Maynard (broadcaster)

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Australian entertainer

title: "Maynard (broadcaster)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["living-people", "australian-music-critics", "australian-music-journalists", "australian-podcasters", "australian-sceptics", "australian-television-presenters", "people-from-new-south-wales", "triple-j-announcers", "australian-video-jockeys", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "the-castanet-club"] description: "Australian entertainer" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynard_(broadcaster)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian entertainer ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

FieldValue
nameMaynard
imageFlying_Maynard.jpeg
captionFlying Maynard
birth_name
birth_placeNewcastle, New South Wales, Australia
death_date
other_namesMaynard F# Crabbes
known_forTriple J, The Castanet Club, [ChannelV], ABC radio, SkepticZone
occupationRadio host, television host, stage performer / DJ
nationalityAustralian
website
::

|name = Maynard |image = Flying_Maynard.jpeg |alt = |caption = Flying Maynard |birth_name = |birth_date = |birth_place = Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia |death_date = |death_place = |other_names = Maynard F# Crabbes |known_for = Triple J, The Castanet Club, [ChannelV], ABC radio, SkepticZone |occupation = Radio host, television host, stage performer / DJ |nationality = Australian |website = Maynard, formerly known as Maynard F# Crabbes, is an Australian entertainer, television presenter and radio announcer. He was a key figure in bringing the ABC's youth-oriented radio station Triple J to national prominence, and he worked at ABC radio and as a video presenter for many years. He appeared as himself in the Australian film The Castanet Club.

Since 2009, Maynard has branched out into providing podcasts, where he has become increasingly involved in the field of scepticism. In addition to his own podcasts, he is a regular featured reporter for the Australian sceptical podcast The Skeptic Zone. In 2017 the Planet Maynard podcast won the Comedy and Entertainment category from the Castaway Awards.

Performing highlights

The Sydney Morning Herald summed up Maynard's performing career by saying "the man they call Maynard has been many things in his time, each incarnation usually more wacky and distinctive than the last."

His stage name "Maynard F# Crabbes" was first used in the Castanet Club as a tribute to Bob Denver's fictional beatnik character Maynard G. Krebs in the television show The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. It was progressively shortened, first to "Maynard Crabbes", and then to the mononym "Maynard"

Musically, Maynard has made his career out of "guilty pleasures" – songs that are not fashionable, but are nevertheless loved by many people in secret. He described in an interview how this was a reaction against his primary source of fame: "Being breakfast announcer on Triple J automatically means you are one of the coolest people in the country … but I was never comfortable with that and I always liked to celebrate retro culture." Similarly, he goes out of his way to defy fashion in his dress sense: loud Hawaiian shirts are one of his signature items, and he is proud to make the "worst dressed" list on a society page.{{cite news | last = Sharp | first = Annette | date = 27 June 1999 | title = Social workers | url = http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?&docID=news990630_0443_7372 | newspaper = The Sun-Herald | page = Time Out Page 6 | publisher = Fairfax | accessdate = 21 May 2014

Live shows

The Castanet Club was a stage show that started in the steel town of Newcastle in 1982. It launched entertainment careers for several of its players: as well as Maynard there was Mikey Robbins, Steve Abbott (aka the Sandman), Glen Butcher and Play School presenter Angela Moore (aka Shirley Purvis) – often under outrageous pseudonyms such as "Major Bum Sore and the Rough Riders"{{cite news | last = Watson | first = Chad | date = 15 June 2002 | title = His sporting life | url = http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?&docID=NCH02061539K2D1BESMK | newspaper = The Newcastle Herald | page = | publisher = Fairfax | accessdate = 21 May 2014 As the Comedy-Cabaret-Big-Band show grew more successful, they toured nationally, including a sell-out season at the 1984 Adelaide Festival where they won the "Best of the Fringe" award against approximately 300 other performers from around the country.{{cite news | last = Lazarevic | first = Jade | date = 4 July 2009 | title = Freeze Frame: The Castanet Club, Clarendon Hotel, 1986 | url = http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?&docID=NCH0907043T15MA1T7AA | newspaper = The Newcastle Herald | page = Weekender page 7 | publisher = Fairfax | accessdate = 21 May 2014

The Madd Club ran at the Piccadilly Hotel in Kings Cross from 1987 until 1994, with Maynard "surfing the zeitgeist of the bizarre and kooky ... with his onstage antics". The show was consistently popular, filling the 400-seat venue even a Monday night,

In 1994, Fist Me | TV had Maynard and friends spending Friday and Saturday nights leaping around the stage at the popular club Kinselas, introducing celebrity guests, integrating some of his favourite television clips, playing along with a house band, and involving the audience in quizzes and karaoke. Two singles were chosen to sit at the "lovers' table" each night, and at the end the audience voted on whether they should have sex or not.

In 2002, he hosted the eponymous Maynard Show across several Sydney venues.

Radio

Maynard has been working in radio and television since 1981, initially as a volunteer at community radio station 2NUR-FM in Newcastle. From December 1985, he hosted his own program Radio Stupid on radio 2SER in Sydney on Saturday mornings, with a format partly based on The Castanet Club stage show.{{cite news | last1 = Edwards | first1 = Amy | last2 = Gadd | first2 = Michael | date = 20 August 2005 | title = The Word: My Saturday Night | url = http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?&docID=NCH0508201EUN77987U5 | newspaper = The Newcastle Herald | page = H2 page 12 | publisher = Fairfax | accessdate = 21 May 2014

He moved onto a platform with much greater exposure in the midnight-to-dawn shift on the ABC's youth-oriented radio station Triple J, and in 1987 he took over hosting their flagship Breakfast Show. At that time TripleJ only broadcast to Sydney, but in 1990 it began the expansion that took it to all the other Australian capital cities. The network achieved its highest-ever figures in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, often edging out commercial stations in their target 18- to 24-year-old group. Across Australia, he picked up an audience of more than 1.5million listeners with Maynard leading a small group "idiosyncratic announcers" who were regarded as "the soul of the station".{{cite news | last = Jellie | first = Dugald | date = 31 August 1994 | title = Has JJJ lost its soul for ratings? | url = http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?&docID=news940831_0146_8365 | newspaper = The Age | page = Green Guide Page: 8 | publisher = Fairfax | accessdate = 21 May 2014 Maynard's Breakfast Show generally received positive reviews: The Sydney Morning Herald said that it "was consistently adventurous in the face of ever-increasing mediocrity"{{cite news | last = Danielsen | first = Shane | date = 2 May 1993 | title = A Wandering Musical Intelligence | url = http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?&docID=news930502_0064_2312 | newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald | page = The Guide Page 17 | publisher = Fairfax | accessdate = 21 May 2014 while The Age said that his show "provide[d] a professionalism and youthful perspective that you are unlikely to hear on any other radio station."{{cite news | last = Gill | first = Raymond | date = 23 June 1993 | title = Beat of a different drum | url = http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?&docID=news930623_0245_4365 | newspaper = The Age | page = Green Guide Page 1 | publisher = Fairfax | accessdate = 21 May 2014 In 1992, Maynard left the morning show, but he continued on TripleJ with Sunday Afternoon Fever, a four-hour show celebrating dance music and popular culture.{{cite news | last = Dempsey | first = Shelley | date = 15 August 1992 | title = Airwaves: Kids' Stuff For The Dag | url = http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?&docID=news920815_0146_7415 | newspaper = The Sun-Herald | page = 18 | publisher = Fairfax | accessdate = 21 May 2014

This was followed by stints on commercial radio with Newcastle's NEW-FM,{{cite news | last = Squires | first = Tony | date = 16 September 1994 | title = Retro-ctive Git | url = http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?&docID=news940915_0047_9701 | newspaper = The Sydney Morning Herald | page = Metro Page 3 | publisher = Fairfax | accessdate = 21 May 2014 }} at Rhythm FM and as a field reporter for ABC Radio in Newcastle.{{cite news | last = Doherty | first = Ben | date = 12 October 2001 | title = Stand-in Maynard impresses | url = http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?&docID=news011015_0181_3314 | newspaper = The Newcastle Herald | page = 79 | publisher = Fairfax | accessdate = 21 May 2014

His latest show The Dirty Disbelievers started on ABC Digital Radio across Australia in December 2011, with regular guests Richard Saunders, Rachael Dunlop and Jaimie Leonarder plus music segments. It was also made available as a podcast.

Television

Maynard hosted several children's programs, starting on ABC television in the mid 1980s on The Afternoon Show with James Valentine, and in 1992 with his weekend game show Mind Twist on Ten. Other children's shows followed for the ABC, as well as pop-culture projects for the ABC such as 30 Second Special with Jaimie Leonarder (aka Jay Katz).{{cite video | people =Maynard and Katz, Jay (Presenters) | date =27 March 2008 | title =30 Second Special, Frank Bennett | url =http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200803/r235599_947679.asx | format =WMA | medium =Radio broadcast | publisher =ABC Newcastle NSW | location =Newcastle, NSW | accessdate =18 February 2012 | time = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Maynard_Castaway_Podcast_Awards_2017.jpg" caption="''Planet Maynard'' wins Castaway Award 2017"] ::

Podcasts

Since February 2009, Maynard has produced Maynard's Malaise podcast, which he describes as "a journey through pop culture with no clear purpose or destination." It includes interviews with celebrities and sceptical personalities including Douglas Adams, George Hrab, Richard Saunders, Dannii Minogue, Tim Ferguson, Little Nell who played Columbia in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Paul McDermott, and reviews of wide-ranging events including Supanova Pop Culture Expo, Sexpo, and The Amaz!ng Meeting.

Since 2010, Maynard has been a regular reporter and interviewer for the Australian sceptical podcast The Skeptic Zone. His own regular segment is Maynard's spooky action at a distance, named as a tribute to Albert Einstein's early criticism of quantum entanglement. A highlight was when the show's listeners sponsored Maynard to attend and report on The Amaz!ng Meeting in Las Vegas, USA in 2012, where he conducted over 70 interviews in the course of the event. In an interview with Rob Palmer for Skeptical Inquirer, Saunders stated about Maynard, "His specialty is interviewing. He is the best interviewer on any Australian podcast."

Starting in December 2011, his show The Dirty Disbelievers on ABC Digital Radio is also available as a podcast.

In early 2014, Maynard teamed with Tim Ferguson to start a comedy podcast named Bunga Bunga.

Social media

Beginning in April 2020 and continuing through May, Maynard presented a weekly video live-stream from his home. This "One man Madd Club" was broadcast live on Friday nights, with music, dancing, and multiple unnecessary costume changes.

Personal life

Maynard comes from the Australian city of Newcastle, the largest non-capital city in Australia. He comments that he was born in the part of Newcastle hospital that fell down in the 1989 earthquake.

Leaving school after Year11, he worked briefly for the railway and then as a photographer for the mining company BHP before starting his radio career.

In an interview, Maynard said that he is a confirmed bachelor, then he went on to emphasise that "doesn't always mean you're gay, by the way".

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Maynard_with_his_CD_"Maynard's_Classics_'95_-_'00".jpg" caption="Maynard with one of his CD releases"] ::

Published works

;Books

;CDs

  • Maynard F# Crabbes Presents 18 Explosive Hits And One Real Loser released 1990
  • Maynard's Classics '90–'95 (2-disc set).
  • Maynard's Mirrorball Classics '95–'00 (2-disc set), released 20 January 2004 on the Central Station and MSI labels.

References

References

  1. (February 2022). "Cast Away Awards Live Stream". Cast Away Awards.
  2. (20 September 2002). "Cheese patter". Fairfax.
  3. (21 May 2014). "Bunga Bunga Ep 2 Tim Ferguson & Maynard".
  4. Alexa Moses. (4 August 2006). "It's a total eclipse of good taste". Fairfax.
  5. (2 September 2004). "Straight role for a change". The Age.
  6. ""The Castanet Club" review at Ronin Films".
  7. {{IMDb name. 2118752. Maynard
  8. "Castanet Club".
  9. "The Brains Trust: Russell Cheek".
  10. "Cast and Crew".
  11. "ABC profile of Maynard". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  12. (29 April 2011). "Skeptic Zone episode 132".
  13. Maynard. (23 January 2012). "The Dirty Disbelievers". [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]].
  14. "Maynard's Malaise podcast".
  15. M. P. Hobson. "Quantum Entanglement and Communication Complexity (1998)".
  16. (15 August 2012). "George Hrab @ TAM 2012 Las Vegas".
  17. "Celebrating 500". Skeptical Inquirer.
  18. "Bunga Bunga podcast".
  19. (3 May 2020). "Skeptic Zone episode 603".
  20. "Maynard (Public Figure)".
  21. "Maynard F# Crabbes Presents 18 Explosive Hits And One Real Loser". Discogs.
  22. ""Maynard'S Mirrorball Classics" entry at CD Universe".

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living-peopleaustralian-music-criticsaustralian-music-journalistsaustralian-podcastersaustralian-scepticsaustralian-television-presenterspeople-from-new-south-walestriple-j-announcersaustralian-video-jockeysyear-of-birth-missing-(living-people)the-castanet-club