Chris Winter, one of the founding announcers at the original Double Jay and a driving force, especially in the early days, of triple j, has passed away.
“He had been very ill for the past 6 months, heart failure and I think complications from his life long condition as a type one diabetic,” said Peter Wall today. To quote Marius Webb: “I think we all agree he deserves the title “legendary.”
ABC Head of Music and Creative Development, Chris Scaddan, said “Chris was a foundation presenter for Double Jay in 1975 and it is his free spirit and style that inspired the persona of the whole station. His passion for music outside the mainstream survives now in triple j and also Double J again on digital radio.”
Winter was one of the figures behind the infamous first song aired on Double Jay airwaves back in 1975, telling Double J, “We thought, ‘let’s play something that will make people really cross’. So, an obvious thing to do was to pick a song that was famous for being banned on commercial radio: Skyhooks’ ‘You Just Like Me Cos I’m Good In Bed'”
Chris was already championing new music through Room To Move, a program he began in 1971 on ABC radio before moving it to Double Jay and founding manager Marius Webb said in a Facebook post today that “Chris became a legend as the original presenter of “Room to Move”.
It was this approach to championing lesser-known music that became the foundation of what would drive Double J and triple j.
Former deputy managing director of the ABC and director of ABC Radio, Malcolm Long, says “Chris Winter was an extraordinarily gifted person who had an big impact on very many people in different but related fields. Especially in his early days on air he had a great feel for and knowledge of rock music and was always keen to introduce emerging talent. He was also a terrific communicator – cool, friendly but also authoritative. Together, these two talents made him legend in Australian radio. But he also deeply understood the digital revolution and, especially in the latter part of his life. He enthusiastically contributed much to harnessing of digital for creativity and to extend our choices and freedoms. A truly talented, warm and passionate man.”
