Ken Sparkes

Ken Sparkes (born 13 July 1940) is an Australian radio and television personality and voice-over. He has been a presenter of radio programs, including presenting the breakfast program on Adelaide's 5KA. His early career was at Melbourne's 3UZ.

He has one of the best known media voices in Australia and was known for years as the ‘voice of Channel 9^[1]’ His voice is well known as a booth announcer for the Nine Network and Network Ten. He was the host of music variety show 'Kommotion on Channel 10 in Melbourne.

Radio career

Sparkes commenced playing requests for fellow patients at Princess Juliana Hospital Turramurra NSW,^[2] later being accepted aged 16 as a junior radio announcer at 2MG Mudgee NSW. He moved to 2GB Sydney where he became Sydney’s youngest disk jockey at age 19.^[3] He featured on many radio shows across the Macquarie Network from popular music program “The All Australian Hit Parade”, to the live “Music Man” that included Australian musicians and singers. He also hosted a radio show that included his chosen sport, motor racing “The World of the Motor Car.”

By the mid 1960s Sparkes had taken over the night time slot on 3UZ Melbourne, which was then the dominant radio force in that city. A visiting US radio consultant Ted Randall heard Ken on 3UZ and opened the door for him in Los Angeles. From 1969 to 1971^[4] Sparkes presented daily shows on KGBS AM/FM Los Angeles, and at one stage was posted to Vietnam where he reported for a US radio syndicate with the Screaming Eagles 101st Airborne Division.^[5] After returning to 3UZ in Melbourne, he worked at a number of radio stations including 2UE Sydney until 2007.^[6][7]

Television career

He performed as an actor, singer and host on many pop and late night Australian shows including Bandstand, Hi Fi Club, Kommotion, Australian Pop Music Awards, Homicide, Bellbird and The Johnny O’ Keefe Show. He also worked as a sportcaster and became a television commentator for the Seven Network, TEN Network and Nine Networks Wide World of Sport hosting Formula One coverage. By performing “voice over” or booth announcer work his became one of the most recognisable voices on Australian electronic media. At one time he simultaneously worked for competitors Channel Ten Sydney and Channel 9 Melbourne, later solely for the Nine Network on investigative journalism shows ‘A Current Affair’ and ‘Sixty Minutes’.^[8] In 1974 according to newspaper reports the Melbourne studios of Channel 9 were held up by an armed gang, and Sparkes chased the robbers in his car, but lost them.^[9]

Sparkes currently hosts ‘Jukebox Saturday Night’, a viewer request program which screens music video clips from the 1950s through to 1980’s. The show screens on cable in Australia on Foxtel’s Aurora Channel 183.^[10] He is also a Senior Journalist at Xinhua (Shanghai) News Agency where he writes and presents TV stories on Australia.^[11] He has no current plans for retirement.^[12]

Singing career

In the late 1950s while working as a DJ at 2MG Mudgee and later at 2GB Sydney, Sparkes began recording rock and country songs for Rex and Festival Records, including ‘Christmas at Home’ (1959) and ‘Ride Wide’ (planned release 1960). In 1965 he released a version of the Jesse Stone track backed by popular Melbourne band The Strangers. The song did not chart but has been praised as “one of the best in the DJs on Disc genre”.^[13] He released a cover of ‘Lonely Weekends’ in 1967.^[14]

Awards

Sparkes has won numerous international & Australian radio & TV awards including gold medals at the New York Radio Festival, Hollywood Broadcasters Awards & Australia's Rawards (Australian Commercial Radio Awards).^[15][16]

References

External links

• Entry on Internet Movie Database
• Ken Sparkes' professional website (down as at 19.10.14)