Graham ‘Spider’ Webb died on Friday April 26 aged 88. He started at Tamworth’s 2TM 70 years ago and had continued up until recently on community stations Vintage FM Penrith, Bay FM Nelson Bay and Harmony FM Richmond.

Webb was a former telegram boy who got his break playing harmonica on Terry Dear’s Australia’s Amateur Hour on 2UW and was immediately struck by the radio bug. He would appear on 2UE’s Rumpus Room compered by Howard Craven before becoming the announcer for Sunday religious programs on 2CH. Later he hosted the radio version of Wheel of Fortune and joined a classic lineup on 2UE alongside Gary O’Callaghan, John Laws and Bob Rogers.

60 years ago he moved to Europe joining pirate radio station Radio Caroline (pictured below) in 1965. In the late 60s, alongside his radio commitments, Webb also hosted TV shows like Blind Date.

50 years ago Webb created and hosted the Saturday morning music show Sound Unlimited for the Seven Network, the first of its kind to have video clips. If a song didn’t have a clip he began to source them. He approached 20 year old Russell Mulcahy who was working as a film editor to put together some footage to accompany songs like Kris Kristofferson‘s Why Me and Nilsson‘s Everybody’s Talking for the first episode of the show. Mulcahy would go on to create music videos for AC/DC, Duran Duran, Bonnie Tyler, Human League as well as The Buggles‘ iconic Video Killed the Radio Star, the first music video played on MTV.

During the 70s and 80s Webb worked at Sydney stations 2GB, 2SM and 2UW in Sydney before relocating to Queensland in the early 90s. In 1999 he co-founded Sunshine FM, hosting its breakfast show till 2009.

Music historian and fellow Vintage FM presenter Glenn A Baker shared the below tribute and memories of Webb on Facebook: