Andy (Krolikowski) Kay fulfils a sports-mad Adelaide kid's dream rise to a top producer with Seven Network
Andy (Krolikowski) Kay as compere of The Crows Show in the early 1990s, with Adelaide Football Club champion Mark Ruccioto. Inset: Choosing John Doyle and Adelaide's Greig Pickhaver to host Roy and H.G.’s The Dream during the 2000 Sydney Olympics was one of Kay's biggest successes.
Andy Krolikowski embodied a dream rise in Australian television for the son of Polish refugees brought up in the Adelaide suburb of Largs Bay and likely to follow his father and brothers into a local factory job.
Better known as Andy Kay, his dream rise included one of his proudest moments: bringing that most Australian of shows, Roy and H.G.’s The Dream, to television during the 2000 Olympic Games in 2000.
Kay was one of nine children born to Polish refugee parents Ted and Winifred Krolikowski who arrived in South Australia in 1949. More focussed on sport than school, Kay dropped out of St Michael’s College at 15 and worked at Ron Heath Tyres in Port Adelaide, at Des Blackmore’s garage in Largs Bay, then a desk job at the bureau of census and statistics.
Drawing on his talents – “talking to people and bullshitting” – Kay decided on a radio career and landed a junior producing role with Adelaide radio station 5DN in 1977. He faced his father’s fury at him passing up a higher paid job at the ICI factory in Osborne.
Kay began working with 5DN’s top announcers, including Jeremy Cordeaux, Ken Dicken, Nan Witcomb, Tony Murphy and Jeff Medwell. He ended up producing a sports show with a newcomer named Ken “KG” Cunningham. The 5DN program director Marty Smith saw possibilities in the eager young producer – except his surname. “Andy K” eventually changed to Andy Kay.
Kay had the self belief to move from 5DN to Channel Seven Adelaide , initially as a 16-day fill-in television sport reporter, in 1984 – the year he met and married state netball champion Vicki Rundell.
In the 1980s, Kay took on producing a new Seven sports profile pilot show out of Melbourne called Seasons, hosted by another Adelaide television notable on the rise: Bruce McAvaney. Seasons wasn’t picked up despite its story on two unknown young girls called Venus and Serena Williams. The other outcome of the show was Kay employing young producer Annie Johnson who would marry McAvaney.
When the Adelaide club joined the Australian Football League in 1990, Kay hosted official club events and compered Seven’s Crows Show on television. The experience convinced Kay his talents lay behind the camera. In 1992, Kay was offered the role of a researcher on the Barcelona Olympics, heading to the games with Seven Adelaide colleague Max Stevens. That led to producing roles at events worldwide, including the athletics world championships in Stuttgart (1993) and Sweden (1995) and Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
Moving to Sydney in 1997, Kay joined the sports team at Seven’s Epping studios. Next year came the offer from Channel Seven head of sport and BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)-trained Harold Anderson to produce the 2000 Olympics coverage. Kay began building his Olympics team of 500, including bringing presenter Johanna Griggs back to the network.
With 3000 hours of Sydney Olympics sports on the schedule, Kay knew he needed another hook for viewers. After seeing the comedy duo John Doyle and Adelaide's Greig Pickhaver (“Rampaging Roy Slaven” and “HG Nelson”) perform at a black-tie function, Kay realised what he needed. It was a gamble but Roy and H.G.’s The Dream became a ratings juggernaut; an iconic comedy hit with millions of viewers and American network NBC wanting to run parts of the show.
Kay continued to oversee Seven’s Olympics broadcasts, as well as the Australian Open tennis (1999 to 2010), Melbourne Cup (2002 to 2010), the Australian Football League and the Commonwealth Games.
Kay returned to Adelaide as general manager of Channel Seven; as always, valuing the talent of his on-air team.