ANTONY MUSGRAVE DEAN, OBE
1921 - 2010-01
Antony (Tony) Musgrave Dean, OBE, who died on Sunday, 3 January 2010 in his 89th year, was the first Head of the Radio Programme Division created in 1964 following the splitting of the EBU’s single Programme Committee into separate Radio and Television Programme Committees. The Division was later renamed the Radio Programme Department with Tony as Director.
Under his energetic and visionary guidance, the Department began to provide a wide range of services to the new Committee and its Working Parties by supporting the implementation, promotion and production of a rich variety of programme projects and in facilitating the widespread exchange of Members’ programmes. Areas covered included annual seasons of live major concerts, the co-financement of special productions of operas, choral, piano and violin competitions, joint commemoration of major musical anniversaries, the loan between Members of musical materials, international coordination of road traffic broadcasts for motorists and coverage of major news and sporting events.
Tony Dean could be described as being the archetypical British Officer and Gentleman. Born in 1921, he was educated at the famous King’s School in Canterbury, England, and would have continued his studies at Oxford University but for the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. He immediately joined the Army and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Queen’s Bays, one of Britain’s most illustrious cavalry regiments, and rose eventually to the rank of Major. During one of the major battles of the war in North Africa, he was severely wounded and whilst recovering in hospital in Cairo developed a strong interest in radio. Being unable to return to active service, he eventually became the Station Commander of the Forces Broadcasting Service in Nairobi, Kenya, where he remained when the war ended in 1945.
After a period in the film industry in East and Central Africa, during which he was a Unit Director in the making of such famous films as “The African Queen “ and “King Solomon’s Mines”, he returned to broadcasting and became Head of the African Broadcasting Service in Kenya. When this merged with the Cable and Wireless Broadcasting Service (the oldest public broadcasting service in the then British Empire) in 1959 to form the Kenya Broadcasting Service, later Corporation, he became Controller of Programmes. He held the post until Kenya’s independence in December 1963 and came to the EBU in 1964 following a recommendation from the then EBU President, Olof Rydbeck, the then Director General of Sveriges Radio.
Tony retired in 1986 after heading the Radio Programme Department for 20 memorable years. During that time, he established a reputation for total professionalism in meeting the needs of EBU Members’ radio departments, loyalty to his staff and warm friendship. Long after retiring, he remained in regular contact with many of those he had met during his career. His services to broadcasting were recognized by the British Government in 1985 when he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Michael Type
KBS/KBC 1959 – 1964
EBU 1969 - 1997
