Bill Caralis, the founder, Chairman and Managing Director of the Super Radio Network, and owner of 42 NSW and QLD stations, died of a heart attack on Friday July 19, aged 81.
He rarely would be interviewed and never photographed but had a close connection with staff across his network who he allowed a unique freedom to run their stations independently. While he was reclusive to outside media interest, he was deeply invested in his stations and his people.
Dianne Coveny-Garland, 2SM News Director of 24 years, and with the Super Radio Network more than three decades, shared in her news:
Bill’s father, George Caralis, came to Australia in 1910 and worked in the Sydney Markets before returning to Sparta in 1930. At the end of World War II in 1945 George, his wife and young family came back to live in Sydney permanently, working his way up to owning a green grocer outlet in the Queen Victoria Building. Bill as a young man would deliver fruit and vegetables along George Street by horse and cart with his father.
George was made treasurer of the Greek RSL in Australia but died when Bill was 16. Caralis would place red roses at his graveside for decades afterward.
Bill married and supported his family by continuing to work in the markets for a while before taking a job with the Sydney Masonic Club where he learnt the liquor trade. He then ventured into the building trade as a developer, a life long interest and evidenced in the ownership of the land and buildings in which most of his stations reside.
He built a small shopping centre in Marrickville and, as part of the complex, the Marrickville Cellars Drive-In. Next was the Camperdown Cellars, and, with the help of wife Pam, he built them into one of the largest import and retail liquor outlets in Australia.
His love of Pam was one of the only times he ever engaged with the media, putting the below golden wedding announcement in confidential section of The Telegraph in 2014. They celebrated 60 years earlier this year.
Bill was a great supporter of Rugby League and the now defunct (in the NRL) Newtown Jets. He became president of the Jets, who were narrowly beaten by Parramatta in the 1981 Grand Final.
In 1982 he sold up, moved to the Gold Coast and retired, which Bill found didn’t suit his work ethic. Following a lunch with John B. Fairfax, he discovered radio which began a completely new business trajectory.
His first purchase was 2RG Griffith, soon followed by stations in Dubbo, Parkes and Mudgee. Then came Lismore, Murwillumbah, Taree, Toowoomba, Gunnedah, Gympie, Tamworth, Armidale, Moree, Grafton, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Orange.
In 2000 he bought 2HD and NEWFM Newcastle from the NSW Labor Council and 2SM Sydney from INXS’s Chris Murphy. A new four-level facility at Pyrmont was built to house the 2SM Super Network. Legendary broadcaster John Laws joined 2SM mornings in 2011.
It’s believed a statement was sent to staff from the Caralis family with Bill and Pam’s children to assume the roles of Joint Managing Directors. They asked for business to continue as usual, to honour Bill’s legacy.
2SM is the hub station for the network which distributes programs to other Caralis’ stations in NSW and South East Qld. It is the largest privately owned radio network in Australia.
In a sad twist of fate, Bill’s wife Pam Caralis passed away three days after Bill’s death.
Bill died in Pindara Private Hospital on the Gold Coast. Pam, the co-owner of the Super Radio Network, died aged 85 in the same hospital on July 22, the day her husband’s death was made public. They were together for 60 years of married life.