John Blackman

John Blackman born 14 July 1947 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia is an Australian radio and television personality.

Biography

Blackman grew up in the Victorian suburb of Mount Waverley, where he attended Syndal Primary School until 1959 and Syndal Technical School through year 10 in 1963. On leaving school (and home) at 16, he worked in a succession of occupations: customs clerk, cash van salesman for a cigarette distributor, sales representative for a perfume company, and spruiker in Myer's Bargain Basement. At the age of 22, he decided on a career in radio.

He has worked in radio since 1969 but is probably best known for his voice-over role on Australia's longest running variety show, "Hey Hey It's Saturday".

In 1969, he joined 2GN Goulburn as an announcer, newsreader, copy writer, salesman, and record librarian. In 1970, he joined 2CA Canberra where he worked in a variety of on-air shifts for 18 months until mid-1971, when he joined 3AW in Melbourne. As evening announcer, Blackman worked with the Reverend Alex Kenworthy for a number of years on "Nightline".

In 1974, he joined 3AK where he hosted the morning show until 1975, when he moved to Sydney to join 2UE as a "floating" announcer for just three months. In Sydney, he was the booth announcer and daytime newsreader for TCN9 and continued his role as announcer for "Hey Hey It's Saturday" which he would do "down the line" to Melbourne each Saturday morning from a booth at TCN 9.

He returned to 3AK Melbourne in 1979 to host the breakfast show until 1981. In 1981, he joined 3AW to host their breakfast show with Paul Barber. After Barber parted company with 3AW not long afterwards, Blackman was joined by Bruce Mansfield. This collaboration became one of the most successful combinations in Australian radio history, with 3AW breakfast dominating the ratings for 5 years until 1986.

On leaving 3AW under in controversial circumstances in July 1986, Blackman became part of the short-lived, ill-fated CBC Network experiment and in December of that year his contract was not renewed.

From 1987 to 1990, Blackman co-hosted a breakfast show with Coodabeen Champions member Ian Cover and then Wilbur Wilde on 3UZ (now Sport 927).

After a 7-year break from radio, in 1997 he was persuaded back to radio to host the 3AK breakfast show with Anna "Pinky" Pinkus and Dennis Donoghue (Lawyers, Guns & Money) as co-hosts until 2000. In 2004, he joined MMM Adelaide and was co-host of "The John Blackman & Jane Reilly Breakfast Show" until December, 2007.

Other television shows Blackman has appeared on include: "Blankety Blanks", "Personality Squares", "The Paul Hogan Show", "The Daryl Somers Tonight Show", "Holiday Island", "Family Feud" and many others. Blackman was recently interviewed on ABC's "Talking Heads".

[http://www.mytriplem.com.au/shows/jsc/index.php] He has authored five books including "Aussie Slang", "Aussie Gags" and "More Aussie Gags" .

He is married to Cecile and has a 34 year old daughter, Tiffany.

Famous characters

* Dickie Knee
* Alfred Desk Mike
* The Angel (a small angelic creature made from an old Barbie doll and super-imposed on the screen)
* Doctor Ben Dover
* Charlie Who (a Chinese character)
* The Giant
* The Man from Jupiter
* Mrs Macgillicuddy (a hideous old hag with a raspy voice)
* Norman Neumann (a boom microphone with a moustache)

Radio career

*2GN Morning Show (1969)
*2CA Morning Show (1970)
*3AW Evening Show (1972)
*3AK Breakfast Show (1975)
*2UE Night Show (1977)
*2GB Breakfast (1977 - 1 week)
*3AK Breakfast Show (1979)
*3AW Breakfast Show (1981-1986)
*3AK/2UE CBC Network Breakfast Show (1986-1987)
*3UZ Breakfast Show (1987-1990)
*3AK Breakfast Show (1997-2000)
*104.7 MMM Breakfast Show (2005- 2007)

Television career

*"Hey Hey It's Saturday" (1971-1999) (Nine Network)
*"Family Feud" - announcer for over 1500 shows (Nine Network)
*Daytime newsreader (TCN 9)
*"Penthouse Club" (HSV 7)
*"Paul Hogan Show" (GTV 9)
*"Daryl & Ossie Show" (ATV 10)
*"Personality Squares" (ATV 10)
*"Daryl Somers Tonight Show" (GTV 9)
*"Blankety Blanks" (GTV 9)
*"Holiday Island" (ATV 10)
*"Prisoner" (ATV 10)
*"Safeway New Faces" judge (GTV 9)
*"World's Craziest Inventions" (GTV 9)

References

External links

* [http://www.blackman.com.au Official John Blackman Website]