. 

There were daily summaries and direct broadcasts of events including athletics, swimming, rowing, 

boxing and cycling. And, remembering this was 1956, 68 years ago,  how about some of the commentators who back then would have been in the very early stages of what would have become, well, lifelong careers in the media.

Yeah. Some of those names were Tony Charlton, Norman Banks, Mike Williamson, Eric Welch, Doug Elliott, Ron Casey, Philip Kibbs, just to name a few. And Three Gels Highlights, by the way, was sponsored by the Meyer Emporium. 

Okay, so I think that wraps it up for this episode, but we haven't Quite done with the 50s yet in our next episode We'll delve a little more into that dazzling decade when we take a look at two very different events that 3GL got involved with 

You know, we've decided to call the next episode the station remembering 3GL from soapbox to saber jet and why have we done that? 

Well because we'll be taking a look at the Two, or three channels of unique coverage of two very different events. One, the Soapbox Derby, or Derby, down the Trobe 

Terrace. And the other was the station's exclusive, very exciting, live to air broadcast of the breaking of the sound barrier from Avalon. Can't wait for that.

We're going to talk to Bill Ackfield's son, Peter Ackfield, about that too. In the meantime, you take care and don't forget to enjoy your Nature's Cuppa. Sponsors of, of this program, Nature's Cuppa Organic Ceylon Tea. Thank you for the involvement again today. Will you put the kettle on? Put the kettle on.

Thank you very much. Off we go.