In Memoriam John Russell
One of RNTC’s best known and best loved trainers, John Russell, died on Tuesday October 6th 2009. John had known that he was seriously ill since the summer. His death of heart failure was nevertheless a huge and unexpected shock. John had been a regular contributor – both as a guest lecturer and as a course leader – to RNTC’s international courses in Hilversum over many years; most recently the International Course Broadcast Management in May and June of this year. Tony Wilkinson remembers John and what he meant to RNTC…
John cut a dashing figure at RNTC with his trademark bow tie and well-trimmed beard. He had a natural authority combined with an almost boundless enthusiasm and creative energy which ensured that the atmosphere at RNTC would start to buzz a little more whenever he breezed in for yet another course. From his days as an actor he retained the gift of performance – a skill that he used to consummate effect in his work as a trainer for RNTC.
Former radio participants of RNTC’s international courses will remember him in perhaps his most familiar role as ‘Sir John’, the visiting architect and adviser to Prince Charles, arriving to be photographed with his wife/secretary/publisher/mistress in front of the Radio Netherlands building while the radio participants of his ‘Say What You See’ workshop would attempt to set the scene and report the whole event ‘live’ into their portable recorders. As the chauffeur I was a privileged but bit part player in something that went beyond mere training – bringing an extra level of fun, excitement and inspiration to RNTC’s celebrated ‘learning by doing’ and hotwiring the experience into the professional toolkits and memory banks of generations of RNTC alumni.
This piece is taken from the RNTC website at www.rntc.nl
Photo Lilian Odera
But John was much more than a performer. To the work at RNTC he brought a wide-ranging and in-depth knowledge of radio and the radio industry born of extensive experience behind the microphone as well as in station management. Although he’d worked for public service broadcasters most of his experience came from commercial radio and his understanding in particular of commercial imperatives led him to impress on participants not only how hard it was to engage and retain an audience but how much harder to get it back once you’d lost it. It was a wake-up call to many an RNTC participant - journalists, programme-makers and managers - working in a culture of ‘the audience is forever’. But then John was always ready to burst bubbles of complacency and not only those of course participants; as course coordinator I was often made to sit up and think again about the things we were doing by John’s gently challenging observations, and even more often to think about what we should be doing. Long before RNTC started running its international courses for broadcast managers John had suggested that they might be a good idea; he was therefore a natural choice for course leader when we did eventually offer them and it is perhaps fitting that the course he had envisaged and helped to give shape to should be the last he contributed to.
Many will remember John as a great trainer. He was certainly one of the best that I have been privileged to work with. Inspirational and exceptionally creative, he had a remarkable capacity to engage people fully in an activity and impart a sense of professional value and worth to what they were doing. As a participant there was only one option: rise to the challenge.
John loved being here and immersing himself in yet another course with people from all over the world. Over the years he remained in contact with many former course participants. Occasionally on his travels with his wife, Sue, he found an opportunity to meet up with them again. People were important to him.
A course at RNTC was never just a job to John. He was always keen to know what we were doing and what plans we had, thinking of RNTC ‘s future, a few steps ahead, scanning the horizon/looking restlessly forward, prodding us to say what we thought of this or that development in the world of media.
There have been and will be few like him. He will be sorely missed.
Some of you have already reacted to the news of John's death. If you too would like to remember John Russell there is a space for tributes on our Facebook site: RNTC Alumni on Facebook
This post has been taken directly from the RNTC site at RNTC.NL
