After a couple of recent articles reprising old newspaper columns, our readers have been “flooded with nostalgia” for those old days, including some former columnists themselves.
Former Brisbane reporter Ross Thompson has sent us this reminiscence about the days when newspapers devoted special columns to radio.
Flooded with nostalgia after reading the fascinating item about the wonderful days when radio commanded its own columns in newspapers and the Queen of them all, Heather Chapman.
Back in 1973, I while working at the now defunct Sunday Sun in Brisbane, under editor, Ray Johnson, I was asked to write a radio column about stations in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba. I was encouraged to be controversial to attract as much attention as the television column under the well known pseudonym “Veritas” which hid the identity of Peter Farrell.
There were some great characters in Brisbane radio and I received plenty of “leaks” about rival broadcasters or tips that someone was “looking for a change”.
One of the most ardent readers was the late Ralph Taylor at the glamour Gold Coast station 4GG, who eventually made me an offer to join him as Promotions Officer, completing a career switch I have never regretted. The radio column lasted only two more weeks.