Maynard (broadcaster)

Australian entertainer. Maynard, formerly known as Maynard F# Crabbes, is an Australian entertainer, television presenter and radio announcer. He was a key figure in bringing the ABC's youth oriented radio station Triple J to national prominence, and he worked at ABC radio and as a video presenter for many years. He appeared as himself in the Australian film The Castanet Club. Since 2009, Maynard has branched out into providing podcasts, where he has become increasingly involved in the field of scepticism. In addition to his own podcasts, he is a regular featured reporter for the Australian sceptical podcast The Skeptic Zone. In 2017 the Planet Maynard podcast won the Comedy and Entertainment category from the Castaway Awards.

The Sydney Morning Herald summed up Maynard's performing career by saying "the man they call Maynard has been many things in his time, each incarnation usually more wacky and distinctive than the last." His stage name "Maynard F# Crabbes" was first used in the Castanet Club as a tribute to Bob Denver's fictional beatnik character Maynard G. Krebs in the television show The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. It was progressively shortened, first to "Maynard Crabbes", and then to the mononym "Maynard"

Musically, Maynard has made his career out of "guilty pleasures" – songs that are not fashionable, but are nevertheless loved by many people in secret. He described in an interview how this was a reaction against his primary source of fame: "Being breakfast announcer on Triple J automatically means you are one of the coolest people in the country but I was never comfortable with that and I always liked to celebrate retro culture." Similarly, he goes out of his way to defy fashion in his dress sense: loud Hawaiian shirts are one of his signature items,

Maynard hosted several children's programs, starting on ABC television in the mid 1980s on The Afternoon Show with James Valentine, He hosted regular shows on the Foxtel network from its first day broadcasting in Australia in 1995, including Planet Fx, a science fiction variety show that ran for two years on channel Fx, Rewind on the music channel Red, and later as a music presenter on Channel [V].

Since February 2009, Maynard has produced Maynard's Malaise podcast, which he describes as "a journey through pop culture with no clear purpose or destination." It includes interviews with celebrities and sceptical personalities including Douglas Adams, George Hrab, Richard Saunders, Dannii Minogue, Tim Ferguson, Little Nell who played Columbia in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Paul McDermott, and reviews of wide ranging events including Supanova Pop Culture Expo, Sexpo, and The Amaz!ng Meeting. A highlight was when the show's listeners sponsored Maynard to attend and report on The Amaz!ng Meeting in Las Vegas, USA in 2012, where he conducted over 70 interviews in the course of the event. In an interview with Rob Palmer for Skeptical Inquirer, Saunders stated about Maynard, "His specialty is interviewing. He is the best interviewer on any Australian podcast." Starting in December 2011, his show The Dirty Disbelievers on ABC Digital Radio is also available as a podcast.

Maynard comes from the Australian city of Newcastle, the largest non capital city in Australia. He comments that he was born in the part of Newcastle hospital that fell down in the 1989 earthquake. Leaving school after Year11, he worked briefly for the railway and then as a photographer for the mining company BHP before starting his radio career.