Adelaide radio legend David Day passes, at 63

One of Adelaide’s legendary radio broadcasters, David “Daisy” Day has passed at 63 after a lengthy battle against illness.

But that didn’t stop him from undertaking with gusto recent duties as CEO of the South Australian Music Hall of Fame, running the SA chapter of Support Act Ltd’s activities and returning to the airwaves on Triple M.

For four decades, Day dominated Adelaide’s radio airwaves, at 5KA in the 1970s and SA FM in the 1980s. Day partied with all the major international and Australian celebrities who passed through time. He not only shaped the music tastes of generations of Adelaide music fans but their idea of the rock lifestyle. “He was a bigger rock star than the rock stars,” said Jimmy Barnes who listened to him incessantly.

The factDay could relate countless anecdotes every time he played one of their records endeared him to listeners. Veteran radio executive Paul Thompson, who heard a tape of Day on a country station (he started at 16 in Moree, NSW) and rushed him to 5KA, describes him as “the cornerstone of youth culture in Adelaide in the 1970s.”

Day himself would say, “There was no social media then, so I was the guy between the fans and the bands.”

His book Rock Jock was as much about the celebrity life as working in the Australian radio at a time when it was going through a revolution. (He later started up a radio school for a time to mentor the next generations of rock jocks).But by 2011 the lifestyle caught up with him. He technically died for four minutes. His high profile battle with diabetes saw long stays in hospitals and the amputation of toes.

But he never lost his madcap humour and his zest for life: singer songwriter Russell Morris, a long time friend, would say, “He had a positive energy which drew everyone to him.” After donating 40 years of his memorabilia to the SA Music Hall of Fame, Day was stunned late last year when he was given a surprise induction.