Both of Packer’s sons Clyde and Kerry were not in senior roles in the company at the time of their father’s death. When Sir Frank Packer died on May 1st 1974 it was expected his deputy Harry Chester would take over as Chairman of Australian Consolidated Press. Nine dominated sports, and with Kerry Packer’s intense interest in cricket and rugby league, that domination continued to reign. When host Graham Kennedy erred with his infamous crow call, and was replaced by Don Lane in 1975, with The Don Lane Show, Chapman and Lynton Taylor continued to take the Melbourne-based show on relay. Chapman made the decision to air GTV9’s successful In Melbourne Tonight, an unusual decision, particularly with the name of the show remaining unaltered. Graeme Goodings joined the station during Chapman’s reign in 1974, and Jim Waley too in 1975. Ian Ross too was in-situ, having joined the station in 1965, and he too outlasted the chiefs to be still reading the news in 2001. He had been at the station since the inception in 1956 and was still reading the news in 2002, long after Chapman and Chisholm had signed out. Brian Henderson had already catapulted Nine’s news to an unassailable lead. Les Free was head of engineering with talented engineers like Bruce Robinson and Paget Blackburn in tow. Chapman assembled new executives to take the station forward, but the skeleton of the station remained intact. Nine was the first television station to be launched in Australia and was already a successful operation. Shortly after that happened in 1972 Packer and Mauger moved Chapman from the West to General Manager of Channel 9 Sydney. Chapman is largely credited with taking that network’s Perth station 6PM from last to number one in the ratings. Packer offered Chapman the GM role of the station’s WA network. It was some months later the pair invited Chapman to meet Clyde Packer who, with Len Mauger, was heading up the 9 network and overseeing the group’s radio interests in Melbourne and Western Australia. Chapman accepted, but soon after Gyngell and Dick returned to Nine. Gyngell and Dick told Chapman they wanted someone outside the industry to do a re-make of the station. Chapman, whose background in radio wasn’t interested, arguing he had no background in television. They wanted Chapman for the Program Manager’s role at HSV 7 in Melbourne. He was recruited by long-time 9 stalwarts Bruce Gyngell and Nigel Dick, however at this point in history they had left Nine and were working for the Seven network. He did not become involved in the network until his father Frank’s death in May 1974.Ĭhapman came into Nine in a round-about way. Kerry Packer was nowhere in sight, he was an advertising rep at the Australian Women’s Weekly. It was Chapman who plucked Chisholm out of sister station, GTV Channel 9 in Melbourne where he was an advertising rep, to be Nine Sydney’s Director of Sales. Meakin stayed at the station for thirty years Chapman recruited Peter Meakin, another news and A Current Affair supremo in 1973. Stone would later, under Chisholm’s watch, move to being Executive Producer of Sixty Minutes. Chapman brought in Gerald Stone as the network’s Director of News in 1974. It was Chapman who brought in Lynton Taylor from Adelaide in 1972 to be 9’s Program Director. The fact is it was former Perth executive George Chapman who was in charge and built the team that saw through Nine’s golden days of the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Kerry Packer too is credited with bringing Chisholm out of Melbourne and grooming him for the top job in Sydney. In various media reports he was head of 9 from 1973. SYDNEY, Australia – The death of former Channel 9 supremo Sam Chisholm last week has invoked an outpouring of praise for the former Kiwi who championed Channel Nine Sydney and the UK’s Sky Television to unprecedented heights.Ĭhisholm has been credited with everything from building the team that took Channel 9 to number one, to ushering in colour television for Nine.
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