Newspaper journo and  radio presenter Frank Crook passed away this week aged 81.

He had a heart attack after having lunch with his son, and later died in hospital.

The veteran journo left school at age 14 with the aim of becomg a journalist.

He worked at the former Sun and Daily Mirror and was also editor of TV Week.

His radio work included weekend nights at 2GB and the drive shift on 2BL702  (now ABC Radio Sydney).

Former ABC Radio colleague Barry Smith remembered Frank as the person who did the very last ever ever interview from 204 Forbes Street when the ABC moved to Ultimo.

“Frank Crook interviewed me about the old studio which I was closing down. “If these walls could talk” I commented. He simply said “yes”. We only had orderwires left as the Telstra guys had that day taken all the equalisers so Eddie Lee had to quickly work out how MCR Ultimo’s line equalisers worked. A first!  I felt privileged to put 204 to bed as I turned the power off after the interview. The end of an era in so many ways. I suggest you raise a glass of good red to Frank tonight.”

His legacy, according to former editor and media veteran Mark Day, was one of old school journalistic “irascibility”.

“You could point Frank at anything and you knew he would come back with story and it would be beautifully written. No need to check spelling or punctuation or anything like that … he was a writer’s writer. I was lucky enough to have been around in that era when I had Frank and a few other greats of the journalistic world in my newsroom.

“We used to descend on a story like a swarm of locusts. Our motto was ‘get it right, get it fast and beat The Sun’.

“And Frank in particular was a reporter you could point at anything and he would come back with something magnificent.”

 
 Mark Day posted this tribute to Frank on his facebook page

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