Don Lunn ‘The Daddio of the Radio’ has died suddenly at his Melbourne home at the age of 71. He passed away sometime after returning home from driving his wife to work on Wednesday evening. The news of his death has touched the industry with tributes flowing in from many who were fortunate enough to work with the legendary DJ.
I spent a good part of a Saturday night with Don in the 3AK studios back in 1998. Here I was with a man who had been to the top in the industry and was now on the battleship known as 3AK. The Daddio was swinging, the music was playing and even though he knew the audience was limited he kept the show flowing. The excitement projected from the stories he told that night of years of spinning them in was priceless. Thanks mate!
Don Lunn was born Douglas Raymond Harold Lunn in England before migrating to Australia. Much of his early years were spent in Tasmania.
We first heard of this exciting new voice introduced to Melbourne radio by The Greater 3UZ, initially known as MR D. Don with his American inspired voice and antics spun them in on drive at UZ for quite sometime and moved to breakfast in 1965. What was that, a rocky jockey on breakfast? It worked and Don stamped his name on the shift. The top 40 era of 3UZ heralded some great names in radio all in one place working along side Don including Alan Lappan, Sam Anglesey, Ken Sparkes and Stan Rofe just to name a few.
After departing 3UZ Don did the rounds of many stations including interstate stints, 3DB, 3KZ and back at 3UZ . In between he operated his own Travel Agent and at one stage hired Philip Brady in a PR role. The roles Don held across the industry are many so please accept we have only touched on a small portion of his LONG career.
To a younger audience Don became involved with 3KZ to present his own unique SIX O’CLOCK ROCK on a Saturday night, a program that he later presented on the same GOLD FM well into the 90’s. In the mid 90’s he also was part of the weekday lineup on GOLD.
In the late 90’s he joined the battleship 3AK to present the Saturday Night Party Time and after being moved to a short lived retrospective Sunday night program he like many others around him were flung from the fast sinking 3AK. He then had an ongoing segment with 3AW’s Remember When (around 2000) for around 12 months. Vale Don Lunn a true radio legend.
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