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Speaker 1: Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.

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Speaker 2: Very sad news for us. Ronnie Sparks, a much respected

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Speaker 2: colleague of ours, passed away over the weekend. A man

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Speaker 2: who worked with him is an old boss of ours,

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Speaker 2: a man we respect enormously. His name is Charlie Fox,

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Speaker 2: and Charlie and Ronnie's careers both took off in the

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Speaker 2: seventies at the mighty two sm Charlie Fox, Hello.

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Speaker 1: Here he is, Good morning you too.

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Speaker 2: Good morning. What sad time to be talking to you.

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Speaker 2: You worked with Ronnie from the very beginning right through

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Speaker 2: to just a couple of years ago. How are you feeling?

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Speaker 1: Look, even though I knew he's been battling cancer for

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Speaker 1: quite a long time, he was battling when he was

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Speaker 1: at WSFM, but he's a very private man, so he

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Speaker 1: never told anybody. I didn't know until we both left radio,

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Speaker 1: and that's when we sort of started to become friends

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Speaker 1: and he told me then. So it's been quite a long,

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Speaker 1: tough battle, and to be honest, he was in quite

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Speaker 1: a bad way at the end, and it was one

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Speaker 1: of those scenarios where it was probably best if he

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Speaker 1: did pass, to be honest.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one of the things I remember most about Ronnie

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Speaker 2: and I just admired him so much for this is

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Speaker 2: the way he rode the whims of commercial radio. He

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Speaker 2: had been a megastaff for many, many years and to

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Speaker 2: come to and when at WS, he was a day

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Speaker 2: announcer and he put everything into every bit of work

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Speaker 2: he did. And he said to someone one day, I

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Speaker 2: announced Backman Turner overdrive every day, and every day I

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Speaker 2: make it fresh and I do my best. And when

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Speaker 2: I first started working with him, I took that on board,

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Speaker 2: because consistency and passion doesn't matter what role you're playing.

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Speaker 2: Was so admirable. I just admired him so much.

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Speaker 1: Yes, he was literally the only guy I know that

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Speaker 1: really understood radio well. He was inspired by the Americans,

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Speaker 1: but he took it to new levels. And that's a

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Speaker 1: perfect example of what he was like. If you go

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Speaker 1: back through the history books, I john in two SM

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy two to work in the commercial department.

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Speaker 1: Ronnie was the drive jock long hair in a Monaro

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Speaker 1: with extra wide wheels. He was super cool. He was

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Speaker 1: number one in Sydney back then and he has basically

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Speaker 1: had more number one surveys than any music announcer in Australia.

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Speaker 3: Wow, and he did. He certainly brought a vibe, didn't he,

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Speaker 3: Ronnie when whenever he was on air, you just listened

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Speaker 3: to him and he brought that vibe.

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Speaker 1: Yes, because he cared about it. You know, he went

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Speaker 1: through each single break he was about to do. And

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Speaker 1: he would absolutely detest announcers that just came on and waffled.

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Speaker 1: You know. Quite often he would say to them, you know,

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Speaker 1: they come on and talk for three minutes about nothing.

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Speaker 1: He'd go, do you really think people want to hear

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Speaker 1: you for three minutes? Or do they really want to

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Speaker 1: hear their favorite song? You know, think about it. And

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Speaker 1: it was a very very good point.

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Speaker 2: How dare you we waffle on?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: As you know, it's all about It's all about content now.

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Speaker 3: And that was the thing with Sparks. You were off air,

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Speaker 3: we talk about and you should be on talkback radio

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Speaker 3: just letting fly. And he used to say to meself,

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Speaker 3: I just it's not in me that era. I love radio.

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Speaker 3: And that was back in the day when you first

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Speaker 3: started in radio. The big thing was just having all

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Speaker 3: your stuff together. You had to play your records, you

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Speaker 3: had to play your tapes, you had to do all

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Speaker 3: that bring the vine. There was a million things you

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Speaker 3: had to do these days got a computer that just

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Speaker 3: pretty much runs and could do its own thing. But

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Speaker 3: for Ronnie, he was the maestro at that sort of stuff.

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Speaker 1: He was he was a media freak and he had

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Speaker 1: some fantastic events in his life, like they back at

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Speaker 1: two SEM he swapped with the station in San Francisco

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Speaker 1: called KFRC. We got dad guy who was called Marvelous Mark,

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Speaker 1: and Ronnie went over and I know right, and he

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Speaker 1: went out and worked in San Francisco. And that was

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Speaker 1: one of the times where he was the first person

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Speaker 1: in America to play ac DC, which was revolutionary, the

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Speaker 1: first person in America, you know, to actually hear it

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Speaker 1: was on Ronnie Show in San Francisco, and he interviewed

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Speaker 1: famous people like Muhammad Ali and just you know, incredible career.

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Speaker 1: David Bowie hung up on him, which I have never

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Speaker 1: heard of before. He did tell me the story, but

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Speaker 1: I've forgotten that. I don't know what he did do

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Speaker 1: with then Bowie. He's probably talking too long, you know,

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Speaker 1: like you're talking too long.

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Speaker 3: That's also Michael Jackson. He was hanging out with Chael Jackson.

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Speaker 2: He reported from Elvis's funeral. I mean he's like Highland.

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Speaker 1: That's exactly, that's right. But my favorite Ronnie story is

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Speaker 1: just shows you how much you love radio. In a

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Speaker 1: gap between radio stations, he decided he really liked McDonald's

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Speaker 1: corporate structure, so he decided he go and do the

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Speaker 1: McDonald's university course, which he did, and they were so

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Speaker 1: impressed with him they offered him the Bondai Beach McDonald's,

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Speaker 1: which you treasure trove. Yea. And right about that time,

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Speaker 1: what about that time we got enough from another radio station.

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Speaker 1: He went, look, thanks guys, but I'm going to stick

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Speaker 1: the radio and turned it down.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and he was great. When I came over here

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Speaker 3: from Triple Am all those years ago, and this place

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Speaker 3: was a lot different back then. Ronnie was like my

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Speaker 3: biggest campaigner. He'll always be talking to management. Give this

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Speaker 3: kid a go, give him a break. When they wanted

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Speaker 3: to run me out of town and the listeners want

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Speaker 3: to run me out of town, it was always Ronnie

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Speaker 3: Sparks would say, don't listen to them. We're trying to

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Speaker 3: change the station. We're trying to get WS into a

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Speaker 3: different sort of Yeah. Yeah, what a guy, and what

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Speaker 3: a guy.

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Speaker 1: He was a big, big supporter of your jersey, except

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Speaker 1: when you used to run. Let too late and go

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Speaker 1: over the news time.

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Speaker 3: That is what we're doing right now, which we're doing

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Speaker 3: now for sparksynt Well shout.

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Speaker 1: A little little tribute man.

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Speaker 3: It's always great to talk to you. Let's catch up

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Speaker 3: for a ber a love it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, cool butt to talk to you guys. Thank you,

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Speaker 1: Thanks chaggan Is