Remembering when: Philip Brady’s brilliant career

Philip Brady loves the definition of luck.

“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity,” he says, with a smile in his voice.

Reflecting on a continuous media career spanning 64 years, the Australian radio and TV legend believes his foray into showbiz was simply a case of being in the right place at the right time.

Now 83, the 3AW veteran – in his wonderfully engaging way – shares with me his memories of a golden era.

He tells Radio Today he was already a DJ at the tender age of five:

“My grandparents had a wind-up gramophone, playing the old 78 records. I started cutting ads out of the paper and playing records and reading ads.”

During his school days, whenever a fete or sports day required a compere, young Philip found himself behind the mic.

Having completed school in 1957, next stop was voice coaching with respected elocution teacher Lee Murray.

Whilst Murray was teaching him to read commercials, GTV Channel Nine in Melbourne put the call out for a temporary booth announcer.

Murray sent Brady to audition for the job. He got it, and so began his great adventure in the hallowed corridors of Bendigo Street, Richmond.

“I was the exception to the rule, because all my friends started in radio, and graduated to television. And here I am – an eighteen year old schoolboy – who walks straight into Channel Nine.”

“I think my fellow announcers thought ‘Oh, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth – he hasn’t paid his dues.’”

When Brady joined Nine, the three announcers on the roster ahead of him were Geoff Corke, Hal Todd and Bob Horsfall.

“They’d all come from radio. Bert Newton came across a year later. Pete Smith was still at the ABC.”

“I guess you could say I was one of the pioneers. But the scary thing is, of those of us who started in television way back at the beginning, as far as I know, I’m the only one still in the business, still gainfully employed.”

Two weeks into his employment at GTV 9, a colleague fell ill and Brady was summoned from the voiceover booth to do on-camera commercials.

“Suddenly Graham Kennedy took a shine to me. He thought ‘Oh, I could have some fun with Philip.’”

The In Melbourne Tonight host scored many a laugh at Brady’s expense.

“Graham was always taking the mickey out of me, and that was really our relationship all through the years. He called me Dimples, too, which I hated.”

Brady chuckles when he recalls his first radio involvement, which came about in 1961, after Channel Nine bought 3AK.

“We operated from a caravan. In those days they played LP records, with 12 tracks on them.”

“As people came into the caravan with scripts or a coffee, the needle would jump all over the place. So you might hear ‘Here’s Johnny Mathis to sing Wonderful, Wonderful,’ somebody would jump into the caravan, and the needle would jump three tracks and the song would be It’s Not for me to Say.”

“We were expected to work for nothing at 3AK. All of us who were on the roster – including Graham Kennedy, Bert Newton and Eric Pearce – were expected to do a shift every day for nothing as part of our contract with Channel Nine.”

“So we’d be doing radio during the day, and working on In Melbourne Tonight at night.”

Brady’s first encounter with 3AW was in 1971, when he was employed to do a weekend music shift.

In 1990, Brady and Bruce Mansfield were thrown together, and a legendary on-air partnership was born.

“I’d spent five years on the Gold Coast, working at Radio 97. I came home without any plans for the future,” says Brady. “I was called into 3AW. John Hindle had an afternoon program and wanted to interview me about my time on the Gold Coast.”

That visit led to a chance encounter with an old friend – David Mann, the promotions director. Mann informed Brady they were looking for an on-air partner for Mansfield for the nostalgia show Remember When on Sunday nights.

When Brady was appointed, it was a match made in heaven.

“Bruce and I had already been friends for thirty years. There was a chemistry between us. We just clicked.”

The pair had met back in the sixties, when Mansfield was an announcer at 3XY.

“We’d appear on telethons together and he’d just break me up. I used to say ‘Bruce, we could never work on air together, because I’d just fall apart.’”

But work on air together they did, and with enormous success.

“By March 1991, we’d also taken over Nightline five nights a week, and then we started winning national radio awards as the best on-air team.”

“We never rehearsed anything, we never had scripts. Everything was just off the cuff.”

“For thirty years we enjoyed brilliant ratings, until sadly, Bruce passed away.”

The show’s long-time producer Simon Owens was invited to take over as Brady’s on-air partner, and a new era began.

Together, they hosted Nightline for another three years. Today, they co-host Remember When on Sunday nights.

“That suits me fine,” says Brady. “At my age I’ve sort of slowed down a bit.”

Brady holds great admiration for Simon Owens. He rates Owens and Patti Newton as two of the most influential people in his career.

“Simon and I are getting better ratings than even Bruce and I got all those years ago.”

Owens says he owes his career to Brady.

He tells Radio Today “It was Philip who answered my letter asking if I could come in to watch him and Bruce host Nightline back in January 1994.  It was Philip who convinced Steve Price to hire me as their producer in December 1995. And it was Philip who suggested I fill in as co-host when he or Bruce were away.”

“I can’t tell you how generous he is as a performer.”

Owens says Brady is the best comic feed anyone could hope to work with.

“He sets himself up gloriously with a weak joke, or a plea of ignorance so that his co-host can figuratively slap him across the face with a witty retort. He makes it so easy.”

“27 years after we began working together, every week when we turn the mics on, it’s just a pleasure to be there.”

“I’ve had a dream career for over half my life and it’s all thanks to him.”

Philip with Bruce Mansfield photo credit: Facebook.