The Battle for Breakfast on 2

In the battle for breakfast radio listeners (it seems almost obligatory to use the alliterative battle for breakfast beloved of headline writers) many of the major protagonists have moved on in the last few months. Christian O'Connell out at Absolute for new adventures down under. Greg in for Grimmy at Radio 1. Emma Bunton leaving Heart London. Shaun Keaveny making his #BreakfastExit at 6 Music. Over at Kiss Rickie, Melvin and Charlie are moving on to Radio 1. Meanwhile Bauer's new Greatest Hits Radio, replacing the City 2 brand this month, sees Simon Ross at breakfast across England. But of course the biggest headlines were reserved for Radio 2's news that Chris Evans was leaving  'Europe's most popular radio programme' for a new chapter at Virgin and that Zoe Ball was to become the station's first regular female breakfast show DJ.

When Zoe starts next Monday she'll only be the station's sixth breakfast show presenter in over 40 years, a statistic that does, of course, includes the 28 years in which Sir Terry was at the helm. I thought I'd take this changing of the guard as an opportunity to look at Radio 2's breakfast shows over its 50+ year history.

In fact we have to trace the history we have to go back a little further, back to the 1940s.

Early morning sequences of gramophone records first appeared on BBC radio during the Second World War as a way of kick starting a war-weary nation and there were also short sessions of calisthenics billed as Up in the Morning Early with exercises for men and for woman complete with piano accompaniment.  

Radio Times 16 January 1964 with Morning Music offering
a "pleasant background of melodic gaiety" 

Programmes titled Bright and Early and the self-explanatory Morning Music ran on the Home Service and the Light Programme from the mid-40s to the early-60s mostly featuring various in-house orchestras as well as other light orchestras and musical combos. Announcers were on hand to introduce the programme but were little heard apart from the occasional time-check

Recordings of some of these shows can be found on the Masters of Melody website. Listening to them you get the clear impression that the BBC wanted nothing raucous. It was all very civilised and designed to gently wake up the country and get them off to work or start the housework just in time to catch Housewives' Choice.

The big impetus for change was the arrival of offshore pirate radio in 1964 and the gradual shift towards personality-driven radio. The BBC responded in August 1964 with a named announcer assigned to each edition of Morning Music  and the introduction of a record show Family Fare at 8 a.m. As well as the recorded sessions listeners were promised the excitement of "some records."    

The Breakfast Special team in 1965

In October 1965 these different morning programmes were all lumped together in one show, known as Breakfast Special, that ran from 5.30 a.m. to 8.30 a.m. Needletime restriction meant that the bulk of the music was provided by orchestras and groups with the addition of singing groups plus some discs. More chat between items was allowed, even if some listeners didn't appreciate the wisecracks (see below) from the programme presenters who were drawn from the rota of continuity announcers.

Even with the introduction of Breakfast Special the notions of personality radio, familiar voices heard day in and day out, and of building a loyal audience  were ones that the BBC either avoided or just weren't bothered about. Eventually, by the time Radio 2 came on the scene in 1967, the team of announcers presenting the show was whittled down to a core of John Dunn, Paul Hollingdale, Peter Latham and, on Saturday morning, Bruce Wyndham. They were supplemented by Ray Moore following the launch of Radio 2. 

Meanwhile over on 'swinging' Radio 1 Tony Blackburn was pulling in large and appreciative audience for his lively new breakfast show. The difference was quite marked as these recordings of Breakfast Special in 1970 with Paul Hollingdale (and a little bit of Ray Moore) show.

The producers of Breakfast Special eventually cottoned on to the fact that listeners loved hearing the same voice everyday and that the show would become part of their daily routine. By the early 70s Ray Moore and John Dunn would take care of the programme for weeks at a time. This was years before the zoo format so Breakfast Special duties not only included presenting the three and a half hour show but reading the news (at least initially, later an additional announcer was drafted in to read the news and sports bulletin) and travel bulletins too, only throwing over to the likes of Vick Walters at the London Weather Centre for the forecast.         

The next big shake-up was in 1972 when Head of Music Mark White asked Terry Wogan to move from Radio 1's afternoon show to Radio 2's breakfast show. Mark was the man who had given the OK to Terry's audition tape back in 1966 and his first shows on the Light Programme. By 1972 the plan was to drop Breakfast Special and split it into two: opening the day with The Early Show hosted by a staff announcer (initially a number of them for a few weeks at a time and then from 1974 Simon Bates and from 1976 Colin Berry) and then Terry with a breakfast show.  

Terry recalls that "I was not to everyone's taste, though, over the wheatybangs. John Dunn had been the previous incumbent. Soft-spoken, urbane, with impeccable diction and manners, he was a perfect English gent; who was this Irish gobdaw, with his ridiculous exercises, upsetting the British Breakfast?"

Those "exercises" were the Fight the Flab feature he'd started on the afternoon show, shades of Up in the Morning Early. Another feature was to follow the morning racing bulletin with what became known as Wogan's Winner though the "nags I back rarely trouble the judge." Over 12 years Terry developed a rapport with his audience that had probably not been seen before, letters, poems and comic song lyrics poured in. Fun was to be made at the expense of BBC management and their bizarre Broadcasting House rooftop rituals and what was on the telly, especially US soap Dallas. There was the Floral Dance, son of Fight the Flab, Hello Chunky and pre-show chats with Jimmy Young.  

Here's an early example of Terry's show from April 1973.

All this ended in December 1984 when Terry stepped down from the breakfast show to prepare for the new thrice-weekly BBC1 chat show Wogan.  

Here's how Terry signed off.

Terry's replacement was a little unexpected, not least by the man himself. Ken Bruce had been working on Radio 2 for a couple of years covering the Early Show and presenting a Saturday late-night show when he got the call from controller Bryant Marriott. Initially unsure, "I was taking over from an icon", he accepted the gig. Others in the frame were his mate Ray Moore and David Hamilton.

Ken Bruce in 1985. "You won't be getting Wogan
with a Scottish accent" 

Starting on 7 January 1985 the show times were rejigged with a later start time of 8am, an odd decision for a breakfast show (in fact a long 8 a.m. bulletin meant that Ken didn't actually start the show until 8.07 a.m.), and ending at 10.30 a.m. in time for the JY prog. The new programme was pretty much music all the way with Radio 2 management reluctant to countenance many other programme elements. Ken recalls that a request to have a selection of newspapers in the studio to allow more current and informative subject matter was turned down "because Gloria Hunniford sometimes reads out snippets on her show". Perhaps the budget was spent on the lyric competition which offered winners a Ken Bruce eggcup!         

Here's Ken in action on 14 November 1985.

The next presenter was something of a left-field choice for Radio 2, that of former Fleet Street editor Derek Jameson. The head of music Frances Line was convinced that Ken was more suited to a mid-morning slot, which is indeed where he ended up and has been ever since, and she seemed to be instrumental in bringing Jameson into the fold.

Derek Jameson interviewed for the Radio Times w/c 5 April 1986

The reasons for Jameson's appointment  stem back to March 1980 and a sketch on Radio 4's Week Ending in which Jameson was described as "an East End boy made bad", who thought that "erudite was a type of glue". He didn't see the funny side of this and took legal action against the BBC. It took four years to come to court and in February 1984 Jameson lost the case and had to pay legal fees of £75,000. Apparently as a goodwill gesture the Corporation started to offer him work such as the BBC2 show Do They Mean Us? and a regular slot on Radio 4's The Colour Supplement. In November 1985 he was asked to cover for Jimmy Young for a week and provoked such a favourable reaction that he was offered the breakfast show.

Here's the first half hour of Derek's first show.  

If listeners had got used to Terry's whimsy and blarney followed by Ken's chuminess and dry humour then they were in for something of a shock with Derek Jameson. Now it was a gruff "mornin', mornin', Jameson 'ere!" and a show peppered with news items and interviews, though not with "the obvious bigwigs. I shall be talking to people who've got a story to tell." The BBC seemingly now had that newspaper budget.

Radio 2 listeners are (mainly) not a happy lot.
Letters to the Radio Times 3 May 1986

Reaction was mixed with letters to the Radio Times going from "raucous, uncouth ...indulging in news trivia and telephone conversations of toe-curling banality" to "a lovely man, full of merry quips and sideswipes at the way things are, is a real tonic."

This clip comes from 18 October 1989.

Programmes from the self-styled 'bunker' saw a step up personnel, both on-air and behind the scenes with former Radio 2 newsreader Vivien Stuart joining Derek as 'weatherwoman' and two (later three) producers, initially Brian Stephens and Anthony Cherry, plus a researcher, with another former Radio 2 newsreader Ruth Cubbin working on the show for the first year or so. There were a number of OBs including this pre-Christmas edition from Gatwick airport on 21 December 1990.

Amazingly Derek Jameson's tenure at breakfast lasted six years - his last show was on 20 December 1991 - before he was shunted off to a four nights a week late-night show with his missus. There were, according to Ken Bruce, two schools of thought on this move. One that Derek and Ellen would make a "quirky on-air team" and would be a way of diversifying production bases as it was to come from the Glasgow studios. Theory two was that they offered him a package "so insulting he would resign" due to the move north, the reduction in hours and the splitting of the fee. Nonetheless. they bought a flat in Glasgow as a base and the late-night The Jamesons ran for five years.       

Libby Purves speaks to Brian Hayes.
Radio Times w/c 4 January 1992

Next up was Brian Hayes, at the time best known to listeners in London for his long-running LBC phone ins and acerbic style. Brian had been introduced to national BBC listeners in 1991 covering for Jimmy Young (something he'd do almost a decade later when Jim was unwell prior to his 'retirement') and as a guest interviewer on Radio 4's Midweek.  This is the start of Brian's first Radio 2 breakfast show on 6 January 1992 which promised "more music and less speech" and adopted the title Good Morning UK.

The attempts at mixing news elements and music seemed, at first. a little half-hearted and missed some of the verbal jousting with callers and guests that Brian had built his reputation on at LBC. Whilst the shows did pick up during the year behind the scenes Terry Wogan was itching to get back to radio , his TV chat show having ended and replaced by the ill-fated Eldorado. As a result Brian's tenure was short lived and ended in the December. By way of consolation he was given a weekly phone-in on the station, Hayes Over Britain that ran for four years and later he appeared on Radio 5 live with a weekend breakfast show and other programmes until 2006.

And so it was that Terry returned to the breakfast show in January 1993 "my heaven it's good to be back....he lied". Here's how he sounded on day one.

For the next 16 years Terry was at the top of his game. The show developed from giving away alarm clocks (WUTWACs), to the near the knuckle Janet and John stories, the faithful band of TOGs, studio support from Dr Wally and then 'Barrowlands' Boyd, a coterie of newsreaders whose lives, real and imagined were woven into the show. 

I've uploaded just over 20 of Terry's shows (many as podcast versions) on YouTube and there are more than a dozen on Mixcloud from myself and other users. The latest upload from me is this complete show from 28 November 2006.  

Although Terry's position at breakfast was unassailable Radio 2 management were thinking about the inevitable day when he'd step aside as far back as 2005 when Chris Evans was bought into the BBC fold. Initially with a Saturday afternoon show, in 2006 he was offered drivetime by Lesley Douglas (the then Controller) and told, according to Evans, "if and when it [breakfast] becomes available, and if you've behaved yourself and things have gone alright on drivetime - who know?"   

Sir Terry bows out (for a second time).
Radio Times w/c 12 December 2009

Wogan later intimated that he would leave the show at the end of 2008 but when the so-called Sachsgate episode erupted he was asked to stay on a help 'steady the ship' for a little while. In the event Terry remained for another year and made bade an emotional farewell on 18 December 2009. It was the end of an era.  

It was inevitable that when Chris Evans took over the breakfast show many listeners would miss the calm, collected tones of Sir Terry and that Evans approach was just too shouty. In an attempt smooth the transition for TOGs that tuned in, Chris started the first show with The Beatles and Frank Sinatra,  assuring listeners that there'd be no "turbulence" and re-introducing Moira Stuart back to the station as the programme's newsreader - she'd read the news and presented overnight shows on Radio 2 back in the early 80s. Also as part of the on air team was travel reporter Lynn Bowles, who'd been such a major part of Terry's shows, and coming over from drivetime Jonny Saunders with the sports news.  

Fears that Radio 2's listeners would drain away proved unfounded but there's no doubt some of Terry's old listeners did tune-in elsewhere on the dial. The show slowly evolved with more studio guests, including the Friday editions packed with live music, 500 Words, CarFest and the continued support for Terry's beloved Children in Need. Sadly a tendency to trample all over the music didn't change. 

This was Chris's first show.          

2018 proved to be a difficult year for Radio 2 with the turmoil over the drivetime show which led to the departure of once of its best broadcasters, Simon Mayo and the shock announcement from Chris Evans that he was leaving to (re)join Virgin Radio. "I crave the uncertainty" he would say on his final show. There was much speculation as to his replacement with money going on Sara Cox (once described back in 1999 as "the next Zoe Ball") who did such sterling work when depping on the show. But instead Radio 2 plundered yet another of the Radio 1 breakfast show alumni, Zoe Ball.

This is Chris's last breakfast show as broadcast on 24 December.  

Zoe Ball's association with Radio 2 started in earnest in 2009 when she covered for Ken Bruce (although she'd first appeared briefly in 2006) and presented a Saturday early show between 2009 and 2012. She was back in 2017 with a Saturday afternoon show that ended just before Christmas.

In 1997 Zoe was employed on Radio 1's breakfast show to fall out of the clubs and into the studio, "blonde, bouncy but also ballsy" according to one headline of the time. Now her role for Radio 2 is critical: holding on to that large inherited audience and being the cornerstone of a new schedule that has, in part, been forced on the station and is, in part, self-inflicted. And in a neat bit of serendipity the 'battle for breakfast' mirrors the 1997 face-off between Zoe at the Beeb and Chris at Virgin. Fascinating times for radio. 

You'll be able to hear Zoe's first show next Monday at 6.30 a.m..  

A Crooning Christmas

With a career spanning seven decades Tony Bennett is the last of the American singers who goes back to the big band era. Most of his contemporaries - Sinatra, Ella, Ray Charles, Mel Tormé, Vic Damone - are sadly no longer with us. He's survived the rock 'n' roll and pop era and has come back time and time again, most recently enjoying success with the Grammy award-winning Duets albums. His most recent album Love is Here to Stay, a collaboration with Diana Krall, was released in September.    

For Christmas in 2001 Tony recorded a show for BBC Radio 2. This was relaxed easy listening with Bennett acting as DJ and playing some of his favourite music from Bing to Billy Joel, from Dinah Washington to Stevie Wonder plus some of his own recordings mixed in for good measure.

Sit back, pour yourself a drink and wallow in some classic music and reminiscences from Tony Bennett. First broadcast on Sunday 30 December 2001. Thank you to Paul Langford for passing this recording on to me.      




And if love this kind of music you were probably a listener to those Sunday night shows from The David Jacobs Collection. Here's a festive themed programme with David from 23 December 2007.  

Arena Radio Night

Both the novelty value (there was an in-vision edition of In Town Tonight as far back as 1954) and the necessity (stereo broadcasts of Top of the Pops or In Concert) of radio and TV simulcasts has long since passed, occasional 'Red Button' broadcasts of Sounds of the 80s aside.

The BBC2 schedule

The Arena Radio Night of 18 December 1993 was one such simultaneous transmission but one with a subtle difference. BBC2 offered pictures and sound whilst Radio 4 gave us a slightly different but complementary soundtrack. The box in the corner, voiced by Peter Cook, would have conversation with the radio, the voice of Josie Lawrence, but you'd only hear both sides if you had your television and wireless sets lined up together. (Memories of the those Saturday morning stereo test broadcasts using BBC tv and Network Three for those that go back that far).

Radio 4's schedule

From the folk behind the long-running arts programme Arena in purported to show "how the two media have competed over the years, and which medium does what best".  In fact it was a celebration of radio with typically quirky mini-features and narration.

The evening's entertainment was headed by an introduction from David Attenborough. In this sequence I've overlaid the radio soundtrack at various points. You'll immediately recognise the voice of the announcer during the programme as Peter Donaldson.

Throughout the night BBC historian Professor Asa Briggs presented a series of films which, borrowing their title from As You Like It, discussed The Seven Ages of Radio. The technical explanations are from Robert Hawes and the readings by Ian McKellen. (This is the first film, the other six can be found on the Arena Radio Night playlist on YouTube.)

In Heard But Not Seen we are treated to a special Letter from America from Alistair Cooke, introduced by Mark Tully.

The short film The Time Signal was an unusual look at the pips and was presented by Dr Carl Dolmetsch, aka 'Mr Recorder'.

Taking a humorous look at early football commentary was Back to Square One, a film by Steve Bendelack. The cast is Philip Pope, Alistair McGowan, Jon Glover, Andy Parsons, Christopher Driscoll and Marion Sumerfield. There are contributions from Alan Green, Robert Hudson and John Motson.

Memories of Sunday lunchtime meals and radio shows were evoked in the piece Sunday Dinner. In this upload I merged the BBC2 and Radio 4 sound.

One of the undoubted highlights of Radio Night was the reading of the Shipping Forecast on both TV and radio, the one and only time this has happened. Doing the honours was continuity announcer Laurie MacMillan. This remains the most viewed upload on my YouTube channel with nearly 163,000 views.     

I'll post more clips as and when I get the opportunity and also overcome some copyright restrictions.

Tune-in to 1978

Tracking down programme schedules for the original ILR stations is a bit of a hit and miss affair. They were never granted any column inches in the TV Times as the ITV contractors had little vested interest in the stations, though ATV, Granada and Scottish did have minority holdings in BRMB, Piccadilly and Clyde.

Local newspapers would carry listings and each station would often publish publicity leaflets or their own mini newspaper.  There was some coverage in the NME as I recall and between 1972 and 1975 we had the subscription-only Script "the magazine on alternative radio"  whose remit covered the offshore and land-based pirates as well as both commercial and BBC local radio. 

Re-titled Radio Guide in 1975, by 1976 it dealt exclusively with the ILR stations and later that year was published by Independent Television Publications, the association of ITV companies behind the TV Times.  As a stand-alone ITP magazine it was short-lived and in 1978 became part of the quarterly Tune-in (a TV Times Extra). In 1980 that too was dropped just on the point when the network of stations was expanding beyond the initial nineteen.

So what was on your local commercial station forty years ago? The Christmas edition of Tune-in features cover stars Olivia Newton-John and Cliff Richard. The Radio Guide, from Beacon to Victory, features dozens of familiar names though I reckon there's no more than a handful still regularly on-air.  

In Concert

For nearly thirty years Radio 1's weekly In Concert provided listeners with the opportunity to hear their favourite bands and singers perform live in front of an audience. They ranged from the famous - Queen, Bowie and Pink Floyd - to the not-so-famous - Splinter, Bell 'n' Arc and Trapeze.

Producing these concerts were Pete Ritzema and Chris Lycett, but by far the greater share of the production duties fell to Jeff Griffin who worked on about 800 programmes. Griffin had been a BBC engineer before turning to music production, on the old Light Programme, in 1964. His first credit, incongruously, was for Mrs Mills and her Mates but he later produced shows such as Swingalong, Ed Stewart's first series for Radio 1 Happening Sunday, David Symonds, Scene and Heard, Savile's Speak-Easy, Sounds of the Seventies, Alexis Korner, Rock on Saturday, Andy Peebles, My Top Ten,  Roger Scott  and The Rankin' Miss P.

In 1991, when In Concert was celebrating 21 years on air, Jeff Griffin spoke to Lloyd Bradley of The Independent about some of the more memorable gigs. Here's part of that article, illustrated with clips from the show.

Led Zeppelin

My main aim was to do a Jazz Club-type rock programme with acts playing in front of an audience, but the BBC thought of rock groups in terms of singles. Live In Concert didn't get off the ground until 1969 when I was talking to Jimmy Page after Led Zeppelin had done a Peel Session. He was moaning that the session format didn't give them a chance to show what they were about, so I explained my idea and asked if they would do the pilot. They agreed. It went very well and after a lot of umming and ahhing my bosses agreed to do a series - but only if John Peel compered. (This clip comes from a 1971 performance that is introduced by Peel).

T. Rex

For the first show in January 1970 I'd booked Family, and Roger Chapman lost his voice that day. After five years telling my bosses the show was a good idea, this was a disaster. Then Peel wandered in and said he'd 'give Marc a ring' - Marc Bolan, who lived up the road from the theatre. Bolan said he and Steve Peregrine had no plans that evening, so we told them to get in a cab! They did 35 minutes, then Family did three instrumentals and Roger croaked his way through a couple of songs. This was pre-Ride a White Swan and Bolan seemed grateful for the exposure.

David Bowie

He was on the sixth show, and it was the only opposition I got from my elders and betters. I was called up to see the Assistant Head of Popular Music and asked why I'd booked him. Rock acts were still greatly mistrusted at the BBC, and their train of thought was that this guy who'd had one hit couldn't possibly play a whole show. I had to convince him that David Bowie was capable of keeping people interested for an hour! they left me alone after that. (This clip comes from a 1971 concert).

Pink Floyd

Despite what's been said elsewhere, this was where Atom Heart Mother got its title. This was the first time they performed it in public and when John Peel asked Roger Waters what the piece was called, so he could introduce it, Waters said he had no idea. Later on Peelie came in with an evening paper with a front page story of a heart transplant patient - the caption was 'Atom heart Mother' and Waters, reading over his shoulder, said 'That's it! That's what we'll call it!' Peelie said 'What's it got to do with music?' and Waters replied 'Nothing, but who cares?' (This clip comes from a 1971 concert broadcast in Sounds of the 70s).

The Faces

In 1973, during the three day week, we knew we were going to have a power cut at nine o'clock and had to put them on an hour early to get done. They agreed, but getting The Faces out of the pub was a different matter. Rod especially, as he had drinks that people had bought him lined up on the bar (he never, to my knowledge, put his hand in his pocket). They went on stage dead on eight, played straight through and after 59 minutes and 50 seconds, during their last number, the electricity went. The weird groaning noise is still on the tape, as every piece of electrical equipment lost power.

Queen

The first recording we did of them is proof that Freddie Mercury used to get stage fright. It was in 1973, before they broke big. They'd had very little live experience and the environment of the BBC theatre was a strange one; it was the size of a club - 300 capacity - yet it was like a concert hall. It wasn't a brilliant show as I'm sure Queen were intimidated. 

Ian Dury

When I had him on, Live In Concert had developed into Sight and Sound, and Ian gave me my first censorship problem. We always felt that people bothering to tune in to the radio show weren't going to be troubled by a bit of risqué language or dodgy lyrics, but television had the 9 o'clock watershed and the TV people were very concerned about a couple of songs on New Boots and Panties, particularly Wake Up and Make Love to Me. I didn't want TV taking over what was designed as a radio show, and Ian didn't want to alter his set. he went ahead and played the songs, and there were only a few complaints. (This clip comes from a 1979 concert).

Off the Record was published in The Independent on 17 October 1991.

In Concert - The Timeline

In Concert ran on Radio 1 from 1970 to 1998. It first appeared on Sunday afternoons from 4 January 1970 but was billed as The Sunday Show - this title was dropped from April. In October 1970 it moved to a Sunday evening timeslot, and a year later was part of Tuesday night's Sounds of the 70s.

From January 1972 In Concert moved to Saturday's at 6.30 pm, where it remained for the next sixteen years. Presenters in the early 70s included Mike Harding, Andy Dunkley and Bob Harris, but staying with the programme the longest were Alan Black and Pete Drummond. There were simulcasts with BBC2, Sight and Sound In Concert, between October 1977 and April 1978 and again in early 1983. In Concert was part of Rock on Saturday in 1980/1 and the Stereo Sequence in 1987/8.

From October 1988, and for the next decade, In Concert started to move around the schedule. Firstly off to Friday nights and then Saturday night from January 1990. By November 1993 it was part of Johnnie Walker's Saturday Sequence, initially on Saturday night but shifting to the afternoon from November 1994. When Johnnie left Radio 1 in October 1995 it was back as a stand-alone show on Saturday afternoon, moving to Monday nights from January 1996 and finally Sunday nights from March 1997.

The final regular In Concert programmes on Radio 1 were in the summer of 1998 featuring Shed Seven and then a couple of Glastonbury highlights. From that October weekly concert performances became part of Radio 2's schedule, though in recent years the number of live concerts has been reduced to a handful at a time. They are, at least, back as 'sight and sound' with coverage on the Red Button and TV repeats on either BBC Two or BBC Four.   

Radio Devolution

This month both BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Scotland mark their 40th anniversaries. Re-launching as fulltime services - well pretty much full-time - in November 1978, a move to coincide with the wavelength changes that saw Radio 4 offer a nationwide coverage on 1500m long wave.

Previously the radio service in each country had used Radio 4 as a sustaining service and opted-out at certain times of the day, usually at breakfast, lunchtime and the early evening. They also provided separate news bulletins and weather forecasts and even their own continuity announcements between the Radio 4 programmes to give a sense that it was all coming from either Cardiff or Glasgow. From 1978 they broadcast for longer on medium wave, with Welsh or Gaelic language programmes on VHF, but still switched over to both Radio 2 and Radio 4 for some key daytime programmes such as The World at One and Woman's Hour.

Here's a little pre-history as to how these radio stations came about.

Radio broadcasting had started in Wales in 1923 with the opening of Cardiff station 5WA on 13 February. Swansea's 5SX was added on 12 December 1924. In Scotland Glasgow station 5SC came on-air on 6 March 1923 followed by Aberdeen (2BD) on 10 October, relay station 2 EH in Edinburgh on 1 May 1924 and one in Dundee (2DE) on 9 November that year. They became part of the Regional Programme in the 1930s and after the war each had their own variations of the Home Service offering a full range of alternate programmes from the London-based national service, from news, sport and classical concerts to variety, comedy and drama. This arrangement continued from 1967 under Radio 4 but with a gradually reducing range of programmes.

In Wales listeners had enjoyed an alternative to Today since 1964 when Good Morning, Wales! started its weekday service with Vincent Kane  - the programme having first started in 1963 as a pre-recorded Saturday morning magazine. Other presenters included news reporter Gareth Bowen  (father of the BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen) who'd would eventually become the news editor for Radio Wales.

In 2013 Huw Thomas provided this potted history of the morning programme.

By the mid-70s amongst Radio 4's Welsh service offerings were Bore Da! with T. Glynne Davies, partial opt-outs from PM Reports called Dateline with George Ashwell and Gerry Monte and for Welsh speakers Cymru Heno with William Owen, the Saturday teatime sports results services in both languages Sports Medley and Chwararon. There was also the weekday mid-morning show that alternated between being a talk show and a record request show called Nine Five presented by, amongst others Wyn Calvin, David Parry Jones, Alun Williams, Vince Saville and Gerry Monte (pictured below). One of the producers was Teleri Bevan who'd go on to be Radio Wales's first editor.

On 3 January 1977 the BBC formally introduced separate services for the country, Radio Wales on 341m and Radio Cymru on VHF, although the dearth of VHF sets meant that about one-third of Welsh language programmes were still carried on medium wave. It wasn't a full-time service so they still carried a high proportion of Radio 4 programmes. On-air changes included Good Morning Wales became one long sequence running from 0645 to 0900 with Kane joined by Noreen Bray and over on Radio Cymru Hywel Gwynfryn hosted Helo Bobol!          

The transfer of 1500 metres long wave from Radio 2 to Radio 4 on 23 November 1978 meant that Radio 4 could offer a full UK-wide service and just ahead of that date, on Monday 13 November, Radio Wales was formally launched as an expanded service with English-language programmes increasing from 20 to 65 hours a week. It was now released from the obligation to carry Radio 4 programmes but a shortage of funds meant that in fact for the first few years it still switched over to the network, either Radio 2 or Radio 4, at intervals during the day.

On Radio Wales the breakfast show was now titled AM mixed news, current affairs and pop music (it was some years before it reverted back to Good Morning Wales) initially with Anita Morgan and then for many years with Chris Stuart. Vincent Kane now invited listeners to Meet for Lunch and others on air included Mike Flynn, Maureen Staffer, Patrick Hannan, Dan Damon, Gerry Monte, Noreen Bray, former Wales Today presenter Brian Hoey, Mari Griffith, Gilbert John, Ian Skidmore, Peter Walker and, of course, Alun Williams who'd been heard in Wales since the 1950s. Also appearing were Cliff Morgan, Wynford Vaughan-Thomas and former rugby commentator G.V. Wynne-Jones ('Geevers'). Heading up the continuity team was Frank Lincoln.   

In this edition of Radio Greats from 2014 Roy Noble looks back at the career of Vincent Kane.

North of the border Radio 4 in Scotland was rebadged as Radio Scotland on 31 December 1973 to coincide with the start of the new morning news and current affairs sequence Good Morning, Scotland. It can't have been a coincidence that this was the same day that Radio Clyde launched.

Despite the name change it was still essentially offering Radio 4 programmes with Scottish opt-outs during the day. The kind of programming on offer not only included the Today alternative Good Morning, Scotland with John Milne and David Findlay, there was the midday entertainment  show Twelve Noon with a different daily theme and a rota of presenters including Ken Sykora, Gerry Slevin, Michael Elder, Robin Richardson, Alastair Clare and Bob Docherty. The partial opt-out from PM Reports was North Beat plus there was Saturday sports coverage on Sportsreel, a smattering of Gaelic programmes and some music shows including Studio One Concert and, inevitably, Scottish country dancing.

Meanwhile BBC Scotland opened a number of VHF-only community stations broadcasting for just a few hours a day when not carrying the Radio Scotland/Radio 4 programmes. Starting in 1976 there was Radio Highland from Inverness, BBC Radio Aberdeen, and, in 1977 Radio Shetland and Radio Orkney.

Radio Times billing Wednesday 27 August 1980

The new revitalised Radio Scotland that launched on 23 November 1978 offered, in the words of the BBC handbook "a single service for all Scotland, to speak with a distinctive Scottish accent, to be the authoritative voice of Scottish News and Current Affairs and to be more popular than the previous Radio Scotland opt-out Service from Radio 4". Thirty new production staff were recruited and the news team moved to new studios in Edinburgh.   

Marking the new service was an opening night concert simulcast on Radio Scotland and BBC1 with Andy Cameron and Tom Ferrie live from the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow introducing acts that included the Brotherhood of Man, Alan Stewart, Scott Fitzgerald and Norman Maclean.

In this clip the continuity announcer  is one Ken Bruce who hands over to Peter Easton.

Other presenters heard on the station in the first couple of years included Jimmy Mack, Neville Garden, Gerry MacKenzie with The Tartan Terror Show, Iain Purdon, Joanna Hickson, David Findlay, John Milne, Margaret Collins, Ross Muir, Mary Marquis, Ian Aldred, Sheena McDonald, Gerry Davis, Finlay J Macdonald , Howard Lockhart who'd originally been a BBC announcer back in the 30s, Ross Finlay, Robbie Shepherd, Charles Nove and, of course, Jim MacLeod with Take the Floor.  Radio Scotland was also able to offer an alternative to Saturday's afternoon's Sport on 2 with Sportsound whose presenters included former actor and footballer Brian Marjoribanks. The station also bagged Radio 2's John Dunn for the first few months of its existence to present Saturday Bonanza (later Ken Bruce would also present this show).  

Both stations have a number of programmes celebrating their four decades of broadcasting. On Radio Wales listen out for:

Gareth Gwynn's Twisted History of BBC Radio Wales. Part 1 was broadcast this week, with part 2 following next Monday.

I Was There...When Radio Wales Began next Tuesday evening at 6.30 pm

Radio Greats: Alun Williams a repeat of the 2012 profile

Radio Greats: Patrick Hannan a repeat of the 2015 profile

Radio Greats: Ray Gavell a repeat of this 2015 profile on the former rugby player turned broadcaster

There's also an evening of music and comedy on 22 November at the Grand Theatre in Swansea to be broadcast at a later date.

On Radio Scotland you can hear:

Radio Roots a 2-part look at Scottish comedy presented by Ian Pattison

40-LOVE a feature about "the love shared in the families of some very special Scottish 40-year-olds"

Boogie Nights on the 1978 disco explosion as seen from Scotland

The Afternoon Show on 23 November with Janice Forsyth and guests

Take the Floor with a special ceilidh from Glasgow Barrowland

Take the Floorwith Robbie Shepherd and a 40th birthday special Reel Blend

Radio 1's New Broom

The summer of 1993 and outgoing Radio 1 controller Johnny Beerling is trying to keep his in-tray clear ahead of his departure that coming autumn.  Beerling is a BBC-man to the core, starting with the Corporation in the late 50s as a TO and later studio manager. He'd produced music shows for the Light Programme and Radio 1 - there on day one producing Tony Blackburn's opening show - moving up the executive ladder to become the station boss in 1985. In June 1993 it was announced that Johnny would be stepping down later that giving the incoming controller time to set his or her own schedule for the autumn.

The following month it was announced that Matthew Bannister had bagged the top job. Bannister brought experience from both the BBC and commercial sector with time at Radio Nottingham, Radio 1's Newsbeat, Capital Radio and the transformation of Radio London into GLR. Director-General John Birt had then hired Matthew to co-ordinate the internal task forces that were considering the charter renewal and it was probably that involvement the triggered alarm bells amongst some of the time-served veteran DJs. As a sign of things to come during his interview for the Radio 1 controllership BBC chairman Marmaduke Hussey had asked Bannister: "How do you feel about being Mr Nasty in the national newspapers".  

Under John Birt's stewardship the BBC was wrestling with that charter renewal, the introduction of internal markets and for radio, increased competition from commercial radio. There was talk, in the corporate blueprint  Extending Choice, of Radio 1 being "more informed and intelligent" and that any speech content should be "more demanding"  whilst at the same time ensuring that it stayed relevant to a younger audience. The issue was that people who'd been listening to Radio 1 since the late 60s and early 70s were still listening, myself included, and some of the DJs were voices from that period too. The problem for Radio 1 and the listeners that had grown up with the station was summed up in a July 1993 article by Giles Smith of The Independent: "Honouring them while keeping the kiddies happy, Radio 1 is forced to chase from side to side, and you can hardly blame if for occasionally looking slightly giddy".

In the same article Simon Mayo addressed the dilemma of Radio 1 distinctiveness: "We have to able to argue that a presenter, a friendly voice behind the microphone like Johnny Walker (sic) playing two hours of music, with minimum intrusion, satisfies the criteria of difference and distinctiveness, because of the variety of music being played. Now some of the BBC governors perhaps do not recognise that there are different types of pop music. To some of them it all sounds thump thump thump. But that is the message Bannister has to get across".  

Sunday Times 26 September 1993

Matthew Bannister talked about wanting Radio 1 to be "more appropriate for a generation of younger people" but, as he recalls, "we never discussed any names". Speaking to The Guardian he expounded on his plans: "The only way I will judge who presents shows is on ability, not on age. I do not intend to define audience by age , nor do I intend to define presenters by age. Everyone pays the licence fee - and I am not going to say this is not a radio station for you. It is for anybody open to ideas, popular music and entertainment."

Nonetheless, the reaction was swift and by August Dave Lee Travis made his now famous  "changes are being made here" speech and set off a domino effect as one by one DJs left the station. It was Johnny Beerling that had to deal with DLT's departure (Bannister was on holiday in Minorca) and dismiss the Hairy Cornflake after he had given an interview to The Sun, despite a request not to speak to the press.

Radio 1's new Autumn schedule was announced in September. To clear the decks some big name departures were mentioned. Simon Bates had already tendered his resignation knowing that he wouldn't be offered a new contract. "Frankly, I'd been there two or three years too long" he said  later. "I was old even then, and could hardly be considered a hip, groovy thing, so there was a great deal of work to be done to make up for that."

Bob Harris remembers being let go when Bannister told him that they were repositioning the network. "What from 16 hours to nothing?. Although I was expecting drastic news, this still came as a jolt."       

The Independent 25 September 1993

The other big name casualties were Alan Freeman who been asked back to Radio 1 by Johnny Beerling in 1989, though he didn't disappear from Radio 1 completely as he was heard in 1994 in the 52-part revamp of The Story of Pop. Also on the way out were Gary Davies, who by now was just on at the weekend and Adrian Juste who's one hour Saturday lunchtime shows melding  comedy and music were works of art. A not unnaturally annoyed Adrian was quoted as saying "Anybody above the age of puberty is being pushed out." Others dropped were The Man Ezeke and Paul Gambaccini who was doing the odd special for the station. 

Both Johnny Beerling and Matthew Bannister had floated the idea of moving some of the outgoing Radio 1 DJs over to Radio 2, an idea that was rejected by Frances Line, after all what would happen to the existing Radio 2 stalwarts? Mind you in time some did eventually make it over the Radio 2 with Fluff and Whispering Bob enjoying regular shows on the network from 1997 and even Gary Davies taking up residence, though  that was some 20-odd years later. 

Aside from that is was a case of shuffling the deck. John Peel got a Saturday afternoon slot, Simon Mayo got the weekday mid-morning show, Mark Goodier looked after the breakfast show, albeit temporarily.  In came Danny Baker, Mark Tonderai and, replacing Jakki Brambles in January 1994, Emma Freud. There was a new late-night show for Mark Radcliffe.  As for the rest of the DJ team most stayed put or were subject to minor changes in time slots. That team consisted of Steve Wright, Bruno Brookes, Pete Tong, Jo Whiley, Steve Lamacq, Lynn Parsons, Andy Kershaw, Annie Nightingale, Claire Sturgess, Steve Edwards, and Neale James and Johnnie Walker. 

Matthew Bannister interviewed for the Radio Times w/c 23 October 1993

Radio listeners are creatures of habit. As the controllers of the BBC's other national networks knew to their cost, any tinkering with the schedule didn't tend to go down well. Bannister's one regret was that too many changes were foist upon the listener in a short space of time. "Sometimes when you're up against the wire you can cause some distress, and I'm sorry if that's happened", he told the Sunday Times a year later. "And I see that the speed of the changes is something that our audience has been concerned about. But since change was overdue and certain people were leaving anyway, I thought it was better to get on with it and send out a clear signal that Radio 1 was on the move."

Now, of course the age of those on-air itself is largely irrelevant if they continue to be enthusiastic about the music they play and their style appeals to the audience. The problem for Radio 1 was the dramatic change of gear and the purge of some much-loved names hit the audience figures. In June 1993 the station had 19.23 million listeners. By January 1994 they had haemorrhaged just over 4 million of them, down to 14.84. By the end of 1994 just 11 million adult listeners (15 plus) tuned in although as Matthew Bannister later admitted "the biggest turn-off was the departure of Dave Lee Travis" an event that predated his arrival. The figures never again reached their summer 1993 height and bubbled around 11 or 12 million for the next 20 years or so (the latest RAJARs show 9.6 million), though they did receive a fillip when Chris Evans was signed up in 1995 to host the breakfast show.   

1993 did indeed mark the watershed for Radio 1 and, after 25 years on air,  many long-time listeners seemed to switch off and go elsewhere. And that's certainly the admittedly skewed consensus you glean from reading messages on some Facebook groups where folk often lament that Radio 1 was never the same after that. But perhaps these are the very listeners that the station needed to shed. In fact there was still much to enjoy on Radio 1 and in the mid-90s the station benefitted musically from Britpop and a thriving dance music scene, more comedy including Chris Morris, an increased number of independent productions,  shows from Mark and Lard, Kevin Greening and the first year of Chris Evans's brekkie shows. There was even a glossy new marketing campaign in 1995 called As It Is to highlight what was on offer.

Daily Telegraph  28 September 1993

Time to listen to what was going on in October 1993. This collection of archive audio comes from my own tapes.

Late night changes were scheduled with Nicky Campbell's Into the Night show ending after five years. Nicky took a couple of months off to look after his sick wife and returned to the station in January 1994 on the drivetime show. Into the Night would feature an eclectic mix of music and guests from the world of music, film, literature, comedy and politics. A regular guest was Frankie Howerd, hence his brief appearance at the start of this show which gets off to a false start. This is part of the final show broadcast from 10 pm to midnight on Thursday 21 October 1993.

Bob Harris had rejoined Radio 1 in 1989 and took over the post-midnight show the following year. Bob would champion many new bands and singer-songwriters, often in live sessions, that most other shows and stations overlooked,all mixed with a dash of rock 'n' roll. Although forced off Radio 1 he would return in 1997 on Radio 2 with a Saturday late night show. This is just half of Bob's Radio 1 swansong that was broadcast from midnight to 4 am on Friday 22 October 1993. Bob's final record choice may surprise you.  

The Independent 23 October 1993

The biggest departure was Simon Bates who'd ruled the mid-morning slot since 1977 with The Golden Hour (inherited from Tony Blackburn) and Our Tune becoming features that listeners would specifically tune in for. (In the words of John Peel: "At eleven in the morning every layby on every major road in the country was full of weeping truckdrivers.") For his final show the BBC splashed out on an OB from the Carnegie Deli on New York's Seventh Avenue. "I wanted a weekend in New York it's an excuse to be with people I like."  This is most of that final show as broadcast on Friday 22 October 1993. Note the Tommy Vance into at the start presumably resurrected from his 1987 Bates in the States week. "I've suddenly realised he works for another radio station as well"     

Johnnie Walker survived the initial clear out of the old guard, for a while at least. Johnnie had worked for Matthew Bannister at GLR until he was sacked for breaching BBC protocol and putting live phone calls on air. He'd returned to Radio 1 in 1991 with an independently produced Saturday afternoon show, not dissimilar to The Stereo Sequence that he'd presented in 1987 and 1988. His show continued under the new schedule but shifted to a 7 pm start. However, it too came to end, with just two weeks notice for Johnnie's Wizard Radio production company that he'd set up with Phil Ward-Large, in October 1995. This is Johnnie's show from Saturday 23 October 1993.   

Of all the Radio 1 DJs it was the legendary Alan Freeman that had been with the Beeb the longest, starting on the Light Programme in 1960. He'd left in 1978 to work for Capital Radio but was enticed back in 1989 to present Pick of the Pops as a retro chart show and to resurrect the much-loved rock show. Fluff's final Saturday rock show was broadcast on 23 October, this is how it sounded.

Ezekiel Gray, aka Man Ezeke, had been broadcasting his Sunshine Show on BBC Radio Bedfordshire when he joined Radio 1 in 1990. That show ended in December 1992 and the following month he was given the Sunday lunchtime replacement for Pick of the Pops - Alan Freeman having stepped down from that show - another retro charts show called Number Ones on 1FM.  He seemed ill-suited to that format and his contract was not extended beyond October 1993. This is an hour of his last show from Sunday 24 October.

In March 1992 Gary Davies left the weekday lunchtime show - Jakki Brambles took over - for weekend breakfast and a Sunday late-night show. His contract was not renewed beyond Beerling's tenure and he left to join Virgin 1215 and later set up his music publishing company Good Groove. Davies supposedly told Bannister that "mine is the most popular night-time show you have on radio" to be told that he preferred "shows that lead". Davies had "no idea what that means."

This is the last half hour of Gary's Sunday night/Monday morning show from the early hours of 25 October. Like Nicky Campbell and Alan Freeman he plays out with The End from Abbey Road.  

Matthew Bannister took over as Radio 1 controller from 1 November but the re-vamped schedule kicked in from 25 October. On the breakfast show was Mark Goodier, billed as his "first official day in charge". Mark had been standing in for Simon Mayo for a couple of months whilst he'd taken some paternity leave. Matthew's plan had been to move Steve Wright into the breakfast show but he couldn't persuade him to start until the following January giving Mark the shortest stint as a Radio 1 breakfast show presenter. Here's 48 minutes of Mark from 7 am on Monday 25th. The newsreader is  Peter Bowes and Steve Mann provides the sports news.

Taking over from Bates was Simon Mayo, a timeslot he would occupy until early 2001. "It's still The Golden Hour. It's still Simes. It's just a different Simes that's all". This is the early part of Simon's first show. Missing from this recording is the return of Confessions, a guest appearance from Phil Collins, a new feature called God of the Day but we do get to hear Simon answering the calls to his private line 071 636 1111.   

With Mark Goodier covering for Simon Mayo earlier in 1993, the Evening Session was handed to Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq. They became the permanent presenters of a "remixed and extended" Evening  Session from Monday 25 October. This is the first 30 minutes.

Mark Radcliffe had been working for Radio 1 as a producer since 1983 but had been in front of the microphone since 1991 with the weekly Out on Blue Six and on Radio 5 with Hit the North from 1990. From 25 October Mark finally got a four nights a week late show live from Manchester, that would be nicknamed The Graveyard Shift. "Greetings space cadets and welcome to the new bright young sound of night-time 1FM presented by a bloke who's older than the last one." With Mark was his co-host Marc 'The Boy Lard' Riley. Regular contributors would be Simon Armitage, Harry Hill, Mark Kermode, Mark Lamarr, (just to add to the Mark quota) and John Hegley. On this recording of the first 30 minutes The Tindersticks are in session.

Lynn Parsons joined Radio 1 in late 1991 from Capital Radio. For the next four years she mainly presented overnight shows as well as providing holiday cover. This is the first half-hour of Lynn's show from just after midnight on Tuesday 26 October 1993.

The newest name in the line-up was Mark Tonderai, the station's trainee presenter (did anyone else ever have this role?) with a late night show billed as The Jam. He told The Daily Telegraph "I'm from Harare and have lived here since 1989 working as everything from a fishmonger to a cycle courier as well as doing a degree in architecture at Kingston University. I started as a trainee presenter and only heard last Thursday that they had given me this job." Mark stayed with Radio 1 until February 1996 before moving into radio production elsewhere in the BBC and later as a TV and film writer and director. Viewers of the current series of Doctor Who will have spotted his name in the credits of a couple of episodes. This recording is of the first 30 minutes of Mark's first show at 1 am on Saturday 30 October. By the way I make that opening announcement six words and not five.

Bannister's big name signing was Danny Baker, an mate from his days at GLR. who'd recently been on Radio 5 looking after Morning Edition. The new Radio 1 show carried on in much the same way interspersing the often obscure musical choices with intelligent chat, live 'stunts' over the phone from listeners and discussions about the minutiae of popular culture.

Danny was with Radio 1 for 3 years. He was, he wrote in his autobiography, "never a really good fit and came to a two-pronged tipping point when the new boss of the station, a beleaguered Matthew Bannister once more, was attempting to haul the network out of its ageing complacency at the precise moment the British public began to feel that I was popping up a bit too much in their lives..."     

This is the first 40-odd minutes or so of Danny's first show on Saturday 30 October. With him is Allis Moss and Danny Kelly. Note the reference to Chris Evans "but my goons intimidated his supporters in the north".

Andy Kershaw had been heard regularly on Radio 1 since 1985 most often in evening time slots playing world music or covering for John Peel. So it was perhaps surprising when he was moved to a Saturday afternoon show, though it was relatively short-lived, by November 1994 he was back on the night shift. Kershaw remains pretty scathing about the changes during this period. "It was the arrival of these Birtists, following the loss of our protector, Walters, to retirement in 1991, that we can pinpoint the marginalisation of Peel and Kershaw on Radio 1, in my case eventually into exile as a refugee on Radio 3, and in John's, devalued into a dead of night slot, and having much of his enthusiasm purged in the process". This is the first 45 minutes of Andy's show at 2 pm on Saturday 30 October.

One of the other major schedule changes was a Saturday afternoon show for John Peel, the first time he'd had a regular daytime show since the days of Top Gear coming to an end in the mid-70s. Initially Peel was supportive of the changes at the station. "The new 1FM... has contrived to sound different without sounding as though it is being different for the sake of being different, if you see what I mean." But a couple of years later when his broadcasting hours were chipped away at he expressed concern that "there does seem to be a new orthodoxy in the air which supports narrowly-focussed programmes rather than broadly based ones built on the if-you-don't-like-this-record-wait-until-you-hear-the-next-one principle."

With a Friday night show now being followed by a Saturday afternoon one John Peel rather than drive back to Suffolk he takes to staying in overnight at a small hotel in Paddington. As the BBC baulk at paying his £80 hotel expenses he's forced to pay it out of his own pocket.

This is the first part of John's show from 4.30 pm on Saturday 30 October. "As you may have noticed nearly everyone of the new everyday value 1FM is called Mark. So welcome to the Mark Peel programme."  (A longer recording of this show exists - see the John Peel wiki site).

On Sunday afternoons Rockline with Neale James is moved to an earlier and this was followed at 4 pm by the Rockshow with Claire Sturgess. The rock show dates back to 1978 following Tommy Vance's return to the station. He then left Radio 1 in April 1993 to join Virgin 1215 and all of a sudden The Sturge had a regular show, after having  worked as a production assistant on Simon Bates's show and getting her first stab at presenting when covering the Evening Session in March. This is the first 30  minutes of Claire's show on 31 October 1993.

Steve Edwards had joined Radio 1 in January 1993 to present a show of soul and new jack swing. Initially for an hour each Wednesday, under the new schedule Steve was shifted to Sunday night and given an extra hour. Steve left the station in early 1996 and would later broadcast for a US jazz station. Other than that I know nothing about Steve's career either before joining the BBC or after it, so if you know m ore please contact me. This is how The Steve Edwards Soul Show started on 31 October 1993.    

One veteran broadcaster that survived the cull was Anne Nightingale. Her request show, a radio institution, had been running on Sunday evenings since 1982 (an earlier Sunday afternoon request show ran from 1975 to 1979). From 31 October the show's start time shifted from 8 pm to 10 pm and was a Halloween special. This is the first 30 minutes.