John "Vinnie" Vincent passes away

[RussellEbertHandball]

I thought it is worth a thread to note that legendary Adelaide radio dj John "Vinnie" Vincent, passed away last Friday. As a teenager and young bloke in the 1980's and the impact of the new FM radio stations in the 1980's Vinnie, was great listening on breakfast and the Morning Zoo. He also was pretty good value with Kevin Crease on 5AD's 9-12 morning program before that, combining serious interviews and talk back with a good sense of fun and entertainment.

I enjoyed his sense of humour, his stunts like international Louie Louie day and his songs he penned as part of the Ken Oath Ockerstra including the legendary Having a Barbie. I was plesantly surprised two or three years ago when I was back in Adelaide for Christmas, Vinnie was filling in on ABC 891. It was great to hear him talk about his first love, music, again.

This is a link to Vinnie's official site.

http://www.johnvincent.com.au/

Here are a few articles;

SAFM Goodbye John Vincent including podcast of his some of his career

John Vincent was at the forefront of the FM radio revolution in the 1980s and became a household name on SAFM, where he worked for 14 years.

During his career John has participated in many prominent programmes, in particular the SA-FM Morning Zoo in which he was the 'ring master' leading a group of personalities in the highest breakfast ratings achieved to date by that station.

While at SA-FM John was responsible for the naming of the "Black Thunder" promotional vehicles. The Name "Black Thunder" has since been used throughout Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. John also came up with the idea for the SA-FM 107 card, designed to build listener loyalty by awarding prizes and discounts.

The report the day he passed away

Radio veteran John Vincent dies

VETERAN South Australian radio personality John Vincent died today after a long illness.

"Vinnie" was at the forefront of the FM radio revolution in the 1980s and became a household name on SAFM, where he worked for 14 years.

Vincent, 67, suffered from heart and lung conditions for most of his life.

His health deteriorated in recent months and he was admitted to hospital last Thursday.

He died in his sleep at the Royal Adelaide Hospital just after 11am with his family at his side.

It was Vincent's heart ailment which led to his interest in radio, after he spent many months listening to it while ill as a child in Sydney.

After his first bypass operation at 21, he began working on regional radio before moving to Adelaide to join 5AD in 1967.

He went on to work at most of Adelaide's major stations and was lured to the fledgling SAFM nine months after it opened in 1981.

SAFM went on to dominate radio ratings in the 1980s with a record 30 per cent audience share.

Former SAFM and Triple M colleague and friend John Pemberton said Vincent had taken him out for a drink on his first day of work at 5KA in 1980.

"The first voice I heard when I drove into Adelaide was John Vincent ," Pemberton said.

"Over the years I saw him do that with every young kid who came through a radio station that he worked at. It was a very rare quality that he had. He was just a great human being, apart from the fact that he was a great talent."

In recent years, Vincent continued to work on community and regional radio and had his own communications business.

Another former Austereo colleague, Mix102.3's David Day, said Vincent had been like a father figure.

"He was a brilliant, beautiful, loving man – a genius creatively and one of the best communicators radio has ever had," Day said.

"Somebody like John Laws would come on and say `Hello world' but John Vincent would say `Hello listeners' – that's how personal he made it."

Vincent is survived by his wife Sue, daughters Samantha, Heidi and Belinda, and six grandchildren. The family has requested privacy at this time.

"He still had his sense of humour and was still positive, caring and worrying about everybody else," daughter Heidi Vincent said.

"That was the essence of dad. He was so positive in light of all his illness, never complained."

Comedian and former SAFM colleague Adam Hills visited Vincent in hospital when he was here to perform at the Adelaide Fringe last weekend and had his audience yell a greeting to Vincent's comic pseudonym, "Ken Oath".

"I was telling him that he was the person who taught me that you can be funny and be positive at the same time," Hills said.

"He was rebelliously positive and positively rebellious."

Grant Cameron's tribute to his mate and colleague

I'll miss you, Vinnie

RADIO personality Grant Cameron admits he had nothing in common with John Vincent - but switch on the microphone and it crackled with a rare chemistry.

It was a magic that would transform the newly-formed SAFM from a fledgling station in the early 1980s to a number one rater - and the pair into household names.

"It's impossible to describe how chemistry works," he said.

"Vinnie and I had nothing in common. Our lives were completely different. We were separated by a generation, we had different interests but we bounced off each other."

Cameron has joined a host of radio identities paying tribute to the legend, who died on Friday aged 67 after battling health issues for most of his life.

Vinnie and Cameron became one of radio's most formidable teams in the 1980s in what was a ground-breaking era on the airwaves.

The FM signal had just hit Australia, and the period was characterised by bigger budgets, lateral thinking and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants on-air action.

"It was a remarkable time," remembers Cameron, now ABC 891's drive-time presenter.

"There were really no rules. You would push boundaries and see how far you could go, and occasionally go that little bit further.

"Radio was where Vinnie's sense of fun came from, because he didn't have a chance to get out and play when he was sick as a child.

"I would get excited about getting up at 3.30am to go to work. It was such a good time - and that's what it was all about."

Cameron credits the first day he met Vinnie with planting the seed that would forever change his career direction.

The two strangers met at Channel 9 where Cameron was the weather presenter, and they bonded while doing a Telethon segment.

The pair had "crazy conversations" and fell about laughing outside in Tynte St - and it was a day Vinnie never forgot.

Not long after, Cameron received a call from Paul Thompson, who was starting up new station SAFM, asking him to fill a spot on a breakfast show with Vinnie.

"I think about that a lot, living the life I am now - I guess I'm here doing this because of that day," Cameron said. "I went off on quite a significant tangent."

Even now, he says his mentor is often in the back of his mind when he is on-air.

"The real craft and art is something I learned watching Vinnie.

"He was such a lateral thinker. He would ask a question and you would think, 'Where did that come from?', but it would be perfect.

"Even now I still think, 'What's the Vinnie question? What question can I ask that will take this in a direction no one is expecting?'."

Vincent's pairing with Cameron was just one chapter in a career that spanned more than four decades and six radio stations.

But it was his 14 years with SAFM that really made Vincent a household name in Adelaide - Vinnie was the top voice of Adelaide radio.

During this time, Vincent also formed his own band, and adopted an alter ego, ocker rocker Ken Oath, and gained some chart success with The Ken Oath Ockerstra.

Vincent was born with a serious heart condition, which required major surgery in his late teens.

While he was subsequently able to lead a very active professional life, in recent years he had decreased his workload to spend more time with his family - wife Sue, daughters Samantha, Heidi and Belinda, and granddaughter Hanna.

Born in Sydney on August 5, 1941, Vincent had a fascination with the early radio serials - how words and music could be used to create vivid images in the imagination.

At an early age his dad bought him a microphone that he could plug into the radiogram and play DJ. His grandmother used to take him along to be part of the audience in the famous live radio shows of the time. Radio was all he ever wanted to do.

DMG Radio chairman Paul Thompson remembers falling in love with Vincent's voice back in 1971, and deciding to lure him from 5AD to 5KA's breakfast shift.

"I thought, 'Gee, there's a remarkable voice with great warmth and great communicative skills'," he recalled. "I recognised the uniqueness of his personality. I rehired him more than anyone else. But he always had a lighthearted take on life. He never took himself seriously.

"In radio there are people who are widely liked, but he was widely loved. His humour was never savage or cruel.

"It's more common in almost any other form of humour to attack someone and make fun of people's shortcomings but he was always self-deprecating, completely loveable.

"He said to me in one of our later conversations: 'I have been totally blessed to have such a wonderful life'. I thought, 'That's remarkable'.

"Some people would say he wasn't dealt a great hand due to his health, but he didn't see it that way."

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Vinnie always came across on radio as one of nature's gentlemen. As your post made clear he had a lovely sense of humour that was entirely unthreatening. He loved his music and could impart his knowledge without the slightest hint of ego.

I remember him best from the pre FM days on 5KA and 5AD but did listen a bit to he and Grant Cameron on SAFM and they were great together. I also caught him a bit in recent years when he did stints on ABC891

Commiserations to his family for losing such a lovely guy at an early age. He's also a loss to the rest of us because he could gladden your heart even if you were feeling down when listening to him on air.

Vale John Vincent.