Bob Francis (born 1939[1] in Cairo, Egypt) is a talk back radio presenter on South Australian radio station 5AA. His program airs between 8pm and 12 midnight weekdays and is rated as Adelaide's most popular talk back program.[2]
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Francis has hosted his own radio show on 5AA since 1985 and is the station's longest serving employee. He has currently completed 50 years in radio.[1] Older listeners remember his long-standing on-air partnership with Andy Thorpe in the late sixties to mid-seventies on radio 5 AD.
5AA's website ironically describes him as "Aggressive, loud, rude, arrogant... and those are his good points." He also regularly refers to some of his callers as "Dickbrains". Francis runs a talkback show with an extremely conservative bias. He has no time for anybody that presents views contrary to his own or are middle of the road or leftist. Francis will cut them off and then usually "bans" them.
His radio show was also subjected to a highly effective prank call campaign called 'Bread and Butter Sandwiches' in the early 1990s.
He has publicly stated that he blames the late SA Premier Don Dunstan for everything that has gone wrong in South Australia with regards to law and order.
To date, Francis is still hosting his radio program from 8pm to midnight every weekday,commanding between 24 and 28 per cent of the evening radio audience.[3]
Francis was made famous to the rest of Australia through the ABC TV show The Chaser's War On Everything when one member of the Chaser rang him to question 5AA reporters as they were not at the "Subway Fresh Bread" press conference which was actually just a commercial.[4] Because of his temper, he is a constant target for prank calls, such as one featuring on John Safran's show. These clips have appeared on the video sharing site YouTube.[5]
In 2005, Francis was inducted into the Australian Radio Hall of fame at the Australian Commercial Radio Awards held at the Sydney Convention Centre. The award recognises outstanding lifetime achievement and contribution to the radio broadcasting industry. After receiving the award, he said: "This is one of the greatest honours I can imagine, to me like winning an Academy Award."[3] He was also presented with a Golden Microphone from 5AA for 20 years service.[6]
In 1964, at just 25 years of age, while working as a radio DJ, Bob put together a petition of 80,000 signatures, which ended up persuading The Beatles to change their itinerary and visit Adelaide in their 1964 tour. He got to introduce the Beatles to Adelaide from the Town Hall balcony in June that year.[7]
He is currently married to Anna Von Berg, who he wed in 2006. He has been married 5 times, and Anna has been married 7 times.[8] His previous wife, Pam, died of cancer. He is of Jewish descent.
He currently lives in North Adelaide. He also owned a Harley-Davidson motorcycle for a long period of time, but sold it to his dentist in 2005 due to a back problem. He sold it and purchased a scooter, in which he had an accident on in 2007, which resulted in surgery and two rods in his legs and a pin inserted in his knee. He drives a gopher currently.
In January 2008, Francis had all of his top teeth removed and replaced with artificial teeth in a four hour operation that cost $A20,000.
Francis' program often causes controversy.
One of his most controversial acts, also believed to have been one of the most controversial acts by any Australian talk show radio host, occurred on 27 September 2005 at 10 to midnight whilst he was talking to an elderly female listener - this was when Francis spoke arrogantly to her, referring to her as a 'stupid old lady' and repeatedly calling her a 'dickbrain'. The way he spoke and treated the elderly listener made headlines, and was even featured on Media Watch two weeks later.[9] He refused to say sorry over the incident, saying: "I loved it. If it was taken in context, she had a go at me. She was being nasty." and that "If she rang again, I'd do the same thing."[3]
In February 2005, 5AA were found guilty by the country's peak broadcasting regulator, regarding comments made in regard to aboriginals on Bob's program. It is unknown who made the comments or what the comments were, just that they were likely to have incited or perpetuated hatred against Aboriginal people on the basis of their race. 5AA issued an apology over the incident.[10]
In October 2005, he found himself in legal hot water after making inflammatory comments about senior magistrate Gary Gumpl while on-air while commenting on a case involving Robert John Walker. Robert John Walker was charged with one count of possessing child pornography. Bob described Mr Gumpl's decision to hear a bail application as "irresponsible" and made comments such as "Am I here as a normal bloody human being, or do judges live in another world?" and "Oh, smash the judge's face in." He later issued a public apology.[11]
Despite the apology, Bob had to appear in court over the comments he made, and pleaded guilty to one count of bringing a judicial officer into contempt or lowering his authority.[12] In August 2006, Bob was found guilty for the comments he made, being sentenced to jailed for nine weeks and fined $20,000 on a suspended sentence on the condition that Francis enter an 18-month good behaviour bond.[13]
After being found guilty, Bob and the radio station faced a defamation lawsuit from Mr Gumpl, the magistrate in which Bob's comments were directed at. He accepted an offer of "around $60,000" which was paid by 5AA. Mr Gumpl said that incident had caused him considerable stress and hardship and he was pleased it had been finalised. After the incident, Bob was banned from drinking alcohol on air, as he occasionally took a bottle of red wine into the studio to drink while taking calls, and could have been partly responsible for his outbursts.[14]
In 2007, he was involved in an accident in which he broke his leg after falling off his scooter trying to avoid a dog. The accident resulted in surgery and two rods in his legs and a pin in his knee. It was later revealed that he was drink-driving and well over the legal limit at the time of the accident. He later called himself a "bloody idiot", and the only reason that he was drinking was because his boss offered him an on-going contract.[1]