On remember when the whole of fame for DP's fast-targeted pain relief from an iconic brand you know and trust. Do you feel at work? Andrew, I'm very pleased to introduce you to a radio legend from Adelaide. Bob Byrne, g'day Bob. It's a legend. Legend. Absolutely. Hello Bob, nice to make your acquaintance.
Yeah, sorry to meet you. Even though it's a long way away. It is. Thanks to the marvels of modern technology. We've got you on the electric telephone. Those phones have got a future. I tell you, Bob. I'm sure they have. I would dare say, Bob, that somewhere in one of your fabulous books, which we'll chat about in a minute, would probably be a picture of an old rotary phone of some sort, would they not?
Well, most definitely. Do you remember the old Bakelite tribes? Of course, yes. And if you were very, very fancy, you could actually get a white one. The PMG, the Postmaster, because they're all issued by the government. And the Postmaster General Department is to occasionally put out about 15 white ones. And places like the Chevron Nightclub would have one on its reception desk. You'd think, ooh, ah, look at that.
very smart, very smart. Now, can you remember speaking of those signs? Can you remember? Because everybody's got a phone these days. But quite often, and I know that at home, we didn't get a phone on until maybe the 1960s.
And the phone was always in the hall. And it was on a little table. Yes. And if you wanted to talk to somebody, mind you, it was very strictly guarded. You weren't allowed to make too many calls, because after all, they did cost six months or something, as I recall. And you weren't allowed to spend a lot of time on the phone. Of course, you did. You got to be a bit of a teenager.
Everybody could hear what you were talking about, and it wasn't very private at all. God.
No, not a bit. Amazing how times have changed. Bob, I can remember my mother, all her family lived in Sydney and she would ring at Christmastime, her brother. And the lines were very busy. You just didn't get instant connection. She would ring the operator and say, I'd like to book a call to speak to Sydney. It seems incredible now. She'd give her brother's number there in Sydney. And the operator would call her back. If she was lucky, about 20 minutes later, there was a line free and you can go in Melbourne.
I can remember when my daughter was overseas. So this is not all that long ago, really. And we would have to book an international call. Oh, yes. International call. And we would usually do it on Sunday night because that is when it was the cheapest time because overseas rates were horrendous.
They were there, but that brings back memory to me of the OTC commercial. Overseas telecommunications company with memories like the corners of my life as the theme with the Italian honour at the other end of the phone line.
Yeah, great ad but I'm afraid it wouldn't work now. I don't think so. Oh no, you just FaceTime em. Yeah, that's right exactly. You can FaceTime overseas, you can FaceTime anywhere now. It's amazing.
quickly mentioned your book. So let's look at those. So people need to understand. So actually, before we talk about the book, so your history, Bob, as a radio announcer, you've been in the biz for years and years and years, and you put out a fabulous series of books with the title Remember When, which I've been kicking myself about not doing before you.
I bet you on that one, mate. Yes, look, I started in radio back in 1965, which is a long time ago, 60 years ago. I've been on the wireless for a little while now. I'm regularly on programs such as yours, and thank you very much for that.
But, yeah, 60 years. I worked in the country here in South Australia, then in the city. And then I went to Sydney for a few years and nearly got to Melbourne, nearly got to 3AW. Is that right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Very nearly. And then headed base, a long story. I won't go into it. And then headed back to Adelaide.
In about 1983, I came back here and I was on the air here regularly until 2004. Right. Yeah. So along Korea, if you started in 1965, you started in the sunset of pound shillings and pens, didn't you?
Oh yes, I did. I do remember when February was February 14th, was it? By then 66. Exactly. In come the dollars. In come the cents? Yes. Wonderful jingle. Sung by Ian Terpy who sang that or do you sing another one? I think you sang the decimal currency rock. Oh yes, the one. It was all very good. It was all rather wonderful. Highline of your radio career, Bob, which station you really enjoyed working at?
Oh look, 2G0 in Gossett. I would have to say was my favourite radio station.
It was a large commercial provincial radio station. Gossett is now basically a suburb of Sydney, but back in those days, it was about an hour out of Sydney. We loved it there, and it was a magnificent place. And of course, I didn't have the ratings. We didn't have ratings breathing down and neck all the time. And I did the morning show there, nine Tilmer, for 12 years.
And it was a wonderful, wonderful time we had all our children there. Well, at least my wife did. And we brought them back to Adelaide. Thank God. And yes, so, yeah, Gostford, my favourite, my throat radio station and Keith Graham. God bless him. One of the great, one of the great managers of radio anywhere in Australia.
Now, this book is remember when, this is your third book out, isn't it, Bob? Fourth or fifth or something. Oh, I'm sorry. I've only got three in front of me. Yes, I've dragged three of them out of the cupboard to show Andrew tonight, Bob. Oh, yeah. And it's just a wash with a wonderful photos of golden fleece service stations. Yes. And Holden cars and portraits of Bob Menzies. And it's just terrific, along with the text that goes along with it. How long does it take you to assemble each book, roughly?
Normally, I like to do one a year if I can, but it's quite a lot of tracking down, finding photos and tracking them down. You'll get a bit of an idea. I opened up the book tonight knowing that I was coming on the air with you guys.
And it fell open at going to school in the 50s and 60s. We used to salute the flag every week and seeing God save the Queen. Yes. Yes. Because the national anthem was God save the Queen back in those days. We would stand to attention. I can't remember whether we put our hand on our heart. I think that was an American thing.
I don't think so. I do remember at the end of each movie. There used to be God Save the Queen played. The whole audience stood up and God saved the Queen was playing. Can you imagine today? Oh, no. And the theatre in Brunswick. I reckon that was at the very beginning. At least it was here in Adelaide.
We would stand at the very beginning, so the first thing they walked in set out, and as soon as the lights went out, the Queen would come and she would be riding that horse. Quite a famous thing of her. I think you're right, Bob, I think I'm wrong, yes. I think it was at the beginning, wasn't it? Her and the Buckingham Palace courtyard, riding side saddle, that's right. Yes.
played very vigorously. Well, it's good that Bob did the books and not you, Andrew. It's very good. I've essentially done that one. But you'll be pleased to know, Bob, that the singing of the National Anthem, and that was still the thing when I was at school in the 70s into the 80s, we used to do that in primary school, salute the flag. But I think we were singing Advanced Australia Fair by then. I think you were. Yes. I was teaching at that time, and it was Advanced Australia Fair, but the schools I taught at.
Yes, I think that it changed in the 60s, I think. I reckon if you go back, it wasn't even the Australian flag that they used, but it was the British flag. Because if you look at any history books now, and look, I've got, I've got, as I look around the room here, I've got
books that go back. And I read stories from the 1950s. We were so British. We were so into the Empire. And everything was about the King and the Queen. And various royals would come to Australia. It wasn't really until it happened after the war. The Americans came here during the war.
And they left a little bit of American culture here. And we started to cotton on to the excitement of the United States, the excitement of America in the 50s. We started to get into the American thing. You know, I can remember as a teenager, certainly by the 60s.
Loving, you know, Marlon Brando in the wild one. Yeah. And Selminio and... Selminio one. Okay. And James Dean. Oh yeah, it was brutal without a chord. All broody and unhappy and sort of ill of these. And you youngsters would rebel by doing outrageous things like wearing white socks. Right. Or having two scoops of malt with your chocolate milkshake.
Crazy kids you were out of control. What I'm amazed at, the photos you see Bob and the various forms of this photos of the Queen arriving and photos of poor age and all that, the stranglehold. General Motors Holden had on the cars of Australia every second car is a Holden. Look, can you remember? Maybe you can't because you guys might be a bit young.
But I can remember when I was a kid, everybody that I knew that had a car had a holder. And usually they were second-hand holders. But as I grew up, I learned to drive a holder. Mind you, my first car was an Austin A40, because the only one I could afford.
But, you know, there were so many holders. Everybody had a hold of it. And if you were doing really well, you had a hold on special. That's right. And then later on a hold on Premier. That means you've got some sort of faux leather seats, I think. And it might have been automatic.
I don't know what the special was. I think it was a different color. I think you got a crime strip down the side of the car. I think things like that. That's right. That's right. Yeah. That was the special idea. It's all changed so much. That's fabulous. How many books we sort of stumbled across a bit didn't actually get an answer out of you, Bob. How many books have you done?
uh seven uh seven books uh one of them is now out of print and that was uh one that i did about that i've written a couple about adlet um and and then i had one uh done about melbourne uh and uh uh thank you guys uh and philip uh for the uh tremendous support of melbourne remember when uh i personally loved that book melbourne remember where i thought was one of the the best books that i did and i did it with uh
all the readers of my website Australia Remember When. I just simply posted a question saying
What is your favorite Melbourne memory? And all the, I got something like 200 replies and all these different things. And so then I went through each and every one of them. And I pulled out the ones that were most popular and I tracked down photos of all those various things that people mentioned. It was an enormous amount of work, but I really loved that book. And then
Now we've got remember when snapshots of Australia and I'm currently working on a series of books broken down into decades.
Oh, nice. Which I'm flying, which I'm loving because I'm riding about the 50s at the moment. And then I'm going to do the 60s. And I'm going to do the 40s. The 40s is an incredible time. Yeah. Yeah, that's the wartime too, with all the changes in Australian society. Bob, one thing I've got to ask you, Adelaide, based on you, are you still, you crow, it is still eating pie floaters? Oh, most definitely love a good pie floater.
Oh, a pint floater is marvellous. In fact, I had a pie tonight because it was Australia Day, but I didn't actually have any green tea soup with it. Have you ever had one, Simon? I haven't. No, but I respect our Adelaide cousins and their choice. I have to say, Bob, the man
It's sneering and looking down his nose at you for eating a pie floater. If I can just ask you, Andrew, what drink do you have in front of you this evening? I'm very fortunate to have the good drop, Dr Pepper, strawberries and cream. So he hasn't got a leg to stand on, Bob? No, I haven't. It's a rare drop, let me tell you.
Bob, congratulations with the book. It is Marvelous. Six of your seven books are available. Where do people find them?
Okay, well now, if you'd like to go to, we've got a book, a shop, especially dedicated to selling these books and a whole lot of other nostalgia books. It's called the Remember When Shop, and it's www.rememberwhenshop.com.au, or you may find them in book shops because they have been published and are fairly widely available.
beautiful. Well, they are amazing books. Andrew, since he arrived here for the meeting at the top of the show at four o'clock this afternoon, he's been sitting there and has read right through every one of your books, paid very little attention to anything I had to say, because he's been transfixed. I'm pleased. I'm very pleased. I'm pleased that you enjoyed them so much that that gives me a lot of joy.
They're wonderful. Thank you, Bob. Don't quite believe all of what you've just heard from Simon, but even so. 4.30 then. I'm rounding up. That's the way it is. And Bob, that beautiful voice of yours, I have to say, it should still be on radio. Very nice of you to say so, but at my age, mate, I'm ready to take it easy on Sunday night and not work hard like you have to.
That's fair enough. It's been lovely to chat to you, Bob, and we will do it again when the next book comes out. Fantastic. I look forward to it. Good on you, Bob. That's Adelaide's Bob Byrne.