When you talk to the long time friends and work colleagues of Bob Cornish, one thing becomes abundantly clear. Bob was a man who had a relentless passion for radio and was a true gentleman. He lived and breathed radio every day of his life. David Rogerson has penned this tribute to Bob with comments from others who knew him well. Bob’s funeral is tomorrow in Melbourne, click here for details.
I first got to know Bob Cornish during his time at AC Nielsen in his customer relations capacity with the company. Bob knew how to present the data and take it one step further by offering thoughts and suggestions as to the how’s and why’s the numbers fell the way they did. His inside knowledge of how radio and listeners worked, uniquely qualified Bob to comment on the situation with your station, your market and your listeners.
As former ABC Local Radio NSW General Manager Roger Summerill told me, ” Bob was another of THE Radio greats. His contribution not only to 3UZ, Melbourne Radio and AC Nielsen but to the entire Australian Radio industry was most significant. As you say he was also a true ‘gentle man’ in every meaning of the word.”
One person who knew Bob very well was Dave D Whitcomb, who can be heard 4KQ’s Jukebox Saturday Night. During Dave’s early radio days in Melbourne, Bob was the guy who took Dave under his wings to provide guidance into his early career.
As Dave says, “I had the pleasure of working with Bob in my years at 3UZ. I count him among the most influential for my following radio days.” During Dave’s early times with 3UZ, Bob anchored the Saturday afternoon sport show known as the 3UZ Sports Scoreboard. It ran from midday Saturday covering everything that raced or booted a football, every major race meeting in 4 states plus Melbourne VFL. This was all happening in the mid sixties before the term multi-tasking was even invented or thought of.
According to Dave, “The show was one of the finest examples of radio presentation in Australia . The distinctive well modulated voice of Bob Cornish was complimented by the energy of his co host and panel coordinator John Vertigan. Bob was head of the UZ sporting department and was also responsible for much of the day to day operation of the station.”
In addition to these roles Bob voiced a lot of commercials for retailers like Bob Jane, Wittners Shoes, Granny Davis Bread. These were all brand names launched by the 3UZ Marketing Department.
When it came to sales, Dave added, “in those early days of the sixties when the station would organize the production of jingles, copy booking, scheduling, point of sale promotion and recording the final commercial, it was a total marketing solution for getting new clients and building a brand name. Bob was an example of a great boss with good manners and great speech.”
It was at this time, Bob evolved his people skills and leadership. Perhaps the ultimate compliment to close with comes from Tom Crozier. Tom is a former long time serving senior executive at 2UE, and a man whose passionate work in his roles at the Radio Marketing Bureau within the Federation of Radio Broadcasters ( known then as FARB , but these days has evolved into CRA) brought him into regular contact with Bob Cornish.
“I have very happy memories of Bob Cornish. Apart from the fact that he was very supportive of (the late) Bob Logie and my efforts at the Radio Marketing Bureau in the 1990s, I especially remember an occasion when I had a visiting American advertising principal with me in Melbourne leading up to Melbourne Cup time. Bob arranged to have a champagne picnic lunch at Flemington in honour of our guest and his wife. They were highly impressed at participating in this ‘traditional Australian’ event. Bob was a great bloke.”