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SYDNEY, Australia – The death of former Channel 9 supremo Sam Chisholm last week has invoked an outpouring of praise for the former Kiwi who championed Channel Nine Sydney and the UK’s Sky Television to unprecedented heights.

Chisholm has been credited with everything from building the team that took Channel 9 to number one, to ushering in colour television for Nine.

In various media reports he was head of 9 from 1973. Kerry Packer too is credited with bringing Chisholm out of Melbourne and grooming him for the top job in Sydney.

The fact is it was former Perth executive George Chapman who was in charge and built the team that saw through Nine’s golden days of the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

It was Chapman who brought in Lynton Taylor from Adelaide in 1972 to be 9’s Program Director. Chapman brought in Michael Ramsden as Station Manager, who brought in Gerald Stone as the network’s Director of News in 1974. Stone would later, under Chisholm’s watch, move to being Executive Producer of Sixty Minutes. Peter Meakin was another news and A Current Affair supremo appointed in 1973. Meakin stayed at the station for thirty years.

It was Chapman who plucked Chisholm out of sister station, GTV Channel 9 in Melbourne where he was an advertising rep, to be Nine Sydney’s Director of Sales. 

Kerry Packer was nowhere in sight, he was an advertising rep at the Australian Women’s Weekly. He did not become involved in the network until his father Frank’s death in May 1974.

Chapman came into Nine in a round-about way. He was recruited by long-time 9 stalwarts Bruce Gyngell and Nigel Dick, however at this point in history they had left Nine and were working for the Seven network. Gyngell was GM, and Dick was Chairman. They wanted Chapman for the Program Manager’s role at HSV 7 in Melbourne. Chapman, whose background in radio wasn’t interested, arguing he had no background in television. Gyngell and Dick told Chapman they wanted someone outside the industry to do a re-make of the station. Chapman accepted, but soon after Gyngell and Dick returned to Nine.

It was some months later the pair invited Chapman to meet Clyde Packer who, with Len Mauger, was heading up the 9 network and overseeing the group’s radio interests in Melbourne and Western Australia. Packer offered Chapman the GM role of the group’s WA statewide radio network. Chapman is largely credited with taking that network’s Perth station 6PM from last to number one in the ratings. Shortly after that happened in 1972 Packer and Mauger moved Chapman from the West to General Manager of Channel 9 Sydney. 

Nine was the first television station to be launched in Australia and was already a successful operation. Chapman assembled new executives to take the station forward, but the skeleton of the station was already there and remained intact. Les Free was head of engineering with talented engineers like Bruce Robertson and Paget Blackburn in tow. Brian Henderson had already catapulted Nine’s news to an unassailable lead. He had been at the station since the inception in 1956 and was still reading the news in 2002, long after Chapman and Chisholm had departed. Ian Ross too was in-situ, having joined the station in 1965, and he too outlasted the chiefs to be still reading the news in 2001. Graeme Goodings joined the station during Chapman’s reign in 1974, and Jim Waley in 1975. Geoff Harvey was on board, as were sports supremos Brian Morelli and David Hill. On air at TCN9 in Sydney was GTV9’s successful In Melbourne Tonight, an unusual decision, particularly with the name of the show remaining unaltered. When host Graham Kennedy erred with his infamous crow call, and was replaced by Don Lane in 1975, with The Don Lane Show, Chapman and Lynton Taylor continued to take the Melbourne-based show on relay.

Nine dominated sports, and with Kerry Packer’s intense interest in cricket and rugby league, that domination continued to reign. 

When Sir Frank Packer died on May 1st 1974 it was expected his deputy Harry Chester would take over as Chairman of Australian Consolidated Press. Both of Packer’s sons Clyde and Kerry were not in senior roles in the company at the time of their father’s death. Clyde, who had become joint Managing Director of the Nine Network, with his father Frank, in 1970 later in life quipped, “It was a very equitable arrangement. I had the responsibility and he had the authority.”

Packer had Tom Miller as Station Manager of 9 in Sydney, and the pair took a punt on Mike Willesee to launch A Current Affair on the Network. It was in 1972 when Willesee landed a coup by enticing ACTU leader Bob Hawke to appear on the show during a high-profile industrial dispute that was dominating the headlines. Sir Frank however got wind of the ‘coup’ and told his son he would not allow Hawke on his network. Clyde Packer, with his authority clearly undermined, quit. He was later quoted as saying, “I suspect my father was as glad to get rid of me as I was to get rid of him.” 

Kerry Packer on the other hand, following his father’s death, was thrust into the chairmanship of ACP without notice, and without any training at the top level. He was able to do this because of the votes he controlled. Harry Chester remained as his deputy, however he died suddenly about 3 years later.

Kerry had to learn on the job, and for the first year or two he was little involved, spending his time listening and learning. A total teetotaller, Packer was happy to let Chapman run Nine. The new chairman was heavily involved in a number of businesses aside from the group’s media interests. He also became heavily involved in the negotiations for rights to the cricket, and by 1977 these negotiations climaxed with his breakaway World Series Cricket which he personally championed for the next two years,

Colour television came to 9 under Chapman’s watch, not Chisholm’s as has been widely reported. It was however neither at Chapman or Chisholm’s hand, it was an industry-wide initiative, which saw every television station in Australia transition to colour on 1st March 1975.

Chisholm was not to take the reins at Nine until mid-1976. Chapman had been pushing Packer towards establishing a new media arm to operate in the area of satellite technology. He had already oriented the Nine Network to totally computerise its operations and had seen an opportunity for ACP to lead the way in the looming satellite evolution. In July 1976 it was announced Chapman would leave Nine to head up the group’s new division to be known as Consolidated Audio Visual Group. Chapman was named by Packer as President and Managing Director. Packer simultaneously announced Chisholm would take over from Chapman as General Manager of 9 in Sydney.

Nine continued to go from strength-to-strength with both Chisholm and Packer playing a major part, with Mauger’s continuing and significant influence. Another stabilising factor was that Chapman’s Station Manager Mike Ramsden, another former Kiwi, stayed on board during the transition. Ramsden joined the station at the inception in 1956 as Director of News, and was to spend more than 3 decades at the station, retiring in 1987.

It was that year, 1987 that the 9 Network was sold to Bond Media, a new float put together by West Australian billionaire Alan Bond. The cash and convertible notes transaction valued the network at $1.05 billion. The float was a failure, with underwriters left holding swathes of stock. It was the start of the demise of Alan Bond, whose empire ended in tatters.

Chisholm sought a saviour through CBS, the same network that last year came to the rescue of the Ten Network. CBS agreed to a deal, the only problem was the foreign ownership restrictions in place at the time under the old Broadcasting & Television Act 1942. Undeterred, Chisholm approached Bob Hawke, who was then Prime Minister and persuaded him to agree to a change of legislation to enable CBS to buy the network. Then Kerry Packer got involved. He owned convertible notes which gave him some leverage. He too then approached Hawke to stymie the change in foreign ownership. Hawke sided with Packer. When Chisholm later recounted the agreement he claimed he got from Hawke, the prime minister said he could not recall the conversation.

So Packer ended up with the Nine Network again, for significantly less than he received in selling it. Chisholm, who had worked against him was in charge. Not only that, but Chisholm had become accustomed to the big-spending ways of his former boss, Bond, while Packer had become skilled at stripping costs to the bone. He had recruited Al Dunlap, known as Chainsaw Al to put the razor through his company, and in the process, train his son Jamie (now James) Packer. It was some years later that Dunlap was exposed as a fraud who had manipulated accounts to portray turnarounds that he had engineered in a greater light, earning him greater incentives. He is currently banned from holding office or directorships of companies in the United States. 

So, Chisholm was not a good fit for Packer the second time round. Chisholm talked to Rupert Murdoch about the prospect of heading up Murdoch’s then-troubled UK-based Sky Television Network. Weekend reports say Murdoch’s interest in Chisholm had been at Packer’s suggestion. Either way a deal was done, and Sam Chisholm headed off to the UK, with his greatest success ahead of him. He joined Sky in August 1990. Three months later Sky merged with BSB and the new BSkyB appointed Chisholm as Managing Director. Murdoch dominated control and soon after brought in his daughter Elisabeth, which Chisholm, who nickname her ‘the trainee,’ resented. His relationship with Murdoch senior however remained amicable although the pair clashed form time to time. Murdoch at one time was quoted as saying, “He’s territorial as hell. He calls the plays and he gets it right more often than not. The problem is he plays favourites and he frightens people.” Chisholm stayed in the role, taking the new BSkyB into the black within two years and to a multi-billion dollar float soon after. A health scare forced his return to Australian seven years later, however by this time BSKyB, now Sky Television, was a raging success. Chisholm received a double lung transplant at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney in 2003.

He returned to 9 in 2005 as Acting CEO after the abrupt departure of David Gyngell who had become fed up with interference from head office, where Kerry Packer, son James (pictured centre), John Alexander (right), and Sam Chisholm (left), now a PBL director, were all based. Chisholm took the reins on a two year contract with the brief to find a new CEO.

When he died last week at the Sydney Adventist Hospital in Wahroonga, Chisholm was aged 78. He leaves behind wife Sue and daughter Caroline, son-in-law Daniel, and grandson Lewis.

Rupert Murdoch on hearing the news issued a statement lamenting his death, “Sam Chisholm is unquestionably one of the best executives I have ever worked with,” he said.

There are two other important aspects of Chisholm’s contributions that should be recognized and applauded according to Transplant Australia CEO, Chris Thomas.

“Firstly, as the Inaugural Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Organ & Tissue Authority when it was established in 2009. The then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, introduced far-reaching reforms of Australia’s organ and tissue donation system and the prime minister needed a strong and persuasive leader to help introduce these reforms to give more Australians access to lifesaving transplants,” Thomas said on hearing of Chisholm’s death.

“Mr Chisholm was ideally suited, even if over-qualified, however he had experienced first hand the power of a life-saving transplant and he was committed to giving other Australians that opportunity. His role here revealed the compassionate and generous side of Mr Chisholm – a side totally opposite to his reputation in the media as Kerry Packer’s right-hand man.”

“The other aspect of his life that should be remembered,” Thomas said, “was his inspiration to establish the David Hookes Foundation. This Foundation was established after David, an Australian cricket great, became an organ donor following his death in 2004.”

“Sam worked closely with David’s wife, Robyn, radio personality Alan Jones, advertising executive John Singleton, and Mr Chisholm’s own wife, Sue, to establish the Foundation. It led to a significant increase in the number of Australians joining the Australian Organ Donor Register. Mr Chisholm played an important role in this,” he said.

Chisholm’s funeral is scheduled to take place on Friday 20 July 2018 at St Swithun’s Church, at Telegraph Road, in the Sydney suburb of Pymble at 11:00am.

Source: Big News Network