Vale Bob Rogers and John Laws
 

Legendary Australian radio DJs have now passed on. Bob Rogers 97 died and now John Laws 90 has too. In the early 1960s at Radio 2UE in Sydney, at times I worked separately with both of them. Working spinning turntables Bob was average, ok but average, but John was something else he was a master at it.

At 2UE Bob used to get the latest U.S. pop records from Qantas pilots just after they landed at Mascot airport, they used to taxi up to a fence by the road. There they stopped opened the back door and threw a package over the fence to a motor bike rider who raced it into UE for Bob. If he was on the air he’d open the package and play the latest U.S. hits before anyone else in Australia. Bob also played these in his taped Reg A. Baker 30min program we sent up the line to 2KO in Newcastle, 100 miles north of Sydney.

There Laws dubbed these hits and used them in his own The Big Beat 30 minute program that came down to UE. This really pissed Rogers off big time and he demanded me and another operator do something about it.

A new 45rpm record by Freddy Cannon had just arrived so just after Bob introduced it and I started playing it, I also added a big explosion so Lawsie couldn’t use it. (Cannon Bang! Get it?)

But up at KO Laws must have sat up all night editing bits of the disc with scissors and tape to delete my big bang. When it came down to UE we just couldn’t believe it.

At 2KO in Newcastle on his DJ night programs Laws had a music background playing behind his voice and it was ‘Walking Behind Miss Lucy’ by Karl Kress. Laws could stop it, hold it between beats, say something then let it play without it wowing, just amazing.

Here it is …