What's New
BY Sarah Patterson April 17, 2024
What's New November 29, 2021
Final tribute to Brad McNally: AUDIO
Brad McNally’s life was commemorated last week in Fremantle, after his passing earlier this month.
His wife Marg has sent us this note about the final tribute to Brad, which also includes an audio montage of messages and reminiscences from Brad’s radio colleagues.
We celebrated Brad’s life last Friday 19 November in the most beautiful, uplifting ceremony, very well attended by family and friends, both in the chapel at Fremantle Cemetery and around the country and globe via livestream.
The tributes were led by our family, followed by friends and radio colleagues Ian Blackley, Dean Clairs, Mark ‘Smiley’ Pascoe and Wayne McClean.
Close friend and former colleague from Brad’s Rock 104 Dublin days Kieran Phillips delivered a moving video tribute.
Gold FM Melbourne drive announcer and friend Gavin Miller’s video tribute acknowledged key influencers in Brad’s career including Dave Charles, David Marsden, Greg Smith and Peter Benson.
In a poignant gesture, Brad’s martial arts Sifu and friend John McSwain laid Brad’s black belt on his casket.
Fellow Canadian and friend Christa Boles, who also met Brad in Perth radio, closed the ceremony with a poem.
All tributes drew equal parts tears and laughter throughout the service. As Kylee Payne, Brad’s long-time friend and celebrant on the day (the only person for that task), had quipped, it all ran a little over time … not unlike one of Brad’s killer promos!
That’s because we had so many wonderful people wishing to contribute, and who helped pull it all together. Gavin Miller, Paul More and Matt Hale contributed production elements for the various audio and video tributes, as did Andrew Edge, former imaging producer at 96fm.
In addition to his contribution to the service, Edge contacted a long list of Brad’s colleagues to compile an audio tribute as a keepsake for our family. We would love to have been able to accommodate it at the service, or at Brad’s ‘After Party’, but it wasn’t to be, running as it does close to 45 minutes.
It’s a fitting testimonial to Brad’s 45-year career, with a poetic intro penned by Bennie Bishop and voiced by Anna Angel, of which Brad would be justly proud.
So I’m sharing that audio tribute here, mostly to acknowledge Edge’s herculean effort in the time frame and contributors who shared their story of Brad, and also in honour of Brad himself, as a colleague, mentor, friend and talented, out-of-the-box quirky guy who so many people respected and loved.
Many thanks, RadioToday. When you start mentioning names, there’s always the risk of omitting one or two. And, of course, I did just that. Among Brad’s influencers was Gary Roberts, of 96fm. And our dear friend Peter ‘Richy’ Rich, formerly in sales at 96 and a pallbearer who spoke alongside Matt Hale at the wake, also deserves acknowledgement and my thanks for showing up for Brad throughout his illness – and for keeping me in fine red wine and treats!
Margaret, it was an absolute pleasure to make this tribute to a great friend, mentor and Content Director. The extent of Brads creativity with his moving poetry for the relaunch of 96fm was unheard of. He ‘Flipped the Pancake’ and turned the production on its head and challenged me to think outside the box. I couldn’t let him go without an epic production and thank you to everyone that contributed to it at such short notice. I’ll miss you Ninja.
Commemorating Brad’s life was truly a day I’ll never forget. Thanks Radio Today for sharing Margaret’s notes. Edge’s audio tribute is so very epic and special, just like a McNally promo, as are all Brad’s great radio friends who contributed. Rest peacefully in music heaven, Brad. Forever remembered.