Radio industry in mourning as Triple J legend dies at age 74
The radio industry is mourning the loss of a legend.
Triple J’s longtime music director Arnold Frolows has died aged 74 after a battle with pancreatic and liver cancer.
It is understood that Frolows was diagnosed with the disease just a month before his death.
He died at the Mona Vale hospice, in Sydney’s north, with his partner Christine King at his side.
Frolows was a key figure in the founding of the popular radio station in 1974.
He started his career as a research assistant at the station’s Contemporary Radio Unit, initially called Double J.
The radio industry is mourning the loss of a legend. Arnold Frolows (left), Triple J’s longtime music director, has died aged 74 after a battle with pancreatic and liver cancer
Frolows was a key figure in the founding of the popular radio station in 1974
From 1981 he worked as a presenter and producer, including on the popular Sunday evening show Ambience.
“Arnold joined Double J before it aired, indeed he was one of the very first employees,” colleague Stuart Matchett said in 2014: reports ABC.
“He acquired much of the vinyl that made up the original music library. He programmed the music for many of the shows at Double J.”
He left Triple J in 2003 but continued to work for ABC before retiring from radio in 2014.
“I’d say if you’re still interested [in music] and your ears are still excited no matter how old you are,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald at the time.
‘Triple J always goes with the trends of fashion and style.
‘Questions like: ‘Are we playing too much metal and not enough dance music and Australian hip-hop?’
Station boss Ron Moss praised Frolows for the incredible work he had done at the ABC.
“Arnold has been an excellent example to the rest of us of what is possible at work and that it is possible, even in a public setting, to do something that is really damn interesting,” Webb said in 2014.
In 2005, Webb credited Frolows’ contributions as a fundamental part of Triple J’s rise.
He discussed Frolows as “one of the key factors in building the station’s early success as a true ‘music station'” in a conversation with RadioInfo.
Frolows died just a few days before his 75th birthday and on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the launch of the original Double J.