Radio 5AD's Dick Moore the quintessence of an Adelaide era, fronting Carols by Candlelight and Good Friday appeal
Dick Moore – as Uncle Richard – was also part of 5AD's Kangaroos On Parade children’s programme team.
Dick Moore became the quintessential sound and face of an Adelaide 20th Century era.
Although a radio man with 5AD, Moore was seen for decades by many thousands from 1944 as compere from the start of Carols by Candlelight in Adelaide city’s Elder Park. Police estimated the crowd at the 1954 Carols at just under 100,000 and numbers continued in the 80,000-100,000 range. Moore was educated at Christian Brothers College, Adelaide, left as dux of the intermediate certificate class in 1933 and worked as a sales representative with Bickford’s hotel supplies.
During this time, he appeared in Adelaide Repertory Theatre productions alongside performers such as Marjorie Irving, Ruby Litchfield, Phyl Skinner, Iris Hart and Keith Michell. This early networking led Moore to a position with The Advertiser broadcasting network as a radio announcer at Mount Gambier station 5SE.
A year later, Moore was recalled to Adelaide and rose rapidly to studio manager for the network. During World II, Moore – as Uncle Richard – became part of the 5AD’s team presenting Kangaroos On Parade children’s programme. (He would later be chief Crocketeer for the station Davy Crockett Club.) Moore also compered 5AD late-night Test cricket shows when Australia was taking on England. It used telegrams, primitive sound effects and Vic Richardson (later grandfather to the Chappell brothers) to narrate the action.
Moore took on the key role of compere at Carols by Candlelight, a prestige event attended by vice-regal parties, politicians (state and federal) and many top performers including from opera, piano maestros (such as Victor Borge), rock bands and singers like John Farnham and Colleen Hewett. Kamahl, who’d been discovered by Moore many years before on one of his radio talent shows, was flown in from Sydney by private jet (due to an airline strike) to be a surprise guest at one of the Carols.
Moore also organised another Adelaide institution: the annual Good Friday appeal, first on 5AD and then with ADS Channel 7. A huge undertaking raising millions of dollars, the appeal over 24 hours each Easter had artists, company CEOs, politicians, religious leaders and many more flying in to Adelaide to raise funds by pledges for primarily the women’s and children’s hospital.
Moore finished his working years as public relations manager for The Advertiser. Apart from running the newspaper’s sponsored art exhibition, he managed the major The Advertiser golden year celebrations, spread over all major capital cities, courtesy of a hired commercial jet.
Retired in the early 1980s, Moore indulged his passion for travel and suburban court bench work as a justice of the peace. He was a life governor of the women’s and children’s hospital and the crippled children’s association. He received the British empire medal for services to charity and the public.