Former 3UZ general manager Bob Cornish, who was been ill for a relatively short period, passed away on Monday with his family by his side. He was a great contributor to the Melbourne radio industry and will be missed by many. Bob’s funeral will be held at 10am on Friday 26th March at Tobin Brothers Chapel, 604 Esplanade Mt. Martha, Victoria. Donations to Peninsula Hospice in lieu flowers.
Bob’s radio career commenced at 3SR Shepparton and 3UL
Warragul. In 1954 he joined 3UZ Melbourne where he held
positions of Chief Announcer, Sports Editor, Studio Manager,
Assistant Manager (Administration), Station
Manager, and General Manager for six years.
Bob was always known as one of the ‘gentlemen’ of radio and was highly respected by all in the industry. He was
elected to the Melbourne Radio Hall of Fame 1997 and awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.
After his radio management career finished he began his second career with research company McNair Anderson, now Nielsen Media. Most radio managers who have worked in Melbourne will remember phone calls from Bob on survey day to tell them the good, or bad news, about their ratings results.
Bob seemed to always be able to find a demographic segment that was successful, even for stations which slumped in a survey. His confidential explanations of how the ratings worked and how to look for significant pieces of information within the figures were helpful to many Melbourne radio managers.
Bob was inducted into the Commercial Radio Industry Hall of Fame in 2002. He always had a smile and a story to tell about his beloved radio industry. He will be missed by all who knew him.
Bob was amongst of the earliest subscribers to this radioinfo website and had kept his subscription current every year. He was subscriber number 2,959. We are now up to subscriber numbers in the 40,000’s, which indicates how long ago Bob joined the site.
RIP Bob.
This tribute to Bob written by Mark Neely:
My first recollections of Bob Cornish was during his time as General Manager of Radio 3UZ in Melbourne. Bob was visiting Sydney in October 1973 and spent the evening of October 20 with his feet up on my parent’s coffee table viewing the opening on Television of the Sydney Opera House. Why you might ask? Well one of his ‘on-air’ stars, Bert Newton was hosting the Royal Gala Opening in front of Queen Elizabeth II.
Little did I know that our paths would cross many times in the future.
I recall again meeting Bob Cornish in Dallas in 1978 during the Annual NAB convention when the Hotel selected by Bob & my parents was in a designated ‘dry area’ of Dallas, which meant that these Aussies couldn’t secure a drink without going to the very expensive Hotel Restaurant. Bob didn’t know it was very expensive until he offered to pick up the tab on behalf of the 8 dinners present. It took Bob some years to pay off that bill!
Bob joined AGB:McNair Anderson in 1989 as Melbourne Manager, just in time to be part of the next Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters (FARB) tender submission for the period 1992 and beyond. Prior to joining AGB:McNair Anderson Bob held many positions within FARB including the position of Federal President and Chairman of the Research Committee. So Bob was very familiar with the radio audience measurement tender process, but looking at it from the other side. So against stiff opposition AGB:McNair Anderson secured another contract period at the 1990 Convention held in Melbourne. This pleased everyone within the company not the least of which was Bob who had just taken the reigns for distributing survey results in the Melbourne & Adelaide market places.
Bob went on to be a shareholder in the management buyout of the AGB:McNair company in 1992, and continued as the highly respected Melbourne Manager of the Nielsen Media division after the purchase of AGB:McNair by ACNielsen in 1994.
Bob retired from Nielsen in October 2000, but still retained close contact with his work colleagues providing consultancy services for some years after and also to Radio 2GB and 2CH in Sydney amongst others.
I was very happy to see Bob and his family in early January this year. Bob always had a positive outlook on life and his guidance and friendship will be sorely missed.
If you would like to send in a tribute or make a comment about Bob, do so on our Blog (click below) or send comments to [email protected] for inclusion in this story.
Funeral details will be published here when they are known.