Brian Naylor to enter Logies’ Hall of Fame

briannaylor_2 Former Melbourne television personality Brian Naylor is to be posthumously inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame at next month’s awards presentation.

TV Tonight reports that TV Week is set to announce Naylor’s award tomorrow.

This is the fourth time that a Hall of Fame Logie has been awarded posthumously – photographer Neil Davis (1986), actor and performer Maurie Fields (1996) and Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin (2007) also received posthumous recognition with entry into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

Naylor, a former radio presenter on 3AK and 3DB, made the transition to television in the late 1950s as host of children’s variety program Swallow’s Juniors (later re-named Brian And The Juniors), which had made the move from 3DB to HSV7.

briannaylor_7 He later moved into the newsroom at HSV7, hosting the current affairs program This Week and reading news bulletins before being appointed to the role of chief newsreader for the Melbourne edition of Seven National News in 1970. Naylor’s popularity with audiences in Melbourne and across regional Victoria led to him being signed up by rival GTV9 in 1978. Nine had endured several years of poor ratings for its evening news and even bringing veteran newsreader Eric Pearce out of retirement had failed to lift its fortunes – but signing up Naylor was a major coup and the audience followed Naylor across to Nine. National Nine News would continue to dominate the ratings during Naylor’s 20-years as newsreader, fending off fierce rival Ten’s one-hour news and a resurgent Seven in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.

Naylor also gained a national profile as presenter of the annual Carols By Candlelight for ten years, before the role was taken over by Ray Martin, and produced and hosted documentaries for the Nine Network.

In February last year Naylor and his wife Moiree were among the 173 killed by the Black Saturday bushfires.

logie_1980s Last month, the short-list of nominations for the Logies’ Hall of Fame was leaked to the media for the first time in the awards’ 27-year history. Among others on the short list were Naylor’s long-time Sydney counterpart Brian Henderson, two-time TV Week Gold Logie winner Maggie Tabberer, Dateline host George Negus, SBS sporting commentator Les Murray, sports presenter Ken Sutcliffe, former newsreader Ian Ross, Home And Away stalwart Ray Meagher and former Network Ten drama Prisoner.