Vale Bob Maynard

One of ABC Classic’s longest-serving presenters, Bob Maynard, passed away last Friday.
 
The original voice of ABC Classic when it began in 1976, Bob not only loved the ABC, but was one of the most loved colleagues.
 
The ABC paid the following tribute to Bob.
 

If you’ve been within the sound orbit of ABC Classic for a while you would certainly know Bob Maynard. His golden voice, reminiscent of the past but always with a quirkiness that landed it slap bang in the present, would tantalise you with surprising jest, wit, and musical knowledge.
 
His was the voice that was there in 1976 when the station began. It was there when you wound up the volume on Saturdays with Audio File, when, lo, the latest thing, a CD would deliver you naughts and ones and tell you that’s all you needed for your musical diet. Not only that, but quadraphonics, the latest consumer product in surround sound was on its way.
 
He would whisk you away with Song and Dance, or soothe you into slumber during your rest, but never let you fully sleep, for you would have one ear on whatever it was he would come out with next.
 
Bob Maynard died last Friday night [7 May 2021] from leukaemia and ABC Classic is is grieving his loss.
 
What you may not know from that voice that would accompany you through the years, through the night sometimes, was that Bob Maynard was one of the most loved colleagues in ABC Classic.
 
His desk was a pile of research, his shelves stacked with books, his nose in the Gramophone, and he invested heavily into enabling more research around the Orchestras, music in Australia, and the ABC, well beyond his time with the National Broadcaster; contributing significantly to the digitisation of early publications for the National Library, travelling the states and even overseas to compound his knowledge and give generously to reclaiming what was being lost and financing what another generation of music lovers would have to enrich their world.
 
Bob loved the ABC.
 
When ABC FM began it was solely in Adelaide. It was a bold experiment conducted on an OMO principle [which soon changed to OPO, as ‘One Man Operation’ was never going to last, and anyway, wasn’t true for long]. And that’s how it was; turntable to the left, turntable to the right, a mic in front and four giant tape machines behind. Presenters produced their own shows and brought all their papers with them to the studio, backed up by a library of books — Grove, of course — and pronunciation guides of singers, conductors, and composers from the BBC. When Bob left, he photographed the lot.
 
The ABC, and ABC Classic in particular, was a vision that Bob would embrace to the hilt and never relinquish his lust for it.
 
There was never a celebration at ABC Classic without one of Bob’s ‘Odes’. Like a jester of old, or great poet, he would dress with props for farewells and events in the life of staff and the station. Even for his own farewell, he had staff lower him into a garbage bin and dispose of it. Bob’s odes were always welcome, and it would not be a surprise to discover he had one ready for his final exit from this mortal stage.
 
Bob was married to Heather, who worked at the Sound Library of ABC FM. Heather died suddenly some years back, and the staff of ABC Classic shared her loss and Bob’s grief.
 
Now it is Bob who has gone. He was a musical explorer; one of a kind. And it’s as though a candle has gone out.

 
 

 


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