John Crook, best known as a television personality in Brisbane, has passed away in Geelong at the age of 76.
A former radio announcer, Crook’s television career began in Bendigo at BCV8 in the early 1960s. He then moved to Hobart’s TVT6, where he won a TV Week Logie award for Most Popular Male Personality in Tasmania.
His next move was to Brisbane, hosting the morning program A Crook Affair (later The John Crook Show) on TVQ0 (now Ten) for over a decade.
During the 1980s he hosted travel programs Top End Down Under and The Down Under Show before being appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Queensland Pavilion at World Expo in Brisbane in 1988.
Crook later formed a public relations company and continued to produce food and travel programs for radio.
John Crook is survived by wife Leonie and children Wes, Andrew and Donna.
Source: Yahoo7, Lost.TVQ, Geelong Advertiser
2 thoughts on “Obituary: John Crook”
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When very young my sister, Jan, and I played our piano accordians in a duet on the radio program called Swallows Parade. I was about 13 and the Maryborough Town Hall was set up for the broadcast. There was no audience but we were introduced and recorded there. This was prior to the beginning of TV in our area, I think. John Crook was an announcer at 3CV. Some time later I received a letter from John and he was working at BCV8 in Bendigo and was the host of Cohns Cobbers Teleclub. We had no telephone at home and he asked if I would like to play on Cohns Cobbers at BCV8. Mum and dad drove me to Bendigo and I played. I remember how unreal it felt to me but John also asked, some time later, if I would play again. I wasnt keen on doing it again.
in 2011 Jan passed away not long after being diagnosed with cancer. When sorting out her things, her daughters found a photograph of the two of us taken when we played our duet on Swallows Parade. I was thrilled when they gave it to me so I took it out to get a frame for it. It was in a plastic bag and, unfortunately, when I got home it was accidentally put into our recycle bin. The period we played was in about 1960 as I looked about 13 in the photo, and Jan looked about 20. I tried to follow it up and rang the recycle place but they had nothing there. I feel it may have been taken by a photographer from either Bendigo Advertiser or Maryborough Advertiser so I am going to look further into it. I was also wondering if there would be any tapes of my performance on BCV8 in the Cohns Cobbers Telequest and of our radio performance. Swallows Parade used to be broadcast throughout Victoria at the time. Thanks if anybody has any info for me on this.
John interview me when I ran a Horse and Cart business in the Barossa Valley called Carter Brother’s Horse Drawn Tours. He was very helpful to me as I was quite nervous during the interview but you could tell he was giving me “mental encouragement” which I appreciated. I never ever saw that segment.
Rest In Peace John