Les Heil has passed away in Queensland. Les was synonymous with “Melbourne’s 3KZ” (AM & FM) which morphed into ‘GOLD‘. He was also Chairman of the Board at Wesgo for a time and had a strong affinity with Adelaide’s 5KA. In recent times he was the Chair of Sunshine FM 104.9 Sunshine Coast.

In 1985, Les received the Commercial Radio Achievement Award – the radio industry’s highest honour at that time. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1988 in recognition of his service to media and to radio broadcasting in particular.
In 1990, under Les, 3KZ (later Gold 104.3) became the first radio station in Australia’s history to convert from the AM band to the FM band. Les also oversaw the development of a new radio network, Sea FM.

Les was inducted into the Radio Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame in 1990.

In association with the Federation of Australian Broadcasters and the Asian Broadcasting Union, Les has assisted with the establishment of commercial broadcasting services in developing countries, mainly in the Pacific region. In the mid-1970s, he spent time in the Solomon Islands working with the staff of the then developing Solomon Islands Commercial Broadcasting Service. He also contributed to the development of New Zealand’s first private commercial broadcasting service, Radio Hauraki.

Story details courtesy of the Rubber Room 66.6FM (Facebook) and Brighton Grammar website.