The Australian radio industry is today mourning another huge loss, with the death of Perth-based broadcaster Brian Lehman, who passed away in hospital at the weekend, aged 82.
Having left school at the age of just fourteen, Brian spent his entire working life in radio – his on-air career spanning three states.
In a 2021 interview on Paul Walsh’s Pilots of the Airwaves podcast, Brian described himself as an average sort of a student who couldn’t wait to leave school.
“I was kind of in a hurry to get into radio.”
Brian started out as a panel operator at Sydney’s 2GB and 2UE in the early 1960s, working alongside the likes of legendary names such as Ward Austin, Ken Sparkes, Gary O’Callaghan and John Laws.
His on-air journey began as a mid-dawn announcer on 2UE.
Reflecting on those days, Brian said “Even at that stage, all of the capital city radio cities had a live midnight to dawn shift. They regarded it as a very important lead into the Breakfast shift.”
“I guess that has been missing on a lot of stations in a lot of markets for quite a while.”
Brian then moved to Tasmania, taking up an on-air role at 7EX.
Keen to work in Melbourne radio, an opportunity arose at 3XY – whose on-air talent of the day included Graham Kennedy and Mike Walsh.
Brian moved back to the mainland, hosting the night shift on 3XY for $90 a week.
“That was considered reasonable money, I believe, in those days,” he said.
By the early 1970s, Brian had taken over the coveted job of hosting 3XY Breakfast.
Over his six-plus decades in radio, Brian worked on-at a host of stations including Melbourne’s 3KZ, 3AW and 3DB and Perth’s 6iX, 6PM, PMFM and 6KY.
He is also widely remembered as a respected Program Director.
Fellow radio veteran Alan McGirvan remembers Brian as being not only a lovely person but a great on-air talent.
“He was consistent at his own style. An ideal floater. You could put him in there when the star went away.”
“It’s fair to say that he was a good soul, and that you knew that anyone who didn’t like him wasn’t worth knowing.”
Images: Facebook