Brian Norman Naylor (21 January 19317 February 2009) was an Australian television broadcaster and presenter, best known for his longstanding stint as chief news presenter at

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

(

HSV-7 HSV is a television station in Melbourne, Australia. It is part of the Seven Network, one of the three main commercial television networks in Australia, its first and oldest station. It launched in time for the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melb ...

) from 1970 to 1978 and for

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

(

GTV-9 GTV is a commercial television station in Melbourne, Australia, owned by the Nine Network. The station is currently based at studios at 717 Bourke Street, Docklands. History GTV-9 was amongst the first television stations to begin regular ...

) from 1978 to 1998 and his sign-off line, "May your news be good news, and good-night."

Early life

Naylor was born on 21 January 1931. He grew up in Melbourne, initially attending

Melbourne High School Melbourne High School is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1905, the school caters for boys from Year 9 t ...

until the onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when he was relocated to

Camberwell High School (Learning to be considerate of others) , city = Canterbury , state = Victoria , country = Australia , coordinates = , type = Public , established ...

, along with all of the students at his school. Completing his schooling in Form 5 (Year 11), his first job was as a production cadet at the

Australian Paper Manufacturers Amcor plc is a global packaging company. It develops and produces flexible packaging, rigid containers, specialty cartons, closures and services for food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical-device, home and personal-care, and other products. The ...

. Naylor left APM when his manager started Woodweev Blinds, a blinds manufacturer, for which Naylor produced the original radio advertisement. It was from there that he was to start his career in the media.

Radio broadcasting

In 1956, when Woodweev Blinds needed someone to provide a voice for their radio commercials, Naylor was "co-opted" into the role – reportedly because his voice made him sound like "a nice family sort of fellow". This led to a two-year stint as the radio presenter of the company's program on radio station 3AK. Two years after starting with 3AK, Naylor joined Melbourne radio station 3DB where he worked with

Ernie Sigley Ernest William Sigley (2 September 1938 – 15 August 2021) was an Australian television host, comedian, variety performer, radio presenter and singer. Known as a pioneer of radio and television in Australian, he was often styled as a "little A ...

as a radio announcer and host of a children's talent program, '' Swallow's Juniors''.

Television broadcasting and presenting

In 1958, Naylor moved to Melbourne television station

, transferring ''Swallow's Juniors'' to television where it was renamed ''Brian and the Juniors''. Running until 1969, it provided a stepping stone for performers such as

Debra Byrne Debra Anne Byrne (born 30 March 1957), formerly billed as Debbie Byrne, is an Australian pop singer, variety entertainer, theatre and TV actress and writer, director and choreographer of cabaret. From April 1971 to March 1975 she was a founding ...

, Rod Kirkham,

Jane Scali Jane Scali (born 8 August 1959) is an Australian singer and former TV personality. She was one of the original cast members of the long-running TV show ''Young Talent Time'' from 1971 to 1976. Early life Scali was a cast member in the junior ...

, Peter Doyle,

Patti Newton Patricia Anne Newton (née McGrath; born 4 February 1945) is an Australian singer, actress, dancer, stage performer and radio and television presenter. Life and career Prior to her marriage, Newton worked under her birth name, Patti McGrath, w ...

Anne Watt Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

Vikki Broughton Vikki is a given name. It can be a nickname for the given name Victoria. Notable people with the name include: * Vikki, a UK singer in the 1985 Eurovision Song Contest, now known as Aeone * Vikki Bunce (born 1983), field hockey forward * Vikki Carr ...

and

Jamie Redfern Jamie Redfern (born 9 April 1957) is an English-born Australian television presenter and personality and pop singer. Redfern was an original cast member of children's variety show, ''Young Talent Time'' from April 1971 to early 1972, before leav ...

. Naylor also hosted the ''SSB Adventure Club'' in the early 1960s with Madeleine Burke, and appeared as a regular on the station's daytime variety program '' Time For Terry'' in 1965. He became HSV-7's chief news presenter in 1970 replacing Geoff Raymond. Naylor switched to GTV-9 in 1978 and replaced Sir Eric Pearce as chief news presenter. He presented the Melbourne edition of ''

National Nine News ''Nine News'' (stylised ''9News'') is the national news service of the Nine Network in Australia. Its flagship program is the hour-long 6:00 pm state bulletin, produced by Nine's owned-and-operated stations in TCN, Sydney, GTV (Australia) ...

'' until he retired from this position on 27 November 1998. He was replaced by

Peter Hitchener Peter Donald Beauchamp Hitchener Order of Australia, OAM (born 21 February 1946) is an Australian television presenter. He has been the chief news presenter for GTV (Australia), GTV-9 of their flagship bulletin ''Nine News Melbourne'' since 1998 ...

Further hosting

In his time at Nine, Naylor also hosted '' Carols by Candlelight'' from the

Sidney Myer Music Bowl The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor bandshell performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct ...

ten times. He won the 1988 Victorian Father of the Year Award. A patron of several organisations (the

Variety Club Variety, the Children's Charity is a charitable organization founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1927. History On October 10, 1927, a group of eleven men involved in show business set up a social club which they named the "Variety Club". On ...

in Victoria, the Dialysis and Transplant Association of Victoria and the Jack Brockhoff Reconstructive Plastic Surgery Research Unit of

Royal Melbourne Hospital The Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), located in Parkville, Victoria, an inner suburb of Melbourne, is one of Australia's leading public hospitals. It is a major teaching hospital for tertiary health care with a reputation in clinical research. Th ...

), Naylor also assisted with fundraising for the

Macfarlane Burnet Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, (3 September 1899 – 31 August 1985), usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist known for his contributions to immunology. He won a Nobel Prize in 1960 for predicting acquired immune t ...

Appeal and Windana Society Drug Rehabilitation.

Death

Naylor's son Matthew was killed in a plane crash at

Kinglake, Victoria Kinglake is a town in Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shires of Murrindindi and Nillumbik local government areas. Kinglake recorded a population of 1,662 at the 2021 census. ...

on 29 May 2008, aged 41. Less than a year later, on 7 February 2009, Naylor and his wife Moiree were killed as one of the

Black Saturday bushfires The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that either ignited or were already burning across the Australian state of Victoria on and around Saturday, 7 February 2009, and were among Australia's all-time worst bushfire disasters. T ...

destroyed their property in Kinglake West.

Logies Hall of Fame

Naylor was posthumously inducted into the

TV Week Logie Awards The Logie Awards (officially the TV Week Logie Awards; colloquially known as The Logies) is an annual gathering to celebrate Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The first ceremony was held in 1959 as the ...

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

at the 2010 Logie Awards.

References

External links

*
Chessmoves.com – The Media, Brian Naylor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naylor, Brian 1931 births 2009 deaths Australian radio personalities Logie Award winners Natural disaster deaths in Australia Nine News presenters Radio personalities from Melbourne