By David Rogerson
There will be many articles, features and comments to share on the anniversary of Radio 2UE’s 100th Birthday celebrations. Just to celebrate 100 years on air you’d think would be enough of a celebration. But there are some people who have helped to deeply etch the 2UE brand and name into the minds of Sydney radio listeners over the years. Personalities like Gary O’Callaghan with Sammy Sparrow, Big Sam Kronja, John Laws, Scott Newman, Des Hoystead, Col Pierce, Andrea (aka Mrs Dorothy Jenner), Len London, Barry Mathieson, Ormsby Wilkins, Dick Fair, Les Thompson, Steve Raymond, and the list goes way back to some of the original broadcasters including Cecil “Pa” Stevenson and Eric Wright.
A lot has happened and changed since the early days of the broadcasting tower located in the suburb of Lilli Pilli in Sydney and shows emanating from Cecil “Pa” Stevenson’s lounge room in Maroubra where the first makeshift transmitting aerial was located. Pa was an electrical engineer and the original 1925 license holder for 2UE. He would become known in legendary terms as “The Father of Commercial Radio”. From those early days of broadcasting, then the advent of the radio serial and the 2UE Top 40, then came talkback radio or “Open Line” as 2UE’s Ron Hurst called his afternoon show.
Ron Hurst – The Quiet Achiever
Ron Hurst is one of the people who had a behind the scenes and on-air role at the heights of 2UE receiving rating shares that consistently sat at more than 30 percent of Sydney radio listeners aged 10 and over. Ron and my Dad, Bruce Rogerson, go a long way back to the 1950’s when they both started working at 2KO Newcastle.
Ron is still with us today and maintains his humble and quiet demeanour with no great ambition to share any of his limelight. We’ve been close family friends for all of my life. In fact, when I sat down with Ron last week in his retirement village on Sydney’s northern suburbs (main picture), he said:
‘I’d be delighted to help you with my time at 2UE, but please don’t directly quote me. There are others more deserved than me David”.
On that last comment I couldn’t quite agree and did get a few concessions from Ron for me to use.
Work Your Fingers to The Phone
Comparing then and now is like trying to compare mono to stereo. Today there are producers, back up staff, access to the internet for quick fact checking, and more. Back then, prior to 1967, it was one person and a microphone. No back up staff. Ron recalls that “the relationship between the personality and the programming staff was as close as you get. I had a meeting every morning with Gary O’Callaghan (2UE Breakfast and top of the ratings for 28 years) . There was a desire by everyone on air and behind the scenes to be close. My office was right next door to the main studios. I’d walk in, discuss what I heard on air, they’d leave the studio when they had a song playing, and come and have a quick chat in my office. We all wanted to make the shows on air sound the very best each and every day.”
Ron began his career at 2UE in 1963 when the Lamb family, who were the owners of 2UE invited Ron to take the place of Ken Carroll who at the time was the PD of 2UE. Ken Carroll had replaced Ken Stone, the former PD, who was moving to NBN Channel 3 TV in Newcastle. Stewart Lamb wanted, or practically insisted, that Ron should move from 2KO Newcastle to 2UE and take Ken Carroll’s place who was moving into a creative role. There was a lot happening with the lamb family company at the time. The success of the 2UE Top 40 format since it was implemented in March 1958, was hitting its straps. As radio historian Wayne Mac said to me:
“Stewart Lamb’s reputation and contribution looms large in the history of Australian radio mainly through the purchase of Sydney’s 2UE in late 1956.”
Senior executives had returned from the USA. In early 1963 (see image below) the advent of talkback radio in the USA, and the role personalities were playing in bringing success to stations with high profile personalities, was not going unnoticed by 2UE’s owners. Pictured are 2UE’s senior executives at Mascot Airport welcoming Alan Faulkner and Stewart Lamb (not in picture) back from the USA where they been gaining a better insight into talk radio.
Stewart was now overseeing the company operations for Sydney and Newcastle wanted to stay ahead of the curve. In October 1967 the Post Master General’s Department (PMG) decreed it was now allowing calls to go to air, providing there was a 7 second delay and a bleep or tone was heard every 7 seconds. This would alert anyone either live to air or being recorded that they were being recorded or placed on air.
While there are many claims to the mantle of who first did talk back in Sydney, Ron told me that Ormsby Wilkins went to air in October 1967 just a few days after the PMG decreed the 7 second delay was required. The date was publicised in advance of when radio stations could start talking.
“It was just after midnight, and he took one pre-arranged call to claim the being the first person on air to take a listener caller. The Lamb family decreed we had to be first. And the rest is history.”
2UE had up until now been running a successful afternoon show known as Sound About, but listeners were not heard live on air, as taking listener calls was banned by the PMG. Ron along with then host Geoff Marshall, my Dad and Production guy Allan Black would choose a topic of the day to discuss.
Ron was on air doing afternoons on 2UE. He recalls at the time there was no producer, no call waiting, just the chance for 2UE listeners to call in on what he called the Open Line. Four incoming phone lines, Ron would open the microphone, pick one of the four lines flashing, open the mic and say “2UE Open Line, what do you want to talk about?”
With a background in sport and on air, Ron approached 2UE Management with the view to now running a live to air 2UE talkback show. But Ron argued that receiving listener calls was one option, but surely another point of difference for 2UE would be if people could ring in, why couldn’t he (Ron) ring out?”.
As Ron recalls:
“That had never been done, no matter what anyone else claims, this calling out to people had never been done before. On the day I decided to do my first outgoing call. The Sisters of Mercy at the Waratah Hospital in Newcastle had a major event or issue that was making the news, so, I rang the sister at Waratah Hospital as I knew a little about them having worked in Newcastle. Sister answered the phone and let me conduct an interview with her about their circumstances at the time.”
But then, 2UE management had something to say about making outgoing calls.
“Immediately after that first listener call out to the hospital, I came off air and passed Mr Faulkner in the corridor right near his office. Alan Faulkner said ‘Ron, I heard your outside call today.’ I said, ‘thanks Mr Faulkner. But think about this. If I could call a Sister at Waratah Convent why couldn’t I also ring The Prime Minister for an interview?’ Mr Faulkner responded kindly, but curtly ‘don’t be ridiculous’, but, respectfully, I wasn’t going to let his comment stop me. I started to integrate listeners Open Line calls with personality interviews into the show.”
Ron’s contribution to talk in the afternoon heralded a new era and foundation for how talk radio would be built, and still is constructed, today.
Mixing Music and Personalities.
Ron brought in a lot of innovative change to the sound of 2UE by mixing Top 40 music, with Rugby League sport coverage on the weekends, horse racing, and personality talk during the week. Quite a mix of different ingredients to bring together, but stations were quite broad in their appeal then. It was only in 1958 that formats were starting to segment and splinter away with a greater focus on specific audiences via music era, genres and talk components.
I was intrigued to know how Ron was able to manage all the personalities on air, both behind the scenes and in his day-to-day role. Were they hard to deal with, self-centred, hard to manage not willing to take direction? The answer was “no, not at all” on all parts.
Ron recalls that the Lamb family thoroughly encouraged development through the company ranks. A strong salesperson would take over a sales manager’s role when they went on holidays. On air announcers were encouraged to provide input into station programming, features and more. In fact, the original music meetings with Ron Hurst and his on-air team featured the like of Gary O’Callaghan, Bob Rogers, John Laws, Scott Newman aka Paul Rickets and Len London.
In weekly music meetings Ron invited all announcers to attend, encouraging them to contribute to what was being played on-air. That idea of everyone taking part was Scott Newman’s after he returned from working in radio in the USA.
Scott shared his observations that so called disk jockeys in high profile markets were contributing to the overall music sound of the station. Ron’s 2UE music meetings adopted a similar approach with 2UE personalities being involved. This lasted a few months at most. Len London, who was in news, contributed to the meetings, but felt he didn’t have a lot to add that would be of any great worth.
Ron vividly remembers:
“Regardless, 2UE’s programming and music team featured the top 6 selected biggest hit songs to be played on 2UE the following week, usually starting on Thursday. This allowed the Top 40 charts to be printed after they had been compiled via phone calls and tallying record sales from a handle full of Sydney record bars. 2KO also used our play list to a great extent.”
2UE played those top 6 songs every 90 minutes, which meant some songs would be played twice in breakfast. The Top 40 format was all about playing people’s favourite songs frequently.
Welcome back to the SCG.
2UE decided to cover test cricket, up against the ABC. Management of course wanted to include advertising to help support the cost of covering test cricket events both here and overseas. Manager Alan Faulkner instructed Ron Hurst to do the cricket exactly the way the ABC covered it. At the time the ABC only described the shot being played or how the ball was bowled. It would be soothing like “that’s a full toss, and the ball is hit to cover by Wally Grout”.
Very simple and had stood the test of time. Comments would be provided at the end of the over about ground conditions, the crowd, how a ball was played, batter form and so on.
Ron reminded 2UE management that they had sponsors. The only place to put the sponsor commercial was at the end of the 8 ball over because where else are we going to put it? The ads were about 30 seconds in length. This meant if 2UE copied the ABC model of commenting on the game in between the overs there was no airtime for advertising to take place. On the ABC coverage too, there was never any interchange between the commentator and a guest like a former Australian Captain in Lindsay Hassett until the end of the over.
It took a while for Ron to get the penny to drop for Alan Faulkner. 2UE management finally realised that for commercial radio coverage on air there had to be changes to the way cricket was coverage was provided by ABC Radio. For Ron, this 2UE commercial approach ended up being an extraordinarily successful format. When the ABC broke for news coverage; then lunch and the ABC’s Country Hour Show that happened right in the middle of the test match.
Ron remembers:
“2UE got all those listeners tuning over to 950 AM on the dial. I could hear it around the ground with crowd’s transistor radios. No Allan McGilvray commenting and calling cricket on the ABC. It was just Richie Benaud and me.”
Just that one interchange near Alan Faulkner’s office changed the way cricket would be covered from the day the very first ball was bowled for the first test that 2UE covered. Players like Richie would be asked to give their opinion after each shot or ball bowled. It’s still much the same today.
M7 Records Newcastle Song
Music and sport were in Ron’s blood. As the programming head of Sydney’s Number 1 station, Ron approached management again with another request:
“Mr Faulkner, I’d like to do the 2UE Record Awards.”
The concept was that 2UE would give awards to Australian artists each year.
“I got the go ahead with a very affirmative yes. Again, that was the Lamb Family always wanting to be first and claiming the high ground.”
“Not long after we started the 2UE Music Awards Mr Faulkner became the president of the Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters (FARB or better known today as Commercial Radio and Audio ). Our 2UE Music Awards started as a ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, then became The Major Network Awards, and then it became the Federation Awards, and from there the ARIA Awards, or something like that.”
Ron would later go on to head up the M7 Record label which took the letter M from the Major Broadcasting group, and the 7 from Channel 7. His first big chart hot was with The Newcastle Song by Bob Hudson. With a small stable of artists up until this time, M7 was trying to make a profit. The Newcastle Song alone saw M7 back in profits and clearing all its debts within 2 months.

Gary O’Callaghan and my dad, Bruce Rogerson, who were life long friends. Did you know Sammy Sparrow was supposed to be Sammy Seagull? Alan Faulkner felt that not many people in Sydney’s western suburbs may have seen a seagull as they lived a distance from the beach. So, Sammy Sparrow it was.
The Quiet Achiever – revisited
The radio life and times of Ron Hurst has so many more tales and tribulations could include. Many of them will be included in an upcoming book about my own Dad’s radio life and times which I plan to have complete by the end of this year.
Other achievements from Ron include his coverage of the Olympic Games from 1956 to 1968, the day a horse bolted through the listening crowd during a live 2KO Outside Broadcast promotion Ron and my Dad were undertaking and Ron’s contribution to the Australian Music industry beyond M7 Records.
I hope that this little insight into Ron’s life in the media and entertainment industry shows the significant vision of one of radio’s quiet achievers. I asked if, after a lifetime on the inside, does Ron still listen to radio in 2025?
“Oh yes, I do David. Mainly the commercial talk-based stations. It’s still an important part of bringing news and information to me.”
About David:
With a background covering over 40 years in Media and Communications, David Rogerson is experienced in nearly every facet of the radio and media communications industries from Group Content Director, to National Marketing Manager and Company Director. He is currently a lecturer and mentor at the Australian Institute of Music in the Masters and Bachelor degrees.
In 1997 he founded media and communications consulting company “Strategic Media Solutions”. David’s professional consulting career has seen him sought-after for his insights and client solutions in more than 15 countries around the world.
As a published author of media related books and entertainment journal articles David has personally mentored a wide range of media company directors, industry managers and entertainment executives. In the music field David’s experience covers marketing and digital content development for a range of artists including INXS and is part of the judging panel for the Australian Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Thank you David for the fascinating background on 2UE, the early days of top 40 radio and talkback radio. I remember those days extremely well. Listening as a schoolboy I was inspired by what I heard to pursue a career in radio, much to the amusement of my schoolmates and the despair of my parents!! Ron employed me as a floater at 2UE in 1972. I had come from doing mid dawns and weekend breakfasts at The Greater 3UZ. I confess to being a bit terrified of Ron. He was a tough taskmaster however he taught me a great deal in a very short time. I ended up doing drive and anchoring Saturday afternoon sport. I had no idea at the time of the influence he had on what I’d describe as modernizing commercial radio. His influence was phenomenal. I loved working at ‘The Brighter’ but ended up being lured away by David’s dad Bruce to become program manager at 7LA. I did return to 2UE later in my career when Rod Spargo, who I still have the greatest respect for, was programming the station. A terrific backgrounder David. Thank you.