A profile of the enigmatic, media shy, cardy wearing media mogul by Peter Saxon. Like legendary billionaire Howard Hughes portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator, Bill Caralis has built a reputation as an eccentric recluse. No one yet has been able to snap a photo of him, let alone publish it and get away with it.
His media shyness, bordering on phobia, is most likely the reason why he has now settled out of court with Microsoft and Adobe who were pursuing him for allegedly using pirated software at some of his stations.
“It’s what he always does,” one confidant told me, “he settles on the courthouse steps.” Heaven forbid he should ever have to actually appear in court. He even resisted government pressure to attend a senate inquiry into local content at his stations.
The Caralis Super Network is the largest privately owned radio network in Australia and the second largest overall behind Southern Cross Austereo. Even though the once dominant 2SM is no longer a force in the Sydney market, the network makes its living through a strategic bloc of stations that envelope large tracts of NSW and Southern QLD, spearheaded by 2HD and NEW-FM Newcastle.
A self made man who definitely did it his way, Caralis has been described by some as the slumlord of Australian radio, spending little on equipment and programming, instead relying on the value of his broadcast licences to grow.
There are two flaws with this analysis. First, the value of radio licenses is diminishing rapidly as radio can increasingly be delivered without a licence on platforms other than AM, FM and DAB+. Second, it doesn’t matter anyway because Caralis has shown that he has no intention of selling at any price.
Over the years, he has knocked back a number of offers – rumoured to be as much as $200 million – for his network which, today, would be worth considerably less. Perhaps half as much.
Which leads to the question, at his age (70+) and with around $100 million still possible to salvage, why not sell up and retire? The answer is simple. He wouldn’t know what to do with the money.
Bill lives a frugal life. No fancy cars, clothes or wild parties. Without his network of stations and the power and glory that goes with it, he’d have nothing to do.
Of course, he could invest it in a movie – a classic rags to riches story about an individualist who worked hard and beat the odds to build a broadcasting empire. But who would Bill cast in the lead? Russell Crowe, George Clooney, Paul Hogan? He could afford any of them. And it’s a hell of a story.
Although most people think Bill is Greek, the man himself insists his family hails from Sparta, which might explain a lot about the way he shuns opulence and prefers a simple lifestyle. His attitude to both business and life can be described as “old school” – a description, we’re told, Bill would take as a compliment.
Bill’s father, George Caralis, first came to Australia in 1910 and as a young man worked in the Sydney Markets before returning to Sparta in 1930. It wasn’t until the end of World War II in 1945 that George brought his wife and young family back to live in Sydney permanently.
Bill idolised his father, a hard working man, who from selling fruit and vegetables at the Sydney Markets progressed to owning his own green grocer outlet in the Queen Victoria Building.
The acorn, they say, does not fall far from the tree and his father’s work ethic rubbed off on Bill, who from a very young age put in long hours of back-breaking labour each week to help his dad support the family. Bill still recalls how, as a youngster he and his father delivered fruit and vegetables along George Street by horse and cart.
The markets is where Caralis got his life’s education. It toughened him at a tender age for a harsh business world that routinely spat out many young immigrants from poor backgrounds.
One of Bill’s proudest moments was when his father, George, was made treasurer of the Greek RSL in Australia. But soon tragedy struck, when as a 16 year old, Bill lost his Dad to illness.
Bill recalls his father as a real life hero. He’s never quite recovered from the loss and to this day he still places red roses at his graveside.
Now on his own with a family to support, Bill continued to work in the markets for a time and then took a job at the Sydney Masonic Club where he learnt the liquor trade. He was only there a short while before venturing into the building trade as a developer – something he has a passion for to this day. From that point on, he has always been his own boss.
He soon combined his newly acquired skills by building a small shopping centre in Marrickville and as part of the complex, established Marrickville Cellars Drive-In. With the help of wife Pam he built it into one of the largest liquor outlets in Australia.
He then founded Camperdown Cellars, another huge import and retail outlet and continued to play the property development market with great success.
During this time he became a great supporter of Rugby League and was president of the Newtown Jets, narrowly beaten by Parramatta in the 1981 Grand Final.
In 1982 he sold up and moved to the Gold Coast and retired at quite a young age, but Bill found it hard not to work. Following a lunch with John B. Fairfax in the early 1980’s, he developed a fascination for radio and the prospect of entering what for him would be a completely new business.
His first purchase was 2RG Griffith, soon followed by stations in Dubbo, Parkes and Mudgee. Then came Lismore, Murwillumbah, Taree, Toowoomba, Gunnedah, Gympie, Tamworth, Armidale, Moree and Grafton.
In 2000 he bought 2HD and New FM Newcastle from the NSW Labor Council and 2SM Sydney from Chris Murphy (INXS). He built a new four-level facility at Pyrmont (next to the Casino) to house the 2SM Super Network.
2SM is the hub station for the network and a satellite uplink dish on top of the building distributes programs to his stations in NSW and South East Qld. Finally, there came another three stations at Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Orange.
Bill Caralis has gone from a fruit stall at the Sydney Markets to the largest independent owner of Commercial Radio Stations in Australia.
Despite the controversy that often surrounds Caralis, his father George would be a very proud man.