It seems that Radio 2 has had its fill of big band and swing
music as it drops Clare Teal's Sunday night show (tonight at 10 pm). In doing
so it brings to a conclusion five decades of programmes on the network devoted
to the sound of the orchestras, musicians and vocalists of the big band period.
The programme The Big
Band Sound with Alan Dell was first heard on Radio 2 in September 1969.
Alan continued to host until 1995 and for many years also featured music from
the British dance band era in the companion show Dance Band Days.
Malcolm Laycock picked up the reins in 1995 and by April
1998 the show moved to the now traditional Sunday night at ten slot. Clare Teal
("Clare without the 'i'. Teal as in duck") followed in August 2009. Between
October 2013 and 2018 the show was expanded to a live two-hour show allowing
more features and regular interviews in the second hour. The music policy may have broadened
alittle too much at times - too many covers by pop artists - but it has remained popular. The
BBC's decision to drop it is mystifying.
Those seeking the sound of the big band era can hear Johnny
Beerling on Serenade Radio or listen online to Unforgettable Radio. Meanwhile Clare has promised "good news on the
horizon". (Edit 5-1-21 Clare announces she is to join Jazz FM on Sunday nights starting on 24 January 2021)
From 6 June 1994 here's Alan Dell with an edition of Big Band Era to mark the 50th
anniversary of D-Day.
What turned out to be Alan's last ever broadcast was made on
7 August 1995. During the show Alan recalls the early days of the show which
was the idea of BBC producer Denis Lewell.
Moving on to 21 January 2007 and this show from Malcolm
Laycock. The first half features the dance bands of Jack Hylton, Ambrose, Henry
Hall and the like. He also marks the passing of Gracie Cole.
From 30 March 2008 Malcolm features the music of Ted Heath.
Here's Clare on 1 September 2013 with an hour on the theme
of Come Rain or Come Shine with music from Ted Heath, Tubby Hayes, Tommy
Dorsey, Count Basie etc.
In Clare's show from 20 July 2014 the guest is singer and trumpeter
Georgina Jackson.
Happy Birthday to BBC Radio Newcastle opening 50 years ago
today.
Unusually for a station launch 2 January 1971 was a
Saturday. Neighbouring Radio Teesside was also supposed to have started on the
same date but in the end they squeaked in just a few hours before the end of
1970. The north-east was super served by BBC local stations as Radio Durham was
still on air having gone live in 1968, though it would close in August
1972.
Newcastle had a long history as a broadcasting centre with
station 5NO going on air on Christmas Eve 1922. Three years later on 23
December 1925 the Corporation opened up its broadcasting centre at 54 New
Bridge Street housed in a former maternity hospital. They remained there until
the new broadcasting centre on Barrack Road, dubbed The Pink Palace, opened in
1986. The new radio station was originally based in Crestina House on Archbold
Terrace (originally Archbold House) which it shared with an insurance company
and a branch of the Midland Bank.
The first station manager was an old BBC hand Richard Kelly.
Kelly has joined the BBC in 1948 and was a Newcastle based producer for the
North Home Service whose credits included the variety showWot
Cheor Geordie, Barn Dance and the
ground-breaking Voice of the People with
Harold Williamson. His deputy was programme organiser Ted Gorton, ex-Radio
Sheffield who went on to manage Radio Oxford.
Although the station officially went on air in January like
the rest of the BBC local stations that opened that winter they had all
unofficially appeared at intervals beforehand to provide public service on the
weather conditions and power cuts.
I've no Radio Times
programme schedule for the start of Radio Newcastle but this is howit looked in December 1971.
There's a very familiar name in the line-up, that of Frank
Wappat with The Thirties Club. Frank
was the station's longest-serving broadcaster until his retirement in 2010. The
double Sony Award winning broadcaster is also remembered for Frank Wappat at Large, Songs for Singing, The Gospel Show and his show as part of the BBC Night Network.
An article for the January 1975 issue of Script magazine told us that Frank was a
"leading light of the Al Bowley Appreciation Society and a leading expert
in 30s music. The programme, covering music from the 20s to the mid-fifties,
emerged from a memory lane spot and now is a twice weekly hour-long show. The
club runs its own very successful twice weekly disco at a local venue, where
members are encourage to reminisce. Title of the club Wappat stressed is The Thirties Club, not the
over-thirties. In fact, over 50% of the club is under 30, having first heard
the music on Frank's programme. The editor of the Al Bowley Appreciation
Society Magazine is only 25. It's not treated as old music for old people, but
simply good music, for all ages."
To mark Frank's forced retirement due to ill-health Michael
Poulter introduced this special programme in 2010. Frank died in 2014.
Co-presenter of Day
Off on Saturday morning was Fay Watson who along with Dick Godfrey were the
first voices heard on the station. Dick would later produce the contemporary
music show Bedrock that championed local music.
With Fay on Day Off
is Ian Gardhouse who a couple of years later joined Radio 4 as a producer (Start the Week, Stop the Week and Loose Ends)
Presenting the breakfast show First Thing is news editor Stuart McNeil who later was political
correspondent at Tyne-Tees.
Others on the station at this time were Iain Wilson, Richard
Dunn, Lynne Vaughan, John Guilfoyle, David Bell, Chris Johnson, Eric Caller,
Phil Penfold (an arts reporter also on hospital station Radio Tyneside and on
Radio Durham) , education producer Cliff Kitney, Sylvia Horn (later on Radio
Wales), Linda McCullough (later on Tyne-Tees) and Ernie Brown (also on Radio
Cleveland).
Moving on to September 1972.
Presenting the Saturday morning children's show (obligatory
programming for all the BBC local stations) was Phil Martin. Phil was an
offshore pirate broadcaster at Britain Radio, Radio England and Radio 355
before joining the Daily Express as a
journalist. It was working out of their Newcastle office that brought him to
the BBC. In 1978/79 he hosted the breakfast show AM with PM before joining Tyne-Tees.
The Saturday feature Valin which she "tells you about her week
and introduces her friends" is
actress Val Mclane (When the Boat Comes
In, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and
founder of Newcastle's Live Theatre Company) and sister of Jimmy Nail.
Co-presenting Five-Nightly
with Frank Wappat is Richard (Dickie) Pigg. He'd joined the BBC in the 1960s in
the Transcription Services before becoming a vision mixer. With Radio Newcastle
from the start he took part in one stunt to promote the new service that "involved
an on-air parachute jump. After an extended training course, Dickie was fitted
with a radio mic to provide a running commentary all the way down, later joking
the engineers were more concerned about the safety of their precious kit than
how hard he hit the ground".
Extract from 1977 BBC booklet Serving Neighbourhood and Nation
Other voices you'll have heard on BBC Radio Newcastle in the
1970s include Railton Howes (also long time presenter of Howes Fishing until 2012), Geoff O'Connell, Richard Swallow, Andy
Craig (also on Metro and a Tyne-Tees announcer), Jim Gibbons, George Bayley
(host of sports programmes), June Barry, Howard Cockburn (presenter of North Country), John Lavis, John
Smithson, Gordon Briggs, Eileen McCabe (ex. Radio Durham, later at Tyne-Tees)
and Mike Marsh.
Later broadcasters have included George House, Bill Steel (TV
announcer also at Metro and Century), Julia Shaw (previously on Radio
Cleveland), David Wilson, Lee Brewer, Gerry Jackson, Chris Jackson, Mark Eccleston(with
Club X), Kevin Rowntree (also on
Metro), Tony Cartledge (ex Radio Humberside), Bill Weeks, Nicky Brown, Paul Bajoria (now
produces Radio 4 quizzes such as Brain of
Britain and Counterpoint), Sarah
Miller, Kate Maze, Francesca Williams, Julia Hankin, Matthew Davies, John Oley,
Jonathan Morrell (two spells on the station), Colin Briggs (later a newsreader
on Look North), Tony Fisher
(currently on BBC Essex), Simon Pryde, Dave Porter, Helen Spencer, Martin
Emmerson, Marian Foster (presenter of Garden
Mania), Kathy Secker, Jamie Wilkinson, James Clark, Baz Khinda, Jon Harle
(ex Radio Scotland), Ian Robinson, Gilly Hope, Mike Parr, Paul Wappat, Simon
Hoban, Sue Sweeney, Charlie Charlton, Alfie Joey, Anna Foster, Rebecca O'Neill,
Peter Grant, Mel Crawford, Stephanie Finnon, Ingrid Hagemann, Anne Leuchars,
Lisa Shaw, Michael Poulter, Nick Roberts, Fiona King, Simon Logan and Tamsin
Robson.
And finally I must mention Paddy MacDee who was heard across
the north-east for five decades. He joined Radio Teesside in 1973 then moved over to Metro Radio in 1978 and
re-joined the BBC at Radio Newcastle in the mid-80s. His Sunday Solid Gold show came to an end in March when the schedules
were paired down to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and he retired in July.
Radio Newcastle is marking its 50th birthday with a specialone-hour programme with Simon Logan at 10 am today (with 3 repeats and also
available on BBC Sounds).
Today marks fifty years of BBC local radio on Teesside with
the new station opening at 6 p.m. on New Year's Eve 1970.
The opening words came not from the station manager or the
local mayor but from Selena Thirkell of Jedburgh Street, Middlesbrough, an
usherette at the ABC in Stockton, who'd been selected at random from a bus
queue earlier that day. The second voice was Alf Garnett ranting "I don't
know where bloody Teesside is." Hopefully Mary Whitehouse wasn't
listening.
The station's first manager was Allan Shaw, who'd moved up
from Radio Leeds where he was a keen advocate of extended bulletins of local,
national and international news, something that he brought to Teesside with the
15-minute Teesside Today (7am and
8am), Teesside at One and Tonight in Teesside (both 30 minutes).
Allan relocated to Radio Manchester in 1975.
Shaw's deputy was programme organiser Jim Brady, also
ex-Radio Leeds and the news editor Ian Hindmarsh.
Radio Teesside broadcast on VHF only at 96.6 MHz, though
Rediffusion cable listeners could also hear it on Channel B. The medium wave
transmitter on 1546 KHz, or 194 metres, was added in 1972. In 1984 the station
moved out its original studios on Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough to purpose
built accommodation on Newport Road.
On that opening night the first programme was Teesside Tonight introduced by sports
editor George Lambelle and the news read by Jim Brady. George was an
ex-Northern Echo journalist who'd worked for the BBC North Home Service. He
stayed with Teesside/Cleveland for 30 years. One of the reports is by Eric
Sumner who'd become familiar voice as a newsreader on the station. Another
reporter, Jim Latham, would go to be news editor at Radio Humberside.
Derek Hobson was on hand for the next hour or so to
introduce some of the voices that would appear on the station as well as some
special guests that included Warren Mitchell, Les Dawson, Michael Bentine and
Peter Noone. Derek would present the breakfast show On the Move for the first year, then it was down to Birmingham
where he presented ATV Today and New Faces though he did return to radio
in 1979/80 filling-in for Jimmy Young, John Dunn and Pete Murray on Radio
2.
Later on the opening night the station headed up to midnight
with Dave Williams playing the music including a live contribution from The
Fettlers, a phone call to the Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge and a report from
Middlesbrough police station "are you expecting many villains in
tonight?" There then followed a somewhat bizarre OB from the Fiesta Club
in Stockton in which the planned entertainment had failed to arrive so
broadcaster Mike Hollingworth and former Top
of the Pops dancer Linda Cunningham provided the impromptu cabaret. Mike
then proceeds to talk to some of the clientele where one bloke tells him to
piss off and he asks a young lady "do you come here often?".
Fortunately a large chunk of the first night was recorded
and is online (with thanks to John Foster):
In this blog post I am, in the main, recalling some of the
early voices that you'd have heard on the station. For a great look at the
station's early history can I also direct you to Stan Laundon's website here.
On the first full day of broadcasting, Friday 1 January
1971, presenting Diana at Large is
Diana Lamb. At the time she applied for a job at the station Diana was living
in Saltburn and very active in what was then known as the Confederation for the
Advancement of State Education. Allan Shaw had read about her campaign work and
remembered her name when her letter dropped on his desk. She'd already lived a
colourful life: meeting her first husband on a march against Oswald Mosley's
British Union of Fascists and moving to Stockton where they were both active
Labour campaigners. When the marriage broke down she eventually started farming
single-handedly on a smallholding in Co. Durham. Her second marriage to Sidney
Lamb, who worked at ICI at Billingham, also failed which is how she ended up on
her own in Saltburn. Diana at Large
ran four times a week until 1978 at which time she moved to Devon and later
Cambridge where she continued her campaigning work against local authority
decisions. She died in 2003.
The breakfast show titledOn the Move continued
throughout the decade but by 1981 was known as AM194. As well as Derek Hobson presenters in the 70s included Brian
Smart (ex. Radio Merseyside) , Tony Baynes (also on Radio Durham now enjoying
retirement in France), Keith Harrison (left in 1978 moving to Radio 2 as a
producer e.g. Round Midnight, Two's Best and John Dunn then in-vision
continuity announcer on Channel 4 and onLWT) and Dave Eastwood (ex. BFN, Radio
1 Club, later Piccadilly, City, Luxy and Essex Radio).
Other early shows on Radio Teesside included:
Country Time with
Stan Laundon. A long-running country music show that ran until December 1992.
Stan's history of the show is here. Stan presented and produced other shows for
the station such as Time for Melody, the drivetime programme Home Time and Saturday Sport.
Polished Brass
dedicated to the music of brass bands and presented by Graeme Aldous, ex drama
teacher and Technical Operator for the BBC in Belfast. Left in 1985 and ran an
audio-visual production company.
Focus on Folk was
presented by musician Stewart Macfarlane, aka Big Mac, the frontman of the folk
band the Teesside Fettlers. Stewart also broadcast on TFM and Century. He died
last month.
Housecall a programme
of music together with listeners poems, letters and stories that ran for nearly 30 years. The regular presenter for many years was Mike Hollingworth, and then Bill Hunter until it ended in October 1999.
Page from 1977 BBC booklet Serving Neighbourhood and Nation
Some of the broadcasters on Teesside in the first decade
included:
Larry Ottaway: presented some of the station's sports
coverage and the contemporary music show Saturday Scene. Also founded Pipeline
Records.
Peter Hedley: initially the education producer then general
production in the 70s, 80s & 90s.
Ann Davies: presenter and producer mid-70s with programmes
such as Home Time and All in a Day's Work. Worked for the station
in the 80s & 90s.
Paddy MacDee (pictured above): was heard across the north-east for five
decades. He joined Teesside in 1973 presenting Saturday Scene. Moved up to Metro Radio in 1978 and re-joined the
BBC at Radio Newcastle in the mid-80s. His Sunday
Solid Gold show came to an end in March and he retired in July.
Peter Cook: sports presenter who was a former Look North reporter in the 1960s. Left
in 1978 and in the 90s set up Now &
Then regional magazine.
Ken Blakeson: ex-teacher who worked on education and children's
programmes at Radio Bristol, Radio Teesside (e.g. Saturday morning's Helter Skelter) and Metro Radio. Later a
drama writer with many productions on Radio 4.
Julia Shaw: with the station in the late 70s including the
afternoon sequence Here and There. Later on Radio Newcastle.
Ian Charlton: presenter of Dad's Music playing the hits of yesterday. A show previously
presented by Jack Leonard who also worked for Metro Radio.
Mark Waddington: on Radio Cleveland 1977 to early 80s later
a BBC tv announcer and promotions director
Keith Proud: presenter in the 70s/80s
Colin Bunyan: the longest-serving presenter currently on BBC
Radio Tees having joined Radio Cleveland in 1974 though he did appear on air before that, as a guest on Colin O’Keefe’s River Talk in 1971. He's presented Vintage Vinyl for 26 years.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the station in December 2010
John Foster (pictured above) presented and produced this programme.
In April 1974 Radio Teesside became Radio Cleveland, a name
change to match the creation of the new Cleveland County Council. Staff had
been given the chance to vote on the name change and Cleveland just scrapped
through, though manager Allan Shaw later said he regretted the switch. The
council name disappeared in the 1996 local government review but Radio
Cleveland carried on to August 2007 when it became BBC Tees and, from January
this year, added the 'radio' back to become BBC Radio Tees.
From the Cleveland era comes this promotional leaflet from
around 1982 or 1983.
This is the programme schedule for the week 10 December 1988
by which time local lad Mark Page was on weekday breakfast following his time
at Radio Tees and Radio 1. On mid-mornings was ex-Radio Tees jock Graham Robb.
John Allard was the sports editor at this time and it was he
that brought Alastair Brownlee to the station as a sports reporter and
commentator initially phoning in away-game reports for the station in exchange
for a free match ticket and a fee of £13. So closely associated was he
associated with Middlesbrough FC that he became known as the 'Voice of the
Boro'. He moved over to Century Radio when they acquired football rights in
1995 but he was back at BBC Tees in 2007 until his untimely death in 2016 aged
56. The station broadcast his tribute to him.
Some other voices you'll have heard on Radio Cleveland/BBC
Tees include:
Ken Snowden (ex. Radios Blackburn, Cornwall & York),
Colin Richardson (ex. Radio Devon), Alison Lister, Ernie Brown, David Wiseman,
Tim Ellingford, Alan Wright, Caroline Davis, Bob Fischer, Mike Hill, Alex Hall,
Brigid Press, Harry Blackwood, Ged Robinson, James Mountford, John Caine, Mark
Turnbull, Will Leitch, Pauline Armstrong, Ian Edgar, Paul Frost, John Murray (now a sports commentator on 5 live), Anna Foster (now
also on 5 live), Fiona Steggles, Jonathan Morrell (also on Radio Newcastle), Diane Youdale, John Gelson, Chris Baxter, Mark Seaman, Steve Phillips, Mike Green, Neil Green, Lisa McCormick,
Katherine Hannah, John Foster, Steffan Peddie, Claire Kendall (news reporter), Antony Collins, Matt Bailey and Paul Goffy Gough.
With thanks to Stan Laundon, Colin Bunyan and David Ballard.
Happy 50th birthday to BBC Radio Solent. It launched at 6 pm
on New Year's Eve (was anybody listening?) with opening words from Earl
Mountbatten, the Bishop of Winchester and station manager Maurice Ennals. The
first few hours of broadcasting saw the station undertake a Family Favourites-type link up with
Australia and Cyprus and welcomed in 1971 with an ambitious musical journey
from across Hampshire, providing a challenge for chief engineer Paul Gouldstone.
Launch audio with introduction by David Challis and then Earl Mountbatten.
Radio Solent was based in South Western House on Canute Road
in Southampton. A former railway hotel built in 1865 it was requisitioned by
the Navy in 1939 as HMS Shrapnel. Post-war it became the home of Cunard and the
BBC when they opened a small TV studio in July 1958. Solent's broadcasts on
96.1 MHz VHF only were from a transmitter at Rowridge on the Isle of Wight. Medium
wave broadcasts on 301m and a low-power relay on 188m from Grafton Road in Bournemouth
were added in 1973. In November 1990 Radio Solent moved into the new Broadcasting
House opposite the Civic Centre in Southampton.
The Solent radio car with engineer Pete Sillett,manager Maurice Ennals and deputy David Challis
Three members of the Solent team were veterans of the BBC's
first local station, Radio Leicester. They were manager Maurice Ennals, who
left upon his retirement in 1976, programme organiser David Challis, later
manager at Humberside and Ken Warburton. Ken had a three month attachment to
the Radio 2 presentation department in the summer of 1970 before moving to
Solent. He would later work at BBC Radio Nottingham, back in Leicester as MD at
the ill-fated Centre Radio, programme controller at Radio 106 and one of the
founding directors of Broadcast Media Services Ltd.
Thought the station officially launched on 31 December it
had been making test broadcasts earlier in the month interspersed with live
announcements advising anyone listening of the latest SEB power cuts.
Here's the programme schedule for the second full week of
broadcasting in January 1971.
Robin Worman joined from Radio Leeds and worked for the
station until the early 90s. He would become one of the regular presenters of Solent Today when that started a year or
so later.
Tony Brode was a former Southern
Daily Echo journalist who left Solent to work in the newsroom at Bush House
and subsequently was a poet and author.
The sports editor was Lawrie Bloomfield. Lawrie was a very experienced
newsman who started off as a cub reporter in the 1950s on the Portsmouth Evening News. He made
occasional broadcasts on Radio Newsreel
and in the 60s ran a Portsmouth based news agency. At Solent in 1972 he
replaced Peter Curwin as the news editor when Peter moved to the central
newsroom in London and then was appointed Programme Organiser. Lawrie was Radio
Lincolnshire's second station manager from 1982 and a couple of years later
transferred to Radio Shropshire as launch manager. Retiring in 1994 he was
awarded an MBE and continued to train journalists through the Thomson
Foundation as well as working freelance for his old station. He died in 2014.
Bill Lyon was on through to 1981 followed by a short stint
on Radio 2 as a newsreader. From about 1988 known as Katherine Alexandra
Lyon.
Jeff Link had joined the BBC in 1965 as a studio manager.
After Solent he was a Senior Instructor in the BBC's Training Unit and spent a
number of years as a radio producer and media trainer, running Linkmultimedia
since 2002. Jeff was a regular contributor to Cardboard Shoes' Skues Me on BBC Radio Norfolk.
Others at the station at that time included Patsy Murrell,
who presented Fair Deal the magazine
show for women, Jean Thorpe, Keith Jay,education
producer John Saunders and David Freeman (later on Radio Oxford and Jazz FM).
The news team included Tim Hurst (later on South Today and Central News), Brian Collins and Chris Cramer (later in the
newsrooms at BBC South and then London).
Working behind the scenes as Gram Librarian was Seán Street.
Seán went on to become a station assistant and then presenter on programmes
such as drivetime show Home Straight.
He left in 1976 taking up teaching poetry and drama before joining the new ILR
station 2CR in Bournemouth when it launched in 1980. From 1987 to 2011 he
taught radio production at Bournemouth University and has written extensively
about radio and produced a number of poetry volumes, the latest The Sound of a Room published earlier
this year. This clip of Seán interviewing Sir Arthur Bliss in 1973 has recently
surfaced on YouTube.
The presenter of Link
a programme "for, by and about blind people of the Solent area" isn't
listed but one of the early presenters was Peter White, one of the station's longest
serving broadcasters. Peter has been reporting for and then presenting Radio
4's In Touch since 1973 and on You and Yours since 1999. He was dropped
by Radio Solent in 2006.
Moving on to the week commencing 8 February 1975 the main
change to the schedule is the addition of a new mid-morning show Piper's Tune with John Piper. John left
Solent in 1980 as programme controller for 2CR before retiring to Spain about
10 years later.
On Saturday afternoon is the station's long-running
gardening programme Topsoil. For many
years its presenter was Joe Backhouse but later it was presented by Pippa
Greenwood, familiar to TV viewers form Gardener's
World and Radio 4 listeners to Gardener's
Question Time. Topsoil ended in
2006.
Presenting Beat 'n'
Track on Thursday evening was Gethyn Jones. Gethyn was with Solent from
February 1972 initially in the record library and stayed for 25 years
presenting a number of shows including a rock programme and the weekday
afternoon show. Later at Radio Victory and The Quay he's now a web designer. This
is a short clip from a 1977 edition. You can hear a couple of 1976 shows on
Mixcloud.
A previous presenter of Beat
'n' Track was Richard Skinner who joined Solent in October 1971 having
helped set up Portsmouth Hospital Broadcasting the previous year. Richard went
off to Radio 1's Newsbeat in
1973.
Richard Cartridge (pictured above) is another name long associated with Radio
Solent. He first broadcast on the station in the mid-70s and in the early 80s
hosted the mid-morning show Happening Now
where his on air conversations with Sylv Willoughby were a programme highlight.
He had a secondment to Radio 2 in 1981 as a newsreader and announcer but left
the BBC in the late 80s to tread that well worn path over to 2CR. Back on
Solent in 1991 through to 2006 when he, like Peter White, was also dropped. In
February 2011 Richard was again invited back to Solent presenting a Sunday
afternoon show until earlier this year. He retired in June and spoke to Alex
Dyke about his life and career. He died just 10 weeks later. A Radio Solent
Special Our Friend Richard presented
by his daughter Lucy was broadcast last Sunday.
Here's how the programme line-up looked in the winter of 1980
by which time Brian Collins, Pam Gillard (who'd also been on Radio Humberside),
Heather Lynn (later a TV announcer for the BBC and TVS), Nick Girdler (34 years
on Solent until he left in 2006 and remembered for the kid's show Albert's Gang) and Sandi Jones are
listed.
Sandi Jones started broadcasting with the British Forces
Broadcasting Services team in Cologne which is how she ended up being on the
German end of Family Favourites in
1970. By 1973 she was the main presenter at the London end, taking over from
Michael Aspel. From 1975 she was also heard on the BBC World Service's request
show which ran for ten years. She was on Solent from 1978 to 2001.
Sandi Jones is one of the people featured in this BBC South report on the station from January 1996.
In 2010 for the station's 40th anniversary Neil Sackley
produced this retrospective:
Also on BBC Radio Solent were:
Julian Clegg: presenter of the breakfast show for 22 years
who retired in December 2019. This is his swansong:
Debbie Thrower: newsreader on Meridian Tonight and BBC TV Debbie was on Solent in the early 80s
having moved from Radio Leicester. She was Radio 2's afternoon presenter
1995-98 having taken over the show from Gloria Hunniford.
Dennis Skillicorn: a reporter with a special interest in all
things nautical and presenter of the Open
Waters programme. A tribute to Dennis (who died in 2017) by Neil Sackley is
on the Radio Solent website here.
Lee McKenzie: horse racing commentator (TV , radio and
course) he was on Solent from 1980 to the mid-90s and for a few years
co-presented Sunday Scene with Sandi
Jones.
Pam Spriggs: on Solent in the late 80s having previously
worked for Radio Victory, Radio 210 and Southern Sound. Later on Three Counties
Radio, Pirate FM and Radio Cornwall from where she retired in 2018.
Blair Jacobs: on the early show in the mid-90s before moving
to Radio Humberside.
Peter Gore: late 70s to 1981 then helped launch Radio
Jersey, later on Radio Derby.
Bill Buckley: one of Esther's boys on That's Life he started regular radio work on Solent 1989-91 before
moving onto South Coast Radio, LBC, Radio Oxford and other BBC locals. On Radio
Berkshire since 2016.
Kevin Greening: a station assistant he had a Saturday
morning show in 1988. Left in 1989 for bigger things at GLR and then Radio 1.
Ricky Salmon: with the station 1995-99 having previously
worked for Southern Radio and LBC. For 15 years a newsreader on Radio 2 and
runs the voiceover agency Big Fish Media.
James Lush: mid-90s to 1999 presenter and sports reporter.
Left (dismissed) and went on to form media consultancy business Great
Beginnings Ltd.
Richard Williams: on the station for 18 years before leaving
in 1999 to work for Ocean FM.
Jean-Paul Hansford: on Solent 1995-97 having worked at Radio
York, Ocean Sound, Isle of Wight Radio, 2CR and Fox FM. After Solent returned
to the Isle of Wight then Connect FM and Mood 92 in Jordan. Founded TIBA Radio
in Egypt and Audioforte
Neil Sackley: worked at the BBC since 1997 having previously
been on Radio Northampton, Northants Radio, BRMB and Xtra AM.
Jon Cuthill: on the station 1999-10 before presenting BBC
South's Inside Out current affairs
programme.
Rev Tim Daykin: presented the Sunday breakfast show
2003-2020.
Sally Taylor: had a Saturday show 2007-2011. Long time
presenter of South Today.
Katie Martin: working for the BBC since 2006 and on Solent
from 2009.
Alex Dyke: known for his Wall
of Sound and Bubblegum and Cheese
shows Alex has been with Solent since 2010. He's also appeared on Radio
Victory, Luxy, Ocean Sound, Northsound, The Quay as well as working in the
States.
Richard Latto: came to Solent in 2006 having been at Radio
Devon, Radio Jersey and Plymouth Sound. Presents Stereo Underground and has produced a number of documentaries for
the station including the 50th anniversary programme broadcast today. Also runs
Trophy Gold Media.
Sasha Twining: on Solent 2009-19 previously KLFM, LBC, Sky
News as well as BBC TV and ITV continuity announcer and Russia Today news
anchor. Currently on BBC World Service.
One person who enjoyed two spells at Solent was David
Dunning (pictured above at the Southsea Show). He grew up in Southampton and at the age of 8 was a bit obsessed with
ITV. One day he said to his mum how nice it would be if there was a Southern TV
radio. She told him there was and she believed it was called Solent. It was the
obvious place for work experience when he was 16 and he ended up staying there
moving from tape reclaimer to station assistant and presenter by the age of 18,
leaving in 1987. During that initial spell he was asked to take a turn on Radio
2's weekend early show over four weekends in 1985, probably the network's
youngest presenter. After Solent he moved north to Radio York where he
presented the breakfast show for seven years.
David returned to Southampton in 1995 for a couple of years
as deputy editor and host of Solent Today.
He was responsible for introducing the David Arnold composed LBC jingle package
that had run in London in 1986 and was lying on the shelves. It was still in
use ten years later. Then it was back to Radio York where he also presented the
Late Night North and became news
editor. He then worked for the York Press, as news editor at Minster FM and now
at York Mix.
Here are some Solent jingles and idents from the 70s and 80s.
Recalling his time at Radio Solent in the 1980s David says:
"it was a bit of a broadcasting museum with old Mark 2 desks and bays of
telephone exchange plugs. There were many things that needed two people to
operate like putting one call on air after another. Although South Western
House was steeped in maritime history and had brilliant views of the port, it
was not the perfect place for a radio station. However the range of programmes
produced from there was incredible. Solent
Today, a flagship news programme in the morning and current affairs at
lunchtime with Viewpoint stand out in
my memory as really ambitious".
"The news output in the 1980s was lead by first Steve Panton (ex. Radio Nottingham and went on to manage Radio Solent and then GLR) and then Henry Yelf (who was later editor at Radio Berkshire) Solent News broke story after story and its coverage of the Falklands War was a lifeline to the various military families in the south. The BBC’s America Editor Job Sopel started as a Solent producer as did Special Correspondent Alan Little and PM presenter Carolyn Quinn".
"The presentation team were all easily of Radio 4 standard,
celebrated blind journalist Peter White, already on that network too, amazing
as he felt his way round the controls. A man who taught me so much about talk
radio while I fed the calls through to him from the ops room desk. Gethyn Jones
had an encyclopaedic knowledge of music and was my radio ‘older brother’
calming me down and helping me develop and understand that “Rome wasn’t built
in a day” when it came to radio careers".
"Radio Solent was an interesting mix of Radio 2 and Radio 4
style programming during the day. There were blocks of all talk followed by
entertainment shows. As an SA in the afternoon in the 80s you became a
continuity announcer in the afternoon introducing diverse shows such as All One Family (religion), the fabulous Film Focus with Phil Molyneux and The 78s Show too, a trip way past the
entrance to my memory lane. I also got to do my first news reading too in those
days.Literally ripping it off the printer
and reading it. At 18 I sounded a lot older apparently.My first proper chance to present a programme
came when the stand-in presenter on the Heather Lynn show was delayed.There was nobody else so I went on and
bravely worked my way through a menu of items likely to interest the women of
the south".
David concludes by saying: "I owe a lot to the team of
1981-87. Without them helping me, trusting me, guiding me and sometimes
shouting at me I think my life would have been very different. I’m not sure
it’s possible in today’s BBC to work your way up like that. And the support
continued during my return as output editor which was stressful and demanding
Without the wise words of Sylv Willoughby and Wendy Collins, a 32 year old me
would have probably caused even more chaos than I did".
Some other voices on Radio Solent over the years include: Hugh Ashley, Jonathan Copus, Chris McLoughlin, Kieran McGeary (now CEO at Cork's 96FM & C103), Grant Coleman (sports
editor, later deputy Head of Sport for the English Regions), Nikki O'Donnell
(now a senior news editor BBC East), Gerry Didymus, Andy Moon, Alun Newman, Lou Hannan,
Pat Sissons, Paul Miller, David Allen, Lucy Ambache, Sam Fraser, Steph Newenhouse, Rebecca Parker, Steve Harris.
To celebrate 50 years on air Radio Solent is broadcasting an
audio soundscape at noon today.
I guess we'd all rather forget 2020 so in this post I'm
going back a little further for the annual reviews.
To kick off, just 30 years ago it's the annual wrap-up of
the news as seen through the eyes of the Week
Ending team. It was a year dominated by the end of the Thatcher
administration and the Gulf War. Taking part are Sally Grace, David Tate, Bill
Wallis and Jon Glover. Also featured in the repeated sketches are Russell
Davies, Royce Mills, Chris Emmett, John Baddeley, Neil Caple, Ian Ashpitel and
Alistair McGowan. Year Ending was
first broadcast on 28 December 1990.
Quote...Unquote is
now in its 44th year and for the few years always had a Christmas special. The
edition I've unearthed is from Christmas Day 1980 with the panel of P.D. James,
Dick Vosburgh, Brian Johnston and Sue McGregor. As usual Nigel Rees is posing
the questions. Reading the quotations is veteran announcer Ronald Fletcher.
The station started life as Radio Medway broadcasting on
97.0 MHz VHF (and on Rediffusion Channel B in Maidstone) from studios on
Chatham's High Street. Test transmissions could be heard earlier in December
1970 broadcasting Radio 1's programmes interspersed with local news bulletins
and the occasional music show. Recordings of some of these tests have survived
hidden amongst the Radio 1 archive material that was taped at the time.
Most of the BBC local
stations opened with a word from the manager or some local dignitary but not Radio
Medway. It went to town with a gala night introduced by Henry Hall (he of Here's to the Next Time with the BBC
Dance Orchestra fame), a soundscape of the Medway, a community sing-a-long, a
classical concert and a link-up with Radio 2.
Station manager Harold Rogers - a producer with 30 years
experience on both the Home Service and Light Programme - obviously called in a
few favours to pull together the opening Gala
97. Alongside Henry Hall there was Peter Brough and Archie Andrews, Frank
Chacksfield, Georgie Fame, Bruce Forsyth, David Kossoff, Vera Lynn, Tessie
O'Shea, Dorothy Squires and Wout Steenhuis. A number of national BBC staff
appeared too: Frank Gillard, Tony Blackburn, Alan Dell, Franklin Engelmann,
Roger Moffat, Ray Moore, Keith Skues and Bruce Wyndham. The station's programme
organiser was Denis Lewell, also a former Light Programme/Radio 2 producer, who
had at one time worked with both Henry Hall and Peter Brough
The Medway - a
picture in words and sound of our river, the port and the townships along its
banks - was presented by Trevor Taylor, one of the station's news team. Trevor
would go on to be a network radio producer and for many years produced Gardeners' Question Time.
Sing Along With Us
featured Reg Simpson at the organ and was produced by Geoff Leonard. Geoff's
radio experience was all behind the scenes. He'd joined the BBC as a junior
engineer in 1941 in the Birmingham control room, later at 200 Oxford Street, a
Studio Manager for the Features department and attachments to TV presentation,
TV news and the BFN as a producer before the move to Radio Leeds as a production
assistant and then engineer. Geoff was at Medway from 1970 until his retirement
in 1980. He died in 2004.
Medway's star name and host of the breakfast show was Jimmy
Mack. Greenock-born Mack worked as a sales rep for an insurance company whilst
helping out at the Edinburgh Hospital Radio Service which led to him joining
the team on the LV Comet disc jockeying on the pirate Radio Scotland. Following
the closure of most of the offshore stations he worked for the BBC in Glasgow as
well as making occasional appearances on Radio
1 Club and welcoming Radio 1 and Radio 2 listeners into 1970 on Night Ride (co-produced by Harold
Rogers). He moved down to Kent in 1970 for the launch of Radio Medway where he
was the breakfast guy for six years and then on the mid-morning show for
another two. He headed back north in 1979 to join BBC Radio Scotland, taking
over the mid-morning show from Tom Ferrie. Jimmy also appeared on Radio 2
introducing shows with the Scottish Radio Orchestra and on BBC TV, STV and
Grampian. Joining the newly launched Clyde 2 in 1990 he remained with the
station for the next fourteen years, initially at breakfast (for 8 years) and
then early evenings, weekend breakfast and lastly a Saturday night show. Jimmy
died in 2004.
The first post-launch Radio
Times schedule I've got dates from the week commencing 11 May 1974.
No Jimmy Mack this week, presumably taking a week off.
Looking after things at breakfast was Michael Lucas (is this the same Michael
Lucas who would eventually head up Channel Television?). Michael also presented
Playback on Saturday afternoons which
reviewed the new releases on that cutting edge of technology, audio cassettes
and cartridges.
On weekdays we have an hour of melodic music - later that
year the station would join Radio 2 at this time - and Playride, their version of Listen
with Mother. The magazine show Talk
of Many Things presumably didn't talk about that many things as it lasted
just 15 minutes. The presenter, Coral Haddon, was a one-time regular
contributor to Radio 4's Home This
Afternoon.
The programme at 11.05 on Monday's is fascinating as its
presented by Ted Allbeury. If you know your offshore radio history you'll know
Ted's name. He was the former British intelligence officer who set up an
advertising agency and then got involved in running the sweet music station Radio
390 from the Red Sands Fort. His company, Estuary Radio Ltd, was successfully
prosecuted under the 1949 Wireless Telegraphy Act. Allbeury went on to manage
Britain Radio, renaming it Radio 355 until the Marine Offences Act came into
force in the summer of 1967. By the time he was on Radio Medway he'd already
written his first novel and went on to write over 40 spy stories and thrillers
until his death in 2005. In 1979 Allbeury appeared on Desert Island Discs.
The station's lunchtime bulletins, Midway, and teatime bulletins, Newstide,
were under the editorship of Langley Brown. Brown had long been a print
journalist, starting off in his native Yorkshire on the Halifax Daily Courier. In the 1960s he moved abroad to join the Rhodesia Herald in Salisbury, then later
the Central Africa Post and Times of Zambia. He gained some radio experience
with the Rhodesian Federal Broadcasting Corporation and Zambia Broadcasting
Corporation. Brown became the news editor at Medway when it started. One of his
programme ideas was the monthly M2KA,
devised for and presented by Kent County Constabulary. This recording dates from December 1976.
Notoriously Langley Brown was briefly suspended from his job
following a complaint to the DG that he'd referred on air to PM Margaret
Thatcher as an Ice Matron and mentioned that yet again she'd refused to do an
interview with the BBC despite it having been cleared locally with her campaign
team. He retired from BBC Radio Kent in 1986 and died in 2018.
Extract from 1977 BBC booklet Serving Neighbourhood and Nation
At 4pm on weekdays it
was David Cornet who was on the station for nearly 20 years, in later years on
at weekend with David Cornet's Weekend
and Home in Kent. He joined Radio 3
in 1990 as a presenter and announcer and was still reading the news on the
station until about 3 years ago.
Brian Faulkner, listed here for Sunday Special, stayed with Radio Kent until the late 80s. He
joined the BBC after founding Hospital Radio Medway in 1970.
Presenting what was possibly radio's only answer to The Sky at Night called Observatory was Peter Shoesmith. Quite
how local astronomers looked at the night sky in sound only is unclear. Peter
was a former tv announcer (both BBC and ITV) who would be a familiar voice on
the BBC World Service throughout the 1970s as a newsreader and announcer. Fellow
World Service announcer George Eason also appeared on Radio Medway.
Medway's sports coverage, such as Weekend Special and Out and
About, was under the control of sports editor George Pixley who was with
the station for about a decade. Co-presenting Sportsround with George on Sunday morning was Dudley Moore, not to
be confused with one half of Pete 'n' Dud.
You'll spot the name of Colin Slade on a couple of
programmes: Poster's Pick and the
rock show Overdrive. Young Colin had
got the job after initially hanging round the station making tea and doing tape
reclamation. He'd studied at the Medway and Maidstone College of Technology and
helped out at the local hospital radio. "My first broadcast came about
because of a duff transmitter valve which put Radio Medway off the air,
resulting in an hour's precious needletime in hand. I asked to do a one-off
rock show to use up the needletime. That one show became a series that ran for
over three yearand was really
responsible for my broadcasting career". Colin joined Radio Hallam in 1974
in time becoming the Presentation Controller. He was then at Classic Gold,
Planet Rock and Exeter FM until (albeit temporarily) leaving broadcasting in
2010. He's now a Devon County Councillor and Mayor of Tiverton. Unable to keep
away from radio Colin now has a Sunday afternoon show on Radio Exe.
There were a few Medway broadcasters who made it onto national
radio. Colin Berry was with the station in the early 70s before joining the
promotionsteam at Radio 1 and then in
September 1973 the presentation team at Radio 2.
Barbara Sturgeon joined in 1983 after winning a DJ
competition on the station the previous year. She remained with Kent until 2004
except for the period from January 1992 to December 1993 when she hosted Radio
2's weekend breakfast shows.
Sports commentator Bob Ballard joined the station in 1983
presenting the Saturday afternoon sports coverage Out and About as well as the weekday drivetime show. From Kent he
moved on to Radio York, GLR, Sheffield and the local radio sports unit in
London. From 1997 to 2012 Bob worked a sports reporter and commentator for
Radio 5 live, since then he's worked freelance as RHB Productions Ltd and for talkSport.
Mohit Dutta, better known as Mo Dutta, joined Radio Kent in
1991 before Radio 2 beckoned in 1995 and where, for the next 14 years he
presented the weekend early show.
Jazz broadcaster Helen Mayhew had worked at Radio Devon
before shifting over to Kent in the late 80s. Helen joined Jazz FM when it
started in 1990 and took over from Sheila Tracy on Radio 2's Big Band Special as well as presenting
Radio 3's Jazz Line-Up (both 2004 and
2006). Currently Helen can be heard on Jazz FM's Late Night Jazz.
Making the move from Radio 2 to Radio Kent was Don
Durbridge. A Radio 2 announcer and presenter from 1974 Don had a couple of
spells in Kent in the early 80s and again 1988-92. Read more about Don in my 2012 blog post.
Nick Page, shown above in 1974 schedules as a co-presenter
of the programme for "young people of Kent" Look Out would move to LBC, Radio Wales and then Radio 2 from 1979
to 1992.
Pat Marsh (Photo credit Alison Morton)
Radio Kent's longest-serving presenter is Pat Marsh who
joined the station in 1984. Pat's interest in radio started in hospital radio
in Dulwich then working providing shows for stores in central London and as a
DJ on a cruise ship. Sending an audition tape to Radio Kent's manager Clive
Lawrence he got some holiday cover for John Thurston and in time was given a
Saturday morning show. That show continued until 1992 but by 1986 he was also
on weekday mid-mornings and has continued to present a daily show ever since.
More on Pat's website here.
Here's another 1974 schedule this time for the week
commencing 2 November. There are some small schedule changes that mainly
include the reliance on BBC Radio London to act as a sustaining service. So we
get Richard Vaughan in the afternoons, Robbie Vincent in the evening and some
of their specialist music shows such as Breakthrough
and All that Jazz.
On Saturday mornings Teen
Scene the producer is credited as Rodney Lucas. Rod was with the station
for about 15 years and in July 1983 had the distinction of being the last voice
on Radio Medway and the first on Radio Kent. He's worked for numerous radio
stations, BBC and commercial and his Best Smooth Jazz shows are syndicated
worldwide. He founded The Radio School and the news agency Broadcast News.
Other broadcasters who have appeared on BBC Radios Medway
and Kent over the years include (and this list is by no means exhaustive so
additions are welcome):
Peter Glanville: an education producer later on Radio
Norfolk
John Thurston: with the station mid-70s to mid-80s before
moving to Radio Norfolk.
Howard Leader: actor and broadcaster on Essex Radio from
1983 and then Invicta, Radio Kent and Radio Lincolnshire from 2000.
Clare McDonnell: co-presented the breakfast show with John
Warnett 2010-2014. Previously on GLR, 6 Music and currently on 5 live.
John Warnett: on the station for 31 years, 23 of those on
weekday breakfast, before retiring in October. Here's the last hour of his show
on 24 October.
Dave Brown: on Medway/Kent 1980-87 presenting a number of
programmes but best known for a night time soul show which had grown out of the
earlier The Disco Scene. Also on
Orwell, Saxon, Invicta and Vibe FM. Latterly on Solar Radio. Part of one of Dave's show from 1982 is here on Soundcloud.
Kevin Steele: with the station throughout the 1980s with a
long run on the weekday breakfast show.
Ian McGregor: with Kent 1988-97. Also on Channel Travel
Radio and since 2000 the MD of Just Talking Communications marketing and PR
agency.
Andy Garland (pictured above): joined as a broadcast assistant in 1994.
Presented the Sunday night youth show The
Alternative but is best known for Sunday
Gardening in the late 90s and again from 2007.
Dominic King: born in Kent he worked for a number of
commercial stations in the south east before joining the station as a
newsreader in 2001.
Erika North: with Radio Kent since 2014 having previously
appeared on Heart (1995-2014) and winning a Sony Award for her breakfast show.
Also on Classic Gold breakfast with Tony Blackburn.
Dave Cash: broadcasting legend Dave (pirate Radio London,
Radio 1, Capital, Radio West, Invicta, Capital Gold etc) joined in 1999
presenting Dave Cash Country and The Dave Cash Countdown until his sudden
death in 2016.
Roger Day: another ex-pirate DJ (also UBN, Piccadilly,
Invicta etc) who was on Radio Kent from 2007 with his evening shows networked
across the south east. Programmes dropped as part of the schedule shake-up
earlier this year. Currently broadcasts from his studio in Spain on Caroline
Flashback and Delux Radio.
Daryl Denham: first on Radio Kent 1994-95 before moving to
Hallam. Later on Heart, Virgin, Century, Real Radio, Smooth before coming back
to Kent in 2015.
Julia George: mid-morning show presenter since 2010.
Matt Davison: sports presenter on Saturday afternoon coverage The Sports Hub 1995-2013.
Sean Rowley: Guilty Pleasures founder formerly on BBC Radio
London before starting Saturday night The
Joy of Music shows in 2009 which ended earlier this year.
Some other voices heard on Radio Kent include Dave Austin, Julie First, Bill Dod and Jonathan Witchell.
Looking for present ideas for the radio enthusiast in your
life or wanting to drop hints to your loved ones about what to buy you this
Christmas, then here are some book suggestions published in the last few
months.
A number of radio personalities have taken the opportunity
of Covid-19 lockdown to finish their autobiographies and these have caught my
eye.
Hey Hi Hello: Five Decades of Pop Culture from Britain's First Female
DJ by Annie Nightingale
The queen of Radio 1 celebrated fifty years on the station
this year. Here she tells us about her 60s forays into journalism and
broadcasting, her break into Radio 1 and the stars and musicians she's met
along the way, from the Beatles to Billie Eilish.
Last month Annie spoke to Nick Grimshaw about her career and
favourite music. She speaks to Zoe Ball on Radio 2 later this month.
Voiceover Man by Peter Dickson
Self-confessed "announcer guy, voice of God, gob on a
stick, vocal prostitute" offers this frank and funny review of his radio and
voiceover career.
Here's Peter talking toJenny Kleeman and Luke Jones on Times Radio in September.
Kid Jensen: For the Record by David Jensen
From Jensen's Dimensions and the Rhythm Pals to the Network
Chart and the Flashback 40 the Kid has been on the radio for five decades. More
recently David has been battling with Parkinson's disease and a share of the
proceeds from each sale will go the Parkinson's UK.Available from Little Wing Books.
The Kid spoke to Steve Wright this week.
Commercial Radio Daze by David Hamilton
David has already written about his time on the nation's
favourite in The Golden Days of Radio One
and this latest volume takes the story further and recalls some of the dozens
of other stations that Diddy has appeared on. Initially only available for
Kindle its now out as a paperback from Ashwater Press.
Earlier this year David spoke to Alan Jarvie about his
book.
Re-Run the Fun: My Life as Pat Sharp by Pat Sharp
Don't be misled into thinking that this is Pat's
autobiography, it only bears a passing resemblance to what actually happened
purporting to be an 'untrue' book.
Last month Pat, by the sounds of it sitting in his bathroom, spoke to
Chris Moyles on Radio X.
Life's What You Make It by Phillip Schofield
Although better known for the Broom Cupboard and This Morning the Schofe was on the radio
in New Zealand and enjoyed a four year stint on Radio 1 (1988-92) including achieving
his ambition of hosting the roadshow from Newquay where he'd grown up and
watched the show as a teenager.
Phillip spoke to Chris Moyles in October.
Utterly Brilliant!:My Life's Journey by Timmy Mallett
Before the madness of TV-am's Wacaday, Timmy on the Tranny had started on BBC Radio Oxford then
Centre Radio and up to Piccadilly. One-time helper on Timmy's show at
Piccadilly Chris Evans (Nobby Nolevel) spoke to Timmy on his Virgin Radio show
back in January. Interview on YouTube here.
Other books from radio folk published this year include:
Why Can’t We All Just
Get Along: Shout Less. Listen More by Iain Dale
The Prime Ministers:
55 Leaders, 55 Authors, 300 Years of History by Iain Dale
How Not To Be Wrong:
The Art of Changing Your Mind by James O'Brien
Finally, if you don't already have a copy then please
consider:
Radio Secrets and Radio Moments both by David Lloyd