Qld radio legend Barry Ferber dies in US

A former Queensland radio legend, who claimed to be the first announcer in Australia to play The Beatles, has died in the US.

Barry Ferber with the Rolling Stones in 1965.

A former Queensland radio legend, who claimed to be the first announcer in Australia to play The Beatles, has died in the US.

Barry Ferber, who helped start iconic Gold Coast radio station 4GG (now Triple M Gold) and went on to work for 4BC, passed away this week in Las Vegas, aged 83.

Mr Ferber was a 19-year-old DJ with Melbourne radio station 3DB in 1963 when he began receiving tapes from a publicist for a mop-haired band out of Liverpool called The Beatles.

“I told him to quit sending me this stuff and he said ‘they’re going to be big one day’,” he recalled in a 2009 interview.

One day, Mr Ferber said, a record came with ‘Please Please Me’ on one side and ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ on the other.

“So I stuck it on the turntable, played the intro, and said ‘Here’s a new group from England.’ From that moment on, everybody went nuts.”

Barry Ferber, right, with Alan Stock. Credit: Jon Beckmann/Open Window Productions

During The Beatles first tour of Australia in 1964, Mr Ferber was granted exclusive interviews with the Fab Four and was with them when they were besieged by fans at Melbourne’s Southern Cross Hotel.

Mr Ferber also introduced the Rolling Stones on stage at a Melbourne concert in 1965 but managed to upset the band and legendary promoter Harry M. Miller when he announced good friend Roy Orbison, who was the support act, as “the real star of the show”.

“One of the Stones – it might have been Keith (Richards) – rang Barry on air the

next day,’’ his now former wife Judith Ferber recalled in a 2013 interview.

Barry Ferber with former wife Judith.

Mr Ferber later moved to Queensland and was the second voice heard on 4GG when it started in 1967 after Frank Warrick – who went on to become a renowned Channel 7 newsreader – introduced the new station with the words: “Good evening and welcome to 4GG.”

Mr Ferber later became station manager and made 4GG famous for its guest stars including Tom Jones, Cliff Richard, Liberace, Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller and Robert Goulet, as well as Australian personalities such as Graham Kennedy and “Ugly” Dave Gray.

Barry Ferber pictured in 2008.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser even hosted a one-off show on the station in the 1970s while sitting with his speechwriter and future radio star Alan Jones.

Radio 4GG also led the way with promotions including yellow bikini-clad “4GG girls” and support of events such as the Stubbies Pro surfing contest at Burleigh Heads.

After 22 years at 4GG, Mr Ferber was unceremoniously sacked in 1989 when it moved to the FM band and rebranded as 4GGG to take on newcomer Sea FM.

He later worked as a promotions manager for 4BC and in 1995 was appointed general manager of the debt-ridden Fiji Broadcasting Commission.

He was awarded an MBE for services to commercial radio and was a foundation member of the Gold Coast Visitors Bureau and chairman of children’s charity the Variety Club.

Mr Ferber had lived in Las Vegas for more than two decades and spent some of his retirement years working as an usher at the MGM Mandalay Bay hotel casino.