Australian Dictionary of Biography

Norman Spencer (1923–1999), radio and television producer, was born on 21 January 1923 at Brunswick, Melbourne, second of five children of Victorian-born Walter Ernest Theodore Spencer, public servant, and his English-born wife Dulcie Ford, née Pink. Educated at Brunswick South State School, Norm left in 1936 and joined the Melbourne radio station 3KZ as a turntable operator. Sacked in 1938 for punching a breakfast announcer who had arrived late for work and ‘under the weather’ (Walker 1984, 44), he joined 3DB to work in the record library.

On 10 February 1941 Spencer enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force for service in World War II. Departing soon after for the Middle East (May 1941–February 1943), he served first with the 9th Divisional Cavalry Regiment in Syria then from July 1942 with the 24th Battalion at El Alamein, Egypt, and later in New Guinea at Lae and Finschhafen (August 1943–February 1944). In February 1945 he was transferred to the Australian Army Amenities Service, finishing the war on Moratai Island, Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) (August 1945–February 1946), where he was chief announcer for the Australian Army radio station 9AD. He was discharged on 4 April 1946 with the rank of warrant officer, class one.

Spencer had married Amy Kathleen Crawford, a hairdresser, on 7 February 1945 at the Methodist parsonage, Brunswick. The couple had two children, Diane (b. 1947) and Denis (b. 1949). Solidly built and six feet one and a half inches (187 cm) tall, he played centre half-back for Brunswick (1946–48) and Coburg (1949–51) in the semi-professional Victorian Football Association. A hard man on the field, he was reported once for rough play but beat the charge on a technicality.

After the war Spencer rejoined 3DB and rose to the position of station producer. He instigated and produced the successful weekly variety show The Happy Gang (1953–62), compered by the veteran broadcaster Dick Cranbourne. Regarded as ‘one of the most promising young men in the radio business’ (Age 1957, 23), Spencer was appointed program manager of the new Melbourne television station GTV-9 in 1956. In March that year he joined Colin Bednall, the station’s general manager, on a three-month tour of the United States of America and Britain, purchasing overseas programs and returning with ideas for live shows.

Spencer’s outstanding achievement at GTV-9 was as creator and director of the live variety show In Melbourne Tonight (1957–70), which influenced Australian television for decades. Encouraged by Harry ‘Happy’ Hammond, the host of GTV-9’s children’s show, he hired Graham Kennedy as host, later recalling that ‘I was struck by his informality and his amazing ability to ad lib’ (Fidgeon 1999, 15). Spencer chose his former assistant at 3DB, Geoff Corke, to be Kennedy’s onscreen sidekick, but replaced him in 1959 with Bert Newton. IMT (as it came to be known) featured a regular cast of comics and singers and was notable for Kennedy and Newton’s live commercials, which showcased their madcap ad-libbing and were the reason why the show constantly ran over time. Newton later recalled that ‘Spencer was the mastermind of IMT … the sort of general who surrounds himself with good soldiers’ (Newton 1977, 93). Spencer was also in charge of television specials and sports telecasts, including the 1956 Olympic Games and Victorian Football League matches.

On 1 August 1960 Spencer shocked the industry by defecting to the rival Melbourne station HSV-7, a move he later attributed to his dislike for the new owner of GTV-9, Sir Frank Packer. As head of programming and production, Spencer worked to invigorate HSV-7’s live shows, including its variety show Sunny Side Up (1957–66). Perceiving that HSV-7’s studios in South Melbourne were inadequate for live television, he persuaded the owners to purchase the Regent Theatre in Fitzroy and convert it into a tele-theatre that could accommodate an audience of more than six hundred. It opened on 2 April 1961 with a live variety spectacular directed by Spencer.

Attempting to compete with IMT, Spencer directed Australia’s first late night talk show, Daly at Night (1962–63), hosted by the American comedian Jonathon Daly, and The Delo & Daly Show (1963–64), a traditional-style variety show featuring Daly and the American singer Ken Delo. He could not, however, dent the juggernaut he had created at GTV-9. Resigning from HSV-7 in December 1968, he later described his years there as ‘purgatory’ (Spencer 1992).

With the television writer Hugh Stuckey, Spencer established a television production company in 1969. In September that year he was also appointed to manage Melbourne’s Moomba festival, but he returned to GTV-9 two months later as executive producer of live programs. Resigning from GTV-9 for a second time in August 1971, he became the manager of the Bayside Shopping Centre, Frankston, which opened in October 1972. Having divorced his first wife in 1972, the next year he married Carole Adams, with whom he had two children, Phillip (b. 1977) and Brooke (b. 1979). In 1975 he joined colleagues from GTV-9 in a new commercial radio station on the Mornington Peninsula, 3MP. It became Melbourne’s most popular radio station in 1979 and was sold for $9 million in 1982. He also owned and operated a sports and giftware store at Mornington until 1981.

At the State general election in 1979, Spencer ran unsuccessfully as an Australian Labor Party candidate for the Legislative Council seat of South-Eastern Province. For a decade from 1984 he was the executive director of the Advance Australia Foundation, responsible for the licensing and marketing of the ‘Advance Australia’ and ‘Australian Made’ product logos. In 1992 he was appointed AM for service to the foundation, the television industry, and the community. Survived by his wife, their two children, and the two children of his first marriage, he died of pneumonia in a nursing home at Mornington on 22 April 1999 and was buried in the local cemetery. Speaking at his funeral at St Mark’s Uniting Church, Mornington, Newton said: ‘If you’re watching TV variety today, no matter what channel you’re watching it on, you’re watching something Norm set up’ (Fidgeon 1999, 15). His son Denis also worked in television and directed the final episode of In Melbourne Tonight in 1971.