Industry Legend Glenn Wheatley Passes Away, Aged 74

Australian music industry legend and FM radio pioneer Glenn Wheatley passed away on Tuesday from COVID complications, ending a five-plus decade career that helped transform the music scene. 

Beginning his career in the '60s as the bass player in seminal Australian rock act The Master's Apprentices, Wheatley went on to become one of Australia's best-known music managers. 

Industry Reacts To The Passing Of Aus Music Legend Glenn Wheatley

The Master's Apprentices had hits with 'Turn Up Your Radio and Because I Love You in the early '70s in a four-year career which had them riding high in the Australian charts, recording at Abbey Road and becoming one of the first big Australian rock acts. 

After the band's demise, Wheatley turned his attention to behind the scenes of the industry, signing on to manage The Little River Band. He steered the band's career to become one of the first Australian acts to crack the American market. The band were one of Australia's biggest acts of the '70s, with Wheatley becoming one of the key figures in the Australian music industry, pioneering the pathway for acts to cross the Pacific. 

Wheatley spearheaded a consortium that started EON FM in Melbourne in 1980, Australia's first commercial FM station. Wheatley sold the station to Triple M in 1985 but re-surfaced in radio in 2013 when he purchased Sunshine Coast station's Sea FM and Mix FM and soon after 2CH in Sydney. Wheatley sold out of 2CH recently however retained an interest in the Sunshine Coast assets. 

In the 1980s after the Little River Band parted ways, Wheatley invested in John Farnham's solo album Whispering Jack. A '60s teen star, Farnham's career had stalled in the late '70s and early '80s, but after a comeback in 1980 and a brief stint replacing Glenn Shorrock at the helm of LRB (which spawned the sleeper hit Playing To Win), Wheatley bet big on his solo career. With a strong belief in both Farnham's talent and the songs on Whispering Jack, Wheatley funded what would become one of the highest-selling albums in Australian music history. Wheatley steered Farnham's career throughout the decades and continued to represent the artist up until his passing.

In the 1990s Wheatley signed a young Delta Goodrem, brokering her deal with Sony Music and becoming a driving force behind her album Innocent Eyes, itself rivalling Whispering Jack as one of the country's biggest ever selling titles, topping the charts for half a year and going 24 times platinum. 

What was a big career of ups also had its share of downs with a ten-month jail sentence in 2007 for tax-related charges, before Wheatley got his career back on track with his EON Broadcasting radio assets and a return to management in a joint venture with his Talentworks management company and Sony's Parade to create Talentworks Parade to steer a roster that boasted Farnham, Jessica Mauboy, Justice Crew, Dami Im and more. His management interests also included sporting stars including golfers Ian Baker-Finch and Wayne Grady, tennis players John Alexander, John Fitzgerald and John Frawley, cricketer Simon O’Donnell, racing legend Peter Brock and footballer Paul Salmon. Wheatley also steered the career of his son Tim Wheatley, one of his proudest musical projects.

Passing on Tuesday after weeks of battling complications from COVID-19, one of the industry's largest characters will be one of its biggest losses. 

Celebrate the life of Glenn Wheatley with this great interview with Brian Nankervis from the Australian Music Vault.