Like You've Never Heard It Before

"And now a choice of listening on Radios 1 and 2. For Radio 1 listeners on 247 metres and VHF John Peel is your host while on Radio 2 1500 metres there's the news summary followed by Brian Matthew with Round Midnight."

How quaint this now seems. Flicking between wavebands to continue listening to your station of choice and the nation's favourite allocation of stereo listening rationed to an hour a day last thing a night and Saturday afternoons. The sharing of the scarce VHF/FM resource continued for twenty years until the 1980s when the FM spectrum was eventually opened up. A low-key launch of Radio 1 on FM in London went ahead on 31 October 1987 but the big switch-on for vast swaths of the country took place nearly a year later. The FM switch-on date was 1 September 1988.

Robin Forrest bemoaning the lack of stereo Radio 1 in the
Radio Times letters column of  8 February 1986.

Throughout the day the band de jour Bros were helicoptered around and ceremoniously pushed the buttons in central Scotland, the north and the Midlands. The switch-on for South Wales and the west of England happened on the 29th, other areas followed in November and in December 1989.

The schedule for Radio 1 (and Radio 2) on 1 September 1988

This is most of what I recorded that day up in Yorkshire as 98.8 MHz went live from Holme Moss. First its Adrian Juste with an FM test transmission taped on 29 August and the barker announcing the switch-on on the 1st at 12 noon, though in fact it took place at 1pm. 

The lunchtime Newsbeat follows with Ian Parkinson and Sybil Ruscoe joined by Simon Mayo, though the messing about with left and right channels is lost on my medium wave recording.

With Gary Davies touring the south coast on the Roadshow it was Roger Scott covering the lunchtime show and he hands over to Dave Lee Travis and Bros for the 98.8 switching. We hear more of Roger in super stereo and then Steve Wright with a little help from Sid the Manager. Bruno Brookes (your compact disc DJ) follows before a complete recording of the BBC1/Radio 1 simulcast of Top of the Pops with Wrighty and Goodiebags. These simulcasts continued until August 1991.  

The evening listening continues with clips from the Kershaws, Liz and then Andy.

At 1 hour 26 minutes in its the moment when every radio nerd hit the record button to capture the 5-minute opening jingle sequence in stereo. These recordings come from 2 September and feature Adrian John, Simon Mayo and Simon Bates. At this point you'll gather that Jane Wiedlin's Rush Hour was getting plenty of radioplay. To round it off a couple of clips from Saturday 3 September with Robbie 'If it Moves, Funk It' Vincent and Mark Goodier.

Changes are being made

It was DLT's Network moment. But the Hairy Monster wasn't "as mad as hell" rather than miffed that the writing was on the wall for his Radio 1 career. "Changes are being made here which go against my principles, and I just cannot agree with them,' he told listeners towards the end of his Sunday lunchtime show twenty-five years ago today.

The Guardian reports on DLT's resignation 9  August 1993

Those changes were, of course, the incoming controller Matthew Bannister with a mission to bring down the average audience age of the station. Travis, then 48 years of age and with 26 years' service - along with John Peel the only member of the original line-up still on air at that time - in his own words  "snapped on air and thought, No, tell the listeners before I tell anybody else".

Speaking to The Sun's Piers Morgan  (Saturday 14 August 1993) . "I have sat back for the last two years and watched
 a once great organisation collapsing."

Chances are he could have stayed until the end of his contract in October 1993 but as he'd already spoken to the press, in this case The Sun and a certain Piers Morgan, outgoing controller Johnny Beerling had little option be to let him go immediately. Press speculation at the time was that DLT could have moved across to Radio 2 but he'd already met with controller Frances Line who'd nixed that idea. 

The Independent 11 August 1993

Although seen by many at the time as something of a radio dinosaur DLT's show was still immensely popular, attracting an estimated audience of 4 million. Beerling accepted that he was "a good DJ" but that he "continually showed he was out of touch with the direction in which Radio 1 was going".

The Sunday Times 15 August 1993

For many years DLT's on air resignation seemed to define his career, overtaken, of course, by more recent allegations. But surprisingly there's no recording of that show from Sunday 8 October 1993 in circulation other than the now famous 10-second "changes are being made here" extract, presumably taken from the logging tape; though Paul Donovan of The Sunday Times seemed to be aware that before that link he'd asked his producer Saira Hussain to record it on quarter-inch tape. "DLT clearly has a firm idea of his own place in pop radio history"

Following DLT's resignation from Radio 1 he moved to commercial radio, Classic Gold and so on, though he continued to work for the BBC World Service on A Jolly Good Show until 1999. Claire Sturgess was drafted in to cover the Saturday show and Nicky Campbell the Sunday one. By mid-October Matthew Bannister had signed up Danny Baker for both the weekend shows. Dave Lee Travis can be heard on the online station United DJs.

Here's DLT on Radio 1 in 1992. First my own recording from 12 January 1992 and a fiendish Think Link. Did you get the fourth record?

From my fellow collector Noel Tyrrel is this recording of the 29 November 1992 show with the Face Race quiz and the Garage Sale.

Down Your Local - BBC Radio Durham

The eighth of the BBC's experimental local stations opened in Durham fifty years ago today. It enjoyed just a tad over four years on air, its final fate sealed by the introduction of two neighbouring stations based in Middlesbrough and Newcastle.

In January 1962 Durham had hosted one of the closed circuit experiments that Frank Gillard instigated to convince the government and the BBC of the need for local hometown radio. Six years later when the Corporation was still trying to get political, and financial, buy-in from local authorities   for a full broadcast service it was a toss-up between Lincoln and Durham. In the event Lincoln had to wait until 1980 for its station and another large potential player, Manchester, dropped out of the running so resources that had been earmarked for the city were shifted up to Durham.        

Radio Durham launched on 3 July 1968 on 96.8MHz (it later shifted to 94.5MHz) from studios based in Merryoaks on the southern edge of the city in an old country house called Peak House (pictured above). At the time the property belonged to the National Coal Board and nowadays houses the St Cuthbert's Hospice. 

The station was officially launched by Edward Short, the former Postmaster General who'd just taken up the post of Education Secretary and was a former Durham University student. The station used the theme The Lambton Worm, a tune based on the Durham folklore story of John Lambton. The first station manger was Kenneth Brown who was succeeded by Tim Pitt who later was Radio Carlisle's first station's manager before moving on to manage Radio Sheffield.     

Tony Baynes at the controls

Typical of the early local stations Radio Durham offered a variety of short programmes totalling about six or seven hours each day but in between times dipping in and out of the national programmes on Radio 2 and Radio 4 . It's breakfast opt-out from Today was The Daily Durham and the teatime news round-up Durham Tonight. There were the usual smattering of record request shows, coverage of local events, consumer news, children's programmes, sports news and its own version of Women's Hour called Bird's Eye View. Reflecting the areas' industrial cultural heritage meant the station gave prominence to farming , with regular livestock prices and a weekly review in  The Durham Farmer, and mining with coverage of the Durham Miners' Gala and performances from colliery and other brass bands in The Town, The Place and The Music (and later in Brasstime). Being just a stone's throw away from the university it also offered budding student broadcasters airtime on University Term Time - future BBC news correspondent  Gavin Hewitt was one such student.      

Here's an early Radio Times schedule for the week commencing 5 October 1968.    

   

Best known of the Radio Durham alumni was Kate Adie (pictured below) who spent a couple of years at the station before moving on to Radio Bristol. Her initial broadcast was supposedly reporting on a pigeon race. "My own minor part in this was to be stuffed into a pigeon loft on the outskirts of Ferryhill with the birds' owner."

Other broadcasters heard on the station include:

• Mike Hollingsworth - had worked as a newspaper journalist and for BBC TV in Newcastle and Anglia TV before joining Radio Leicester in late 1967. At BBC Radio Durham he presented the opening programme.  Moved down to London to help set up the General News Service, working as an assistant editor on Today and then running BBC TV's Breakfast Time, TV-AM and BBC1's daytime output. 
• Eileen McCabe - a former Northern Echo journalist who joined Radio Durham and moved on to Radio Newcastle. At Tyne-Tees Television she was a presenter and producer went on to be one of the anchors of Northern Life. Died in 2015.
• Barbara Bailey - presenter of the station's answer to Down Your Way called Barbara's Travels.
• Nigel Holmes - went to work at Radio Carlisle (later Radio Cumbria). Becoming a lay minister from 1985 to 2010 he worked for the Diocese of Carlisle.
• John Forrest - moved to Radio Manchester in 1970 then LBC, Thames TV and BBC Network radio mainly producing religious programmes. Was a director on Songs of Praise.  
• John Jefferson - moved over to Radio Carlisle, became Programme Organiser at Radio Humberside and then station manager at York and Leeds.
• Geoffrey Lally - the programme organiser
• Laurie Giles - a former teacher he was a music presenter with Radio Durham with a particular interest in classical music. Later appeared on Metro Radio and GNR.
• Ken Franks - transferred over to Radio Carlisle
• Tony Baynes - later had a long association with Radio Teeside (Cleveland)
• David Self - listed as presenting Write About in the 1970 schedule below. A teacher and then lecturer he began to work freelance for the BBC mainly as a drama writer and feature maker for BBC Schools.
• Keith Proud - later on Radio Teeside (Cleveland)
• Geoff Coates - moved to Radio Carlisle and was Metro Radio's first Programme Controller.
• John Stoker - later on Metro Radio.
• John Pickles - moved into management firstly as head of radio at BBC Scotland, then station manager at Radio Birmingham (later WM) and Radio Hereford and Worcester
• Chris Lewis - moved to Radio Carlisle (Cumbria)
• Anna Duffy - the programme assistant for education
• Ernie Brown, a news reporter who went on to work for Radio Teeside
• David Broomfield - former Home Service and Radio newsreader who joined the station in 1972 and then moved over to Radio Carlisle. 
• Philip Penfold
• David Ward
• John Reynolds
• Peter Hawkins

This schedule from 30 May 1970 shows in some detail how the station weaved its service in between Radios 1, 2 and 4.

This documentary charts the history of Radio Durham. It appears to date from 1971 but I have no idea of the exact date nor who is narrating.

This schedule dates from 20 February 1971.

Following the opening on Radio Teeside on 31 December 1970 and Radio Newcastle on 2 January 1971 Radio Durham was effectively squeezed out and closed on Friday 25 August 1972. The Government had capped the number of BBC local stations at twenty and it was felt that the proximity of the neighbouring stations would hinder the expansion of the remaining proposed areas. This is how the  BBC Year Book reported the news: "The BBC took the decision to close down Radio Durham and to replace it with Radio Carlisle. It was felt that although Radio Durham had provided an excellent and worthwhile service since its opening in 1968, the arrival of Radio Newcastle and Radio Teeside had proved that there was no need for three stations in the North east. The whole of Radio Durham's area has now been duplicated by one or other of these stations. Radio Carlisle, however, will from its opening in 1973 fill a broadcasting gap in its locality. "

The station closed with a concert recorded a Durham Cathedral followed by The Programme to End All Programmes, 3 hours of  "nostalgia, reminiscences, humour and entertainment from one thousand five hundred and fifteen days of local broadcasting".

With thanks to David Ballard.

Inside the Enigma

Famously it was Winston Churchill who, speaking in 1939,  said of Russia that "it is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma".

By 1988 it was becoming less of an enigma as Gorbachev was extolling the virtues of glasnost in a period of rapid change in what proved to be the dying days of the Soviet Union. In this Radio 4 documentary Erik de Mauny, the BBC's first Moscow correspondent, returned to the country to reflect on the changes in the intervening years since he first reported on Wynne-Penkovsky trial in May 1963. And there's a hint of the seismic events that are just around the corner as he talks about "repressed nationalist sentiments." 

Joining Erik (pictured above) on Inside the Enigma are a number of former BBC Moscow correspondents: Dennis Blakely, Daniel Counihan, Philip Short, Kevin Ruane, John Osman and Peter Ruff as well as the then-current incumbents Jeremy Harris, the radio correspondent and Brian Hanrahan who reported for BBC TV.  

Inside the Enigma was first broadcast on Thursday 28 April 1988 and was produced by Harry Schneider.   

Big Dan

The epitome of US top 40 radio in the 1960s must surely be the deep, fast-talking voice of Dan Ingram and those fabulous PAMS jingles where every link reinforces the station brand. "It's 20 WABC minutes to 7". Cue jingle "Dan Ingram."

It was a style and pace that must have influenced a generation of US jocks and even permeated to Britain via the offshore pirates who were encouraged to listen to tapes of those WABC airchecks.

Dan Ingram's radio career had started in 1958 but his greatest on-air reign was at WABC beaming out across the eastern seaboard from the studios in New York City from 1961 to 1982 alongside other legendary voices like Ron Lundy, Cousin Brucie and Harry Harrison. When the station flipped formats to talk radio he would eventually find a new audience at WCBS-FM until his retirement in 2003. The news of Big Dan's death was announced this week.  

Thankfully there are dozens of recordings of Dan online but here's a scoped aircheck I have from late 1976 with his show punctuated by JAM shotguns.

JAM Creative Production head and lifelong Dan Ingram fan Jon Wolfert wrote this tribute.     

I grew up hearing this man's radio show on WABC New York in the 60s. He influenced everything from my love of radio to my sense of humor. There were many days when listening to him after school was the best thing that happened. Fortunately, in later years I got the opportunity to tell him so and thank him.

At JAM we sang his name in jingles many times. He narrated several of our demo tapes. We even worked together on a syndicated radio show for a while in the 80s.

'Big Dan' was simply the best top-40 DJ of all time. He influenced countless people in our industry, and touched millions of listeners. His ratings in the afternoon are legendary. I'm sure you will find tributes all over the web today that will explain the details, and they are well deserved. There will never be another with his wit, timing, and feel for the medium.. Dan Ingram was truly one of a kind. Our condolences to his family.

Bye now, Kemosabe. And thanks again.

You can read and hear more about Dan on the musicradio77website. Allen Sniffen presented a tribute programme yesterday and there's also a 6-hour Rewound Radio special from 2016. This coming weekend Rewound Radio will feature a selection of Dan's show at WABC and WCBS-FM.  

Dan Ingram 1934-2018

Down Your Local - BBC Radio Leeds

When BBC Radio Leeds burst onto the scene fifty years ago this month the small team of broadcasters were determined to make an impact: from talking budgerigars, the Only BBC Programme That Money Can Buy, the World Tune-gargling Contest and Bring a Disc. But amongst the funny and the frivolous was a commitment to collect and broadcast their own news, at the time a decision that went against the grain of the existing BBC experimental local radios.  The man who successfully got the backing from the BBC bigwigs in London was the first station manager Phil Sidey.

Sidey had first broadcast with the British Forces Network (BFN) in Klagenfurt, Germany before working in a number of journalistic posts including a spell with AP. He joined the BBC in 1956 as a sub-editor for External Services news and moved to television news in 1964 where his roles included news producer on Twenty-Four Hours. At the time of his appointment as manager at Radio Leeds the local radio system, which had just started to roll-out the previous November, was that local news was to be sourced from newspapers and news agencies in the area. Sidey convinced Frank Gillard, then Director of Sound Broadcasting, and others that he "wanted to collect my own news in Leeds and construct my own bulletins, mixing the local with national and international news," a scenario which is now, of course, the norm.

His news team included the Yorkshire Evening Post's Allan Shaw as news editor (who went on to manage Radio Teesside in 1970 and then Radio Manchester from 1975), Jim Brady as sports editor, Derek Woodcock (later station manager at BBC Radio Newcastle and then BBC Radio Bristol), Geoff Hemingway and Stephen Phillips.

A camera crew from BBC1's Twenty-Four Hours was on hand to capture the opening of the new station.

As this page from the Radio Times week commencing 26 April 1969 shows the station pinned its news credentials to the mast. "Leeds and the World. New-style bulletins of international, national and local news, and interviews; with direct lines to Leeds City Police and the West Yorkshire Police Headquarters  and live reports from the Radio Car."

Amongst the names in the 1969 schedules are Liz Oyston who opened the station and worked at Radio Leeds for nearly 20 years, mainly under her married name Liz Ambler.  Experienced broadcaster Rory O'Dowd was also on air at the launch, he'd worked in New Zealand radio and TV for years and Diana Stenson moved on to Radio Manchester in 1970 and later network radio in the city as a producer for Woman's Hour and Gardeners' Question Time.     

Joan Elliott, with her programme "for women to interest the men", was a former local news journalist with the Leicester Mercury and Portsmouth Evening News. Married for a time to Gerald Nethercot - who went on to be the BBC's man in the Midlands and the first station manager at BBC Radio Nottingham - she started to freelance for the BBC and contributed to Sunday Out, for the Midlands Home Service, Woman's Hour and Today.  Moving to the north east she was the woman's editor on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle and began to appear on Tyne-Tees  and the BBC. When her then husband Jeffrey Slack moved to Leeds, Joan eventually joined the new local station. Her show Joan Elliott Calls came complete with a Delia Derbyshire composed theme tune. A further move to London meant that Joan would work for BBC Radio London becoming a senior news editor. On retirement the family moved up to Durham. She died in 1999 aged 81.   

One of Radio Leeds' regular broadcasters in the twenty years or so was organist Arnold Loxam. Bradford-born Loxam had been playing the theatre organ since the 1930s and made many post-war broadcasts on the Home Service and Light Programme. Here he's listed presenting Sit Down and Sing recorded at Leeds City Varieties.

Geoff Leonard'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 moved south again to BBC Radio Medway until his retirement in 1980. He died in 2004.

Listed under Leeds on a Sunday is a young Phil Hayton who'd cut his broadcasting teeth on pirate Radio 270 and in the early 70s went off to Look North and then BBC News in London as a reporter and newsreader. His co-presenter Dave Williams was also an ex-pirate as a newsreader on Radio Caroline North.

Angus Turner, presenter of Sounds Interesting, had worked for the BBC in the Leeds regional office on Woodhouse Lane. Journalist Michael McGowan was, from 1984 to 1999, the MEP for Leeds. Second engineer Bill Holt was also a  folk artist and is here listed as producer of Country and Folk. His engineering colleague John Orson also appeared on air presenting Sweet and Low, he went on to be chief engineer at Pennine Radio. Robin Worman later joined Radio Solent and was the first voice on air when it launched in 1970. 

Not listed here but working at the station in 1969 was Gerald Jackson who moved over the Pennines in 1971 to help launch BBC Radio Blackburn (now BBC Radio Lancashire) where he remains to this day.

The prize for the best title must surely go to Hoof Beat the Friday evening programme on horses and show jumping.

As for Phil Sidey he went back to television in 1970 first as an assistant editor on Nationwide and then as Head of Network Production for the BBC in Birmingham. In 1994 he wrote a superb insight into the early days of BBC local radio called Hello, Mrs Butterfield..., grab a copy if you can. He died the following year.  

Page from the 1978 booklet Serving Neighbourhood and Nation

When Radio Leeds launched on Monday 24 June 1968 its studios were in that testament to sixties concrete brutalist architecture the Merrion Centre; later they moved to Woodhouse Lane and then in 2004 to St Peter's Square. This wasn't the first time that the city had been the home of a local radio service. From 1924 until the early 1930s BBC operated the Leeds-Bradford relay station (initially called 2LS) which carried the programmes of 2ZY in Manchester, and later the Regional Programme,  but with occasional local input. The studios were on Basinghall Street before a move to Woodhouse Lane in 1933 on the site of an old Quaker Meeting House. This would remain the main Yorkshire outpost of the BBC for the next seventy years and for a while in the 50s and 60s had a strong drama production base for the radio network under the direction of producer Alfred Bradley.

1968 was a good year for broadcasting in Leeds. In March the BBC TV regional news magazine from Manchester, Look North, split and a Leeds-based alternative east of the Pennines was launched with Barry Chambers, David Seymour, James Hogg, John Burns and David Haigh. Meanwhile a month after BBC Radio Leeds came on air down at Kirkstall Road Yorkshire Television opened.    

A couple of years after launch (for the week commencing 21 August 1971) the Radio Leeds schedule looked like this.

On Saturday John Helm is listed as the sports editor. John, of course, went on to work for Sport on 2 and then ITV as a football commentator. Co-presenting Sweet and Low is Nigel Fell. Nigel had made his radio debut sending in taped shows under the name John Martin to the pirate station Radio City. He joined Radio Leeds in 1969, staying with the station for 30 years.

For the week commencing 29 March 1980 Radio Leeds had this line-up.

On Radio Leeds AM is former teacher John Hendry, later a freelance actor and now a spiritual healer.  Alongside Liz Ambler on West Riding is Dave Hodgson, most recently associated with Kirklees Local Television, as is Barrie Davenport, listed here as a producer on Concert Pitch and Just Jazz (later he presented Great Northern Brass). Simon Says presenter was Simon Peters who was also a matchday announcer at Elland Road in the 70s and 80s. Simon's co-presenter was Claire Hansbro, later on BBC Radio Sheffield as Claire Kavanagh.

Note that Sports of Good Friday lists Yorkshire broadcasting legend Harry Graton (sic) as one of its presenters.  

Finally this schedule dates from week commencing 16 December 1989, and there are some very familiar names here amongst them Alvin Blossom, Peter Levy who now woos viewers to Look North from Hull and Miles Harrison who moved onto BBC sport, ITV and is now Sky's rugby union commentator.  

Ex-Pennine jock Tony Fisher was on breakfast show duty. He's had an extensive radio career, moving on from Radio Leeds to Radios Cleveland, Newcastle, Minster FM, Century, Kiss 105, Galaxy 105, Invicta, Wyvern, Southern Counties, Hereford and Worcester and currently appearing on BBC Essex. On mid-mornings was ex-Radio Aire's Jon Hammond. The lunchtime DJ is Ian Timms who then went to BBC Radio Devon and is currently on BBC Radio Cumbria.

Two presenters are still on air at Leeds: Gary Copley playing big band and swing music and Tim Crowther who's looked after the Sunday morning gardening slot for over two decades, first with the late  Joe Maiden and now with Graham Porter.     

BBC Radio Leeds is celebrating its 50th birthday this weekend with a Sunday afternoon special narrated by Tim Daley followed throughout the week by a number of special shows from a pop-up studio in the Merrion Centre.

Radio Lives - Paddy Feeny

Listeners in far-flung corners of the globe tuning in their short-wave radio sets to the World Service 30 or 40 years ago would, no doubt, if asked to name a voice who represented the BBC, who was the authoritative voice of Britain, have suggested Paddy Feeny. For 36 years on Saturday afternoons he guided overseas listeners through the myriad of sporting events and fixtures on Saturday Special. “It’s a combination of timing, co-ordination, understanding the subject and a pinch of telepathy" he explained in 1993 just two years before he stood down.

1978 heat of Young Scientist of the Year. The full programme can be found on YouTube

To listeners and viewers at home, however, Paddy's talents as a presenter were aimed at a younger audience; from question master on the inter-school quiz Top of the Form, narrating programmes for schools, presenter of  Young Scientist of the Year, and in the process making a unlikely TV star out of boffin Professor Heinz Wolff, to spinning the discs on Junior Choice.

Paddy was born in Liverpool in 1931 and educated at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire. "From the age of five onwards I knew I wanted to do some kind of job in the entertainment business." His first job was as a film projectionist and he progressed to stage electrician, stage manager and "an extremely bad actor"   Having passed a BBC audition his first broadcast was in the  radio play Duel of Honour for the BBC in Birmingham in 1952 where, he later recalled, his first line was one that years later he still did not understand: "You mean that  you admit that Dujarier was one of your seconds."

A typically jokey biog for Paddy from
London Calling April 1981

After a spell in repertory he joined the BBC's European Services as a studio manager. By a stroke of good luck the sports producer was looking for someone to present the summer sports coverage, step forward an enthusiastic Paddy Feeny. On 9 May 1959 from studio C21 in Bush House he first presented what turned out to be a regular gig for the next 36 years. Eventually Saturday Special extended its hours and became a year round fixture in the schedules  rather than just a summer event. The World Service employed its own sports team but also shared coverage with the domestic sports programmes on the Sports Service (later Sport on 2 and Sport on 5) with commentators regularly welcoming "listeners to the BBC World Service."  Here's Paddy in action on 9 April 1988.

As early as 1963 Paddy began his association with Top of the Form, initially alongside Geoffrey Wheeler for three years on the BBC TV version (1963-66) and then a longer run on the radio version between 1978 and 1985, sharing duties with Tim Gudgin. This edition of Top of the Form dates from 28 October 1980 and features a contest between Hessle High School and Hornsea School and Institute of Further Education.   
    

Records Round the World was a long-running BBC World Service show.
In 1966 and 1967 Paddy co-presented with Judith Chalmers and Maggie Clews
with the show also heard on Wednesday lunchtimes on the BBC
Light Programme

On domestic radio Paddy occasionally presented Children's Favourites and looked after its successor Junior Choice between Leslie Crowther and Ed Stewart (1967-68). He teamed up with Judith Chalmers for Records Round the World (1966-67) a weekly World Service/Light Programme simulcast.  Together with Tim Gudgin and Bob Holness he introduced the Home Service regional opt-out news bulletin South-East (1967). Further radio appearances for the junior end of the listenership included various schools programmes, the Saturday afternoon compendium 4th Dimension  and the Radio 2 natural history quiz Give Us a Conch (1984-85).

Recording the Radio 4 schools programme Springboard (1969-73)

On BBC TV Paddy was best known for Young Scientist of the Year (1966-78 initially billed as Science Fair), a series that must have spurred many a budding scientist to experiment in the school science lab.   

When all this other work fell away Paddy maintained his position at the helm of Saturday Special until his final show on 24 June 1995. He also appeared on the World Service series At Home with... (1984), the sports quiz Game, Set and Match (1993-95) and the station's Feedback equivalent Write On (1987-96).  Here's an edition of Write On from January 1996.

“In over 40 years of broadcasting, I have kept to one maxim,” Feeny explained, “that I am involved in a relationship with one person, not millions. I want the listeners to relate to me as a friend.”

Paddy died earlier this week after a short illness. Mike Costello paid tribute to him on the BBC World Service.

Paddy Feeny 1931-2018