Tony Austin RIP

Many former members of BBC Radio News and Current Affairs will be sad to learn of the death of Tony Austin at the age of 85. He was personnel boss at Broadcasting House for much of the 70s and 80s. 

Tony's career was rich and varied. From the King's School, Canterbury, he started at the BBC as an Floor Assistant at Television Centre in 1961 - and used to enjoy telling people that the year before he joined, the official job title was "Call Boy".  He was seconded to the Whitehall Theatre in 1962 for a number of weeks, as the BBC prepared a live broadcast of "One for the Pot" starring Brian Rix. 

In 1963 he was upped to Assistant Floor Manager, and his rounded tones were brought into use as a tv announcer, working at the BBC's studios above a car showroom in Broad Street, Birmingham.  There were months of trade test transmissions for the Sutton Coldfield transmitter, set up to deliver BBC2, from a new self-operated continuity suite. 

Building on that, he formally became a Regional Announcer. He also became a rep for the Association of Broadcasting Staff - essentially an in-house union. This brought him into negotiations with personnel - and, in the late sixties, he went over to the dark side, joining the Appointments Team in Personnel in London. 

By the time I joined as a News Trainee in 1973, Tony was established in Radio News Personnel. Noticeboards around the third and fourth floors were peppered with his half-page memos elegantly signed off "A.J.K.A".  He greeted us with tea in china cups, and sound, immediate advice about getting into the pension scheme fast and buying 'extra years'.  Although his later corridor greetings were always a little formulaic ("How are you ? How's the family") his interest was genuine, his memory phenomenal, his advice always well-tailored, and he did everything he could to keep the wheels of the News machine oiled.  

As we assembled for overnight coverage of the February 1974 General Election, in 3A, an old drama studio converted to a newsroom for the night, Tony went quietly round the desks noting who was smoking. Just before the polls closed and we set to work, he returned with 40 fags of the preferred brand for each addict. 

Tony's 'fixing' was famous. He did a deal with British Caledonian that, in return for sending the bulk of our radio news bookings their way, news passengers would get a free upgrade when possible. When a senior manager shunted a reporter's car overnight, when he shouldn't have been using it, Tony found a reporter to take the rap, eased with the offer of a chance to try telly.  When an ageing editor needed encouraging into retirement, a suggestion of easing off on blood pressure medication before a visit to the BBC Doctor, seemed to enhance the deal. 

With the arrival of John Birt's bi-media world, Tony became part of Jenny Abramsky's "corridor of management". I joined that team for a short spell, and Tony, spotting a newbie who could ease his load, sent me straight down to Lime Grove to "negotiate" with technical managers from TV News who saw it as their divine right to manage radio news operations as well. Between us we held them off for a number of years. 

Eventually, Tony himself couldn't escape re-organisation, and was sent to work at Television Centre on finance and HR strategies for Birt's burgeoning foreign bureaux. 

When he left Auntie in 1990, he parlayed his extensive knowledge of occupational health (he was a BBC rep with the Royal Society of Medicine for 15 years)  into an HR job at an emerging NHS Trust in Kent, followed by five years in a similar role in Scotland. There he contracted Occupational Health services to the Royal Navy in Forsyth "at considerable income benefit". 

Retiring formally in 1998, he kept volunteering in the health service, as a patient rep and research champion in Dorset, and later engaging in walks for charity, despite increasing mobility problems.  He stood, unsuccessfully for election to Dorset Council as a Conservative in 2019.