In 1977 my father’s talkback show on Hong Kong’s Commercial Radio was a standout hit and he had ditched a lot of the public relations work which had kept us afloat since his blacklisting over the China Mail affair.
The Jack Spackman Show aired three mornings a week, and Your Girl Reporter was not a listener, instead applying myself diligently to lessons at Island School. But I can confirm the family was as startled as his audience by his next move.
After 20 years in newspapers, it was natural for Jack to think in terms of controversy and he actively encouraged his callers to sound off about the issues of the day.
Sometimes he was met with stony silence. During his first year on-air, police corruption was the big story, with the formation of the Independent Commission Against Corruption but, he believed, people were too frightened and worried to talk about it.
There was, however, a full on-air discussion about Hong Kong and its relations with China and the terms of the lease, its 1997 expiry still a long way off. “We had university lecturers and lots of Chinese phoning in,” he said, in an interview with Zelda Cawthorne for the TV & Entertainment Times.
Jack was always surprised at the number of Chinese listeners he attracted, because he regarded his Australian accent as a problem. But, like many a morning radio host before him, he was keenly aware that he was mostly talking to a diverse group of educated, middle-class women. “And why shouldn’t women have an intelligent programme?” was his radical idea.
“I try to entertain, inform and amuse. I do as much reading as I can about Australia, the UK, the US, Canada etc. Publications they don’t see. I cull bits of information that doesn’t get on to the wire services. I ask their questions.”
He only once kept a story off the air. There was a rumour one morning that a bank in Aberdeen was in trouble and people were waiting outside to take their money out.
“I reckoned that if it was true there would still be a chance to discuss it the next day and, if it was false, repeating the story would do more damage.”
Jack said he was trying to reflect the full gamut of life in Hong Kong and the problems people faced. More than once, his show provided a forum for one of its most insidious and least discussed issues – racism.
“There’s so much tension in this town and one of the functions of a talk show is to release tensions,” he said.
One day an English army wife phoned in to say she didn’t like sharing a hospital ward with Chinese patients, calling them ignorant. Jack opened up on her – “I’ve never felt it necessary to be liked professionally” – and the exchange prompted a flood of calls.
Among them was a Chinese woman who lived on the Peak. She said she was frightened to go out because European children were throwing stones at her and her children.
Many callers were critical of the government and Jack’s producer Karen Turner worked furiously behind the scenes to get officials on the show to address their concerns – not ground-breaking issues for the most part, just the daily inconveniences.
Ian Findley, who was campaigning for better infrastructure on Lantau – although future developments like an airport and Discovery Bay were not what he had in mind – was a guest one morning.
“Jack’s radio show was so good. We had a great session, with Jack getting various department heads from the administration on the phone to answer my charges of ignoring the water crisis, the lack of camping sites with facilities, etc,” he said.
“Between us, we managed to embarrass many departments into getting Lantau on track.”
It was not always easy to get officials on the line and Jack’s frustration eventually got the better of him. According to Zelda Cawthorne, he announced he was pulling the plug at exactly 11.50am on April 19, 1978.
“I’ve had enough. I’m going to quit. As soon as I’ve finished this show, I’m going upstairs to tell my boss.”
Tell him to change his mind
Commercial Radio advertising tagline during Jack’s last weeks on air
It was a local issue, an Urban Council dispute of some kind, and Jack and Karen had been trying all morning to get a spokesperson on the line to balance the fury of the morning’s callers.
“Then this fellow rang me and accused me of being one-sided. That really rocked me. There I was practically breaking my neck to present a balanced view. Was I expected to be totally apathetic? Be another fence-sitter?”
Jack said he was “sick and tired” of the attitude of so many people in the Hong Kong establishment, “all those people who resent public scrutiny and I’m sick of the apathy of the public that allows it”.
“Tell him to change his mind.” That’s how Commercial Radio advertised his show, up until his final broadcast on May 31.
And they did. Jack said those last weeks on air were his best. It was almost as if callers were rising to the challenge, proving themselves to be anything but apathetic.
And, in one of his last shows, a young English woman in a mixed marriage kicked off the best conversation he said he had ever heard on radio.
“She just rang up and laid it all bare. How everything had deteriorated since they moved to Hong Kong. How her husband’s family had intruded into her life to a degree she finally found unbearable.
“Then she said: ‘I’m leaving him. I’m going back home’. The response from listeners – mostly other wives in mixed marriages – was just beautiful. Not just comforting words, but really sensible, down-to-earth advice.
“Afterwards she agreed to go away and think about it, which was more than she was prepared to do when she came on the show.”
As for Jack, there was nothing to think about. Walking back his on-air resignation would destroy his credibility and therefore out of the question. “Oh well. Back to bread and dripping again, as my old mum would say,” was how he put it.
Be the first to comment