The Thug said:
By the way, does anyone remember 'The David Rhys Jones football show' ?
It was on 3CR on Thursday nights, around midnight, early-to-mid 1980's, pre-Coudabeens.
I can't remember much about the show other than a spoof radio play which had characters like the Pope and Scottie Palmer who only ever said the word 'Sensational !'
In answer to the query from The Thug, I’ll use a separate thread as it has nothing to do with Dr Turf.
The David Rhys Jones Football Show
I’m not 100 percent sure but I believe the members of the DRJFS were Gary(?), Norm, Rocky and Roger. The latter was the voice of the Scotty Palmer impersonation. Norm was a VFL historian doing a history segment. Roger was the Hawthorn fan, and Rocky was the Pies fan and, I might add, an enigma compared to anything else in any form of media or life in general. I think Gary may have been a Richmond supporter.
This show was on at 8:30 or 9:30 on Thursday nights I think. It mostly was aimed at university/youth demographic, not surprising being on 3CR, and hardly ever took itself too seriously. One clearly defining element of this show’s format was its attempt to add some satire in regards to the VFL.
As mentioned by The Thug in regards to radio spoofs, etc, there was also some off-beat interviews with players also, which was unique for the time as there was little midweek media shows other than League Teams on Thursday nights. Another quirk was to play background music throughout the reading of teams, sometimes at the wrong rpm. Anything to be different.
Scott Palms, May 30, 1985:
Welcome to the sports desk here at 3CR. 3CR football, insurance, wrestling, and anything else you want it to be. And another week of turmoil, tension tragedy, and triumph. I’m shocked by the SENSATIONAL things that have happened and the dramatic things I’ve heard. I’m a journalist and I’m paid to find out what’s happening and pass it on to you. An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. That’s what I say. That’s how I live. I believe it. …
Well, I’ll earn my money now. I’ve found some things out and I’ll pass them on to you. “Well, Scott,” ‘I can here you say,’ “what have you heard?” You asked, here it is.
[…]
Things on the move down at St. Kilda way. And be prepared to see a new broom sweep through the Saints. Word has it that St Kilda will be quite ruthless in its quest for success. One of the casualties, Graham Gellie, earmarked to be replaced by Don Scott for the second half. Of what, I’m not sure, but a devastatingly brilliant move today! [Don Scott infamously coached South Adelaide, quitting in his first year after an 0-6 start]
Sad news down Collinwood way involving the Collingwood cheer squad. Leaving the club over a financial dispute. To meet the crises of next Sunday’s big game in front of the expected huge crowd, club president, Ranald McDonald, has asked the old Normy Rowe fan club to reform and fill in for the day. Sensationally populist today, Ranald.
Our recently interviewed Don Scott, stated that he hadn’t made any major mistakes when coaching South Adelaide today. He did mention that in retrospect, his promise to the players that if they made the finals, their end of year trip would be to Beirut had been a mistake. Geographically unsound today, Scotty!
And I’ll leave you with the SENSATIONAL news tonight that the ABC in a bid to build up ratings for their show, The National, has decided to replace Geraldine Doogue with Darren “Der” Flannigan, Geelong’s phlegmatic young ruckman. No wonder the ABC’s top rating show is its test pattern.
Back to you, Gary.
They also did some live shows, one was at the Corner Hotel in Richmond which had such gems as “Dip Like The Dipper” tackling competition on stage, judged by Robert Dipierdomenico. This period of time correlated with one aforementioned Hawks’ wingman cracking skulls around the VFL. Today the AFL would call on clubs to “discourage” players involvement in such skits. 
This radio show probably petered out in the late 1980s as the participants weren’t paid and careers and family took precedence over spare time. But three-quarters of the team would reappear on commercial radio several years later with a couple of familiar voices and help those voices move on to greater media career heights.
Intro
Remember when there were jobs-a-plenty, when you could go for a midnight stroll and leave the front do unlocked. When twenty cents of mixed lollies was a feast. When Australian tennis players won big tournaments. And royal marriages lasted a lifetime. The dropkick - reigned supreme. At last, six brave men have vowed to bring back the dropkick and restore order to a chaotic world. BT, Slammin’ Sam, Rocky, Norm, Scott and Ross - dropkick. As Dropkicks they’ve vowed to fight for truth, justice, and the right of every man, woman and child to dropkick their way back to a worthwhile life [wild applause]
The Dropkicks
The ’90s show was called the “Dropkicks Footy Show” with Brian Taylor, Sam Kekovich, Roger Philip Taylor (no relation), Ross “Rocky” Dabscheck, Norm Nugent, and sometimes Melissa Nugent who was Norm’s daughter. It was similar stuff as 'The David Rhys Jones Show’ with a little more budget. The show also included Barry McDonald early on but he dropped out of the Dropkicks as he wasn’t suited to 72 of the 75 minutes being vaudevillian radio.
This show had the same silliness as the 3CR show with characters such as Scott Palms who often found everything SENSATIONAL and ended every segment with the line, “it’s better to punch than be punched” as a take on Scott Palmer’s “keep punching.” It was on Monday nights beginning after the last race on 3UZ and was on for between 60 and 80 minutes.
The show developed several more characters for segments and old type radio serials. Characters such as:
1) Kermit Brethreton (Dermott Brereton)
The high-pitch-voiced safari-suit-wearing always-womanizing, Kermi Brethreton, was voiced by Roger Taylor and took the piss out of the one-time Hawks star.
2) Bruce Macaroni (Bruce McAvaney)
Kekovich’s attempt at a McAvaney impersonation using esoteric words in amongst some dialogue to explain something simple.(Keka kind of being himself)
3) The Flipper ( Robert Dipierdomenico)
A send-up of Dipper’s awful sideline commentary on Channel Seven.
4) Mick Outhouse (Mick Malthouse).
A regular interview with the West Coast coach, voiced by Roger Taylor, that was laced with words beeped out and was often ended prematurely by BT due to the always angry Outhouse’s refusal to stop swearing.
There was also got-up callers such as Bill from Barnawartha (fictitious farmer) and Col from Coolaroo (fictitious village idiot). This show also had Rocky’s pigeon racing report which BT often ended prematurely.
The Dropkicks did two radio serials called The Commission (’93) and Club Sixteen - The Fremantle Ducks (’94). The scripts were anti-AFL and were brutal on AFL CEO, Ross Loakley (Ross Oakley). BT and Co took the show live to some Melbourne pubs a number of times with live versions of “The Commission.” This radio serial was produced by Dabscheck and was made available on audio tape.
There was also Sam Kekovich’s terrific Sven Swenson character that put a Swedish curse on Alan McSayanything’s (President Alan McAlister) Collingwood that resulted in Abba music drowning out anything the fictitious president said and a ban on Swedish footballers playing for the Woodsmen. This was a send-up of the Aboriginal curse put on the Pies in 1993 when an elder “pointed the bone” at Collingwood for McAlister’s alleged racist comments.
One interesting thing that Taylor and Co did was develop a close relationship with a number of regular talkback callers. Two of these were cantankerous St Kilda supporter Ivy Moyle and rascally Collingwood fanatic, Wally from Frankston. Both were about seventy-years-old and disliked each other much due to the provoking from one BT. The still-cantankerous Moyle regularly rings Kevin Bartlett at SEN and must be around 85-years-old today.
It was at one of those live shows that BT had talkback callers Ivy Moyle and Wally from Frankston turn up for a debate. The latter getting slightly inebriated, falling in a hole outside the pub, and lumping BT with a $82 cab charge after going from Barassi’s Mountain View Hotel to Hastings; much to the chagrin of the 3UZ accounting department.
The Dropkicks ran on 3UZ from around 1993 through ’95 until a change of ownership and Sam Kekovich moving on to a paid gig on radio doing AFL commentary. Keka now also does commercials, and is the co-host of ESPN’s Australian version of Pardon The Interruption. BT is one of football’s best callers and appears on the Footy Show.
Rocky and Roger P. Taylor were last heard on an FM public radio station several years ago but I can’t remember what station it was or what the show was about. Probably music and entertainment; the often-nonsensical Dabscheck was a gifted guitarist who also appeared on Bert Newton‘s Channel 10 morning show through its run. He probably is the Rocky in a folk band named Rocky And The Two Bob Millionaires. Norm Nugent, a VFL-AFL historian, who did his Fabulous Forgettable Football Facts had a heart attack in the mid-nineties and I hope is still around today.
The one remaining question is how on earth did turn-the-wheels-of-commerce conservatives like BT and Slammin’ Sam have such close personal relationships with a handful of commies from 3CR. I guess the only answer is that you should never think you know someone from their public persona, because you don’t!
Also must note during these shows in the ‘90s, Kekovich, Taylor, et al., had full-time jobs. Taylor had his own plumbing business and also coached Prahran in the VFA, as well as hosting football, golf, basketball shows, and filling in on Leon Wiegard’s morning show on UZ; Kekovich worked for a computer consumables company; and a couple of the 3CR guys were school teachers. Yet SEN radio’s on-air staff do little research and don’t have time to, say, even write a blog for probably the worst radio website in world sports media.
The main purpose of this post is to highlight what little effort is made by today by the likes of SEN radio to attempt entertainment and some wit instead they’ve offered the likes of the never-prepared Morning Glory with Bill Brownless and his sheilas jokes, frothies gags and repeated use of the term whackity-whack to describe every winning athlete’s efforts. Particularly in today’s world where knowledge is not as important as it once was now it's at everyone’s finger tips with such tools as Google on the Internet, and cable TV. And then, of course, there’s Mark Snoran’s midday show with his ground-breaking siesta-inducing stuff. Throw in a bunch of amateurs on the late shift and SEN’s pretty average.
Hope that answers your question, Mr The Thug.
Scott Palms: Tonight, what a hurdy-gurdy up and down in and out easy come easy go comme si comme ca c'est la vie oh-la-la nudge nudge wink wink hoosi-doosey I’m alright Jack how about you golly-gosh well I’ll de damned whose believed what I’ve said today well I never fancied that ya don’t say I don’t believe it it wouldn’t happen in my day what’s the world coming to I can’t see the sense it, week of sport we’ve had today, Brian.
BT: Now Scotty, look, just slow down a bit and run that past me again
Scott Palms: Not particularly, Brian.
BT: What about some sporting news for the listeners?
Scott Palms: Consider it done. I’ve got the stories and like a virus what I’ve got I’ll give to you
