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Douglas John Mulray (1 December 1951 30 March 2023) was an Australian comedian, radio, and television presenter. Nicknamed Uncle Doug, he grew up in Dee Why on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Mulray was well-known for his bawdy humor and charismatic Larrikin, with his style of free quips, parodies, and "unbridled naughtiness".
In the late 1970s, he started a permanent job in Sydney with the newly formed Australian Broadcasting Corporation's alternative rock station 2JJ, in what would evolve in Triple J, where he built up a sizeable following. In 1982 he was poached by a new station, Triple M. Mulray served as breakfast host, which lifted the ratings share from 2.6 percent to a staggering 18 percent. He was known for his fictional characters, including Madam Zenda, who made outlandish comedic predictions about the future; Jack Africa, a man permanently paranoid who was convinced that chooks were out to get him; the Prime Mincer, a parody of the then Australian PM Bob Hawke; and Gloria, who was based on rival broadcaster Alan Jones. During Mulray's tenure, he brought into the program fellow presenters, writers, and producers, one notable person being Andrew Denton, who worked on the show as head writer. Denton considered Mulray as a mentor, and he later stated that Mulray "single-handedly put FM radio on the map... the first ever to take a commercial radio station to number 1 against the dominant AM radio."
After a break from Triple M, Mulray worked for a brief time in the PM Drive time slot on 2SM with Peter FitzSimons before moving to Sydney radio station 2WS, eventually leaving the station in July 1999. He never regained the ratings he enjoyed at his former station Triple M. In 2014, industry analyst Radio Today rated his breakfast show as the third-best Australian metro FM breakfast show of all time.
Mulray, however, would later return to Nine in 2002 to be a part of the special "Brian Henderson Toasted and Roasted" (even adding a subtle joke about his ban while Packer was in the audience), and also as judge on the 2005 series StarStruck. On Full Frontal, this was parodied with a skit of Mulray hosting a lottery draw, making sexual remarks as the balls drop.
He was also the host of the eponymously titled program Mulray, which ran briefly in the early 1990s on the Seven Network. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Doug was part of the Seven Network Australian Touring Car Championship and Bathurst 1000 commentary team headed up by Mike Raymond and Neil Crompton until Seven lost the rights in 1997.
In August 2008, Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos was re-aired on the Nine Network. Mulray reportedly refused requests from Nine management to reappear as the host. One commentator wrote that "it may be that Mulray, a very smart man, knew he would have been open to a few cruel comparisons between the relatively youthful Mulray of 1992 and the solitary Mulray of 2008. The years have not been particularly kind."
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| 1994
| Nice Legs Shame About the Fez
| Best Comedy Release
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Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards are a set of annual ceremonies presented by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the music of Australia. They commenced in 1987.
External links
Categories: 1951 Births, 2023 Deaths, Australian Radio Presenters, Australian Republicans, Triple J Announcers, People Educated At Manly Selective Campus, Triple M Presenters, Shock Jocks, Television Personalities From Sydney, Radio Personalities From Sydney, Deaths From Liver Cancer In Australia, Deaths From Cancer In New South Wales, People From The Northern Beaches
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