Founding Double J announcer Chris Winter has passed away

Staff Writer
Image: abc.net.au

Chris Winter was already an employee at the ABC when Double Jay originally launched in 1975.

He was known for championing lesser-known music, which had a huge impact on what would go on to become the ethos of Double J and triple j.

The ABC has revealed that the founding announcer, who was also a fixture in the early days of triple j, has sadly passed away.

“What we really wanted to do was give attention to bands who might not have made a single, who might not be played by commercial radio, they weren’t successful, but they were writing successful songs,” Winter told Double J four years ago.

“It’s hard to believe now but Mental As Anything and Midnight Oil were two such bands.”

ABC head of music and creative development Chris Scaddan paid tribute to Winter.

“Chris was a foundation presenter for Double Jay in 1975 and it is his free spirit and style that inspired the persona of the whole station,” said Scaddan.

“His passion for music outside the mainstream survives now in triple j and also Double J again on digital radio.”

“His influence across the ABC’s early-2000s digital work was just as pioneering as his early work in music broadcasting.

“Chris’ entire career is a testament to his never-ending, forward-thinking ideas about music, culture and media. His inquisitive mind and ability to inspire others was rare and cherished.”

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Mike Breen
22 Oct 2019 - 3:15 pm

Chris Winter’s Room To Move was compulsory listening on late night ABC radio, he had a deep resonating voice like no other on radio at that time, I have a recollection of Chris reading out a letter from a listener who was taking him to task in no uncertain terms for the music he had been playing in recent weeks and why he was not playing tracks by Traffic, I remember thinking this is a bit much, but Chris calmly read out the letter on air, criticism and all, then simply said at the end of the letter reading “Fair enough” and then promptly played a Traffic track without hesitation, he did not even try to defend himself or his music selection, other DJs would not read out letter critical of themselves – he was a bloody good DJ

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