One of the great statesmen of Radio, Tom Crozier, passed away this week following a stroke two weeks ago from which he did not regain consciousness.  His funeral will be next Monday 20th September at 1.30pm at Olsens Funeral Chapel, 691 Old Princes Highway; Sutherland (corner of Rawson Avenue).

Mr Crozier’s daughter, Virginia writes…

Dad had suffered a stroke whilst at home on 26 August and remarkably still made it to an industry lunch the next day. I took him to the doctors on the Saturday and he was admitted to hospital that afternoon. He did maintain that he’d only had one glass of wine at the lunch but couldn’t be sure how many times it had been filled up.

Dad suffered a second stroke on Wednesday 1 September and had been unconscious ever since. My sister Gail was with him when he passed away this afternoon.

The family would like to thank everyone for their support, we have overwhelmed by well wishes and its fantastic to know that dad was so highly thought of in the industry.

We will be touch regarding (funeral) details.

Mr Crozier’s’s radio career spanned many years at 2UE, Community station 2SSR and prior to his second “official retirement,”  General Manager of 2RPH.  He was also part of the original Radio Marketing Bureau (RMB) in Australia, serving as its GM under the old commercial radio umbrella body, FARB.

David Rogerson has contributed this tribute…

Radio has lost a pioneer

It is with a tear in my eye I report that Tom Crozier has passed away from complications of a stroke. He was a driving force behind the sales success of 2UE in the 60’s and 70’s.

Tom played a key role in forming the Radio Marketing Bureau under the Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters (now known as CRA). At a time when radio is rapidly moving forward, it’s important that we pause to remember those who truly helped us to get to where we are today.

My part time hobby has been to write “that book” we always promise to complete one day, so that our love and passion for radio is there to share with others. Here’s what Tom provided me as a background to his start in commercial radio:?“Like all young men starting up in a first job, you got all the dirty work – and in a small organisation as 2KM there was plenty of it!

Let’s see now – I swept the floors, all three of them. The studio, and what we laughingly called the “General Office” plus transmitter room – which was also the record library, and dusted the console.

Sweeping included the footpath outside – we were in one of the two main shopping streets, Belgrave Street, and we had to be part of the effort to keep the place tidy.?I selected programs from Day 1.”

We’ll miss you Tom.