The radio industry is mourning after the loss of a legend.
Arnold Frolows, Triple J’s longtime music director, has died at age 74 after a battle with pancreatic and liver cancer.
It is understood that Frolows was diagnosed with the illness just a month prior to his passing.
He died in a hospice at Mona Vale, in Sydney’s north, with his partner Christine King by his side.
Frolows was a key figure in the establishment of the popular radio station back in 1974.
He began his career as a research assistant in the Contemporary Radio Unit at the station, which was at first called Double J.
The radio industry is mourning after the loss of a legend. Arnold Frolows (left), Triple J’s longtime music director, has died at age 74 after a battle with pancreatic and liver cancer
Frolows was a key figure in the establishment of the popular radio station back in 1974
From 1981, he worked as a presenter and producer, including on the hit Sunday night show Ambience.
‘Arnold joined Double J before it went to air, indeed, he was one of the first of its very first employees,’ colleague Stuart Matchett said in 2014, reports ABC.
‘He acquired much of the vinyl that made up the original music library. He programmed the music for many of the shows on Double J.’
He left Triple J in 2003, but continued working for ABC, before retiring from radio in 2014.
‘I would say if you’re still interested [in music] and your ears are still excited, it doesn’t matter how old you are,’ he told the Sydney Morning Herald at the time.
‘Triple J is always ebbing and flowing with the currents of fashion and style.
‘Questions like, ‘Are we playing too much metal and not enough dance music and Aussie hip hop?”
Station boss Ron Moss praised Frolows for the incredible work he had done at the ABC.
‘Arnold has been a superb example to the rest of us of what is possible at work and that it is possible, even in a public-service environment, to do something that is really bloody interesting,’ Webb said in 2014.
In 2005, Webb credited Frolows’ contributions with being a fundamental part of the rise of Triple J.
He discussed Frolows as ‘one of the key factors in building the station’s early success as a proper ‘music’ station’ in a chat with RadioInfo.
Frolows died just a few days before his 75th birthday and on the eve of the 50th anniversary on the launch of the original Double J.
