Maynard was born in the part of Newcastle hospital that fell down in the earthquake. The son of Howard Cunningham and Gladys Kravitz of Hamilton South, he rapidly rose to the dizzy academic heights of year 11 at the same high school that silverchair went to. A career in the railway beckoned and during his 11 months working for State Rail of NSW was almost hit by a train only twice.
Creativity was what he was looking for when he became a photographer at BHP's Central Research labs at Shortland. While there he took many highly praised photographs of steam and managed to avoid BHP's layoffs by leaving in the 80s, that showed 'em.
Running away to join cabaret legends The Castanet Club he saw London, Edinburgh and Twin Towns.
Radio ready, the manic mic man started at 2NUR in Newcastle then took his "Radio Stupid" show to 2SER in Sydney.
JJJ foolishly liked what they heard and soon he was on weekend breakfast leading to weekday breakfast for 3 1/2 years during which he slept a total of 5 hours.
He started the "MADD Club" at the Piccadilly Hotel in Kings Cross in 1987 and it ran inexplicably on a Monday night till 1994 peaking with a support tour with Bjorn Again in London. Best described as "a food fight with a DJ", public liability won't allow you to see that kind of thing anymore in this country.
And there's probably a good reason for that.
Moved to "Sunday Afternoon Fever" he introduced Australia to Japanese Ska and Mrs Fred Sinatra of Las Vegas. Sacked from JJJ because Barry the boss "didn't like the way he put his personality across on air", this from a guy wearing a stone wash "Steel Wheels" tour jacket. He found work on NEW-FM in Newcastle doing breakfast where he enjoyed ringing Torana owners at ten past six in the morning to explain themselves.
The station was sold and went for that safest possible format known to music, even Ace Of Base were considered "far too edgy" and Maynard moved back to Sydney to begin a career on cable TV after making a pilot TV show "Fist Me TV" on stage at Kinsela's in Sydney. Try getting that through as a "reality" show.
He started on day 1 of Foxtel's FX channel doing "Planet Fx" a sci-fi variety show that ran for 2 years before being moved to Red the music channel where he frightened the viewing public with Red Retro six days a week.
Maynard moved to Channel V where he was for 4 years until they decided they didn't need him anymore. Irony demanded that he be sacked by the same Barry the boss he had at JJJ who followed him to Ch V. See Barry's previous quote about Maynard's "personality" above.
Maynard hosted the breakfast show on 2SER-FM with DJ Sveta as well as breakfast on FBI Radio & FREE-FM during their test broadcasting periods, a golden time for radio in Sydney with a different radio station on the FM band every 3 months.
He is currently at the ABC, where he is their Online Goose. He can also be found working at various nightclubs around Australia, where he practices creative deconstruction.
Against all advice The Madd Club returned in January 2010 and due to his behaviour at Kinselas Nightclub is now looking for a home elsewhere.
Maynard has been a PR Associate for The No Agenda Show and has received a commendation for his work from Media Assassin, Adam Curry.
Maynard's latest show Dirty Disbelievers was heard 6pm weekends on ABC digital radio across Australia during January. It made such an impact that it is unlikely to find a time-slot with the ABC.
Maynard is keepin' it real, by keepin' it wrong.