Silver Jubilee

Radio Times cover design by Candace Bahouth

As Britain celebrates the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with street parties, beacons and a Thames river procession I recall how national radio covered the 1977 Silver Jubilee, at a time when the nation commemorated with, yes, street parties, beacons and a Thames river procession.

In ’77 the big day was Tuesday 7 June, the Silver Jubilee Bank Holiday. Radio 4 got into Jubilee mode at 9 a.m. with, somewhat surprisingly, a musical offering recalling Edward German and Basil Hood’s comic opera Merrie England, with Tim Rice presenting the story and songs from “gramophone records”. At the time it was not uncommon for Radio 4 to broadcast music programmes, that week also saw record shows from Richard Baker and Robin Ray and on Jubilee Day there was a Beethoven Concert simulcast with Radio 3. Partly this was a throwback to the more mixed fare of the old Home Service and partly a cost-cutting exercise – the Robin Ray programme also went out on Radio 3.

The main event, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (with breaks for The Archers and The World at One) was introduced by Des Lynam and included a Service of Thanksgiving from St Paul’s Cathedral, a Royal Walkabout and The Queen’s Speech to the Commonwealth from The Guildhall. Providing the commentary were Robert Hudson (former Head of Radio OB), Alun Williams, John Snagge, Brian Johnston, Don Mosey and Judith Chalmers. In the studio with Des were veteran royal experts Godfrey Talbot (the BBC’s first Court Correspondent) and Audrey Russell. Four of the team had also commentated at the Queen’s Coronation in 1953: John Snagge, Alun Williams and Audrey Russell on the radio and Brian Johnston on the TV. 

Commentary from Brian Johnston and Robert Hudson
Queen's Speech

In the afternoon Radio 4 broadcast part 17 of its 26 part epic series narrated by Richard Burton, Vivat Rex. Currently enjoying a repeat on BBC Radio 4 Extra the series provided a “dramatic chronicle of the English Crown through 200 years of its history by the Elizabethan playwrights Shakespeare, Marlowe and their contemporaries”.

On Radio 3 announcer Victor Hallam opened the day with a Jubilee Overture, with the first piece being Handel’s Coronation Anthem: Zadok the Priest. This Week’s Composer was Haydn who, by coincidence (or good planning) is also the featured composer in the Diamond Jubilee week.

There was another programme celebrating the first Queen Elizabeth in The Ride to Triumph (Radio 3 9.25 p.m.) all linked by Roy Strong and with narration from Denys Hawthorne. The Radio Times described it as “the entertainments and masques in honour of Elizabeth I and her successors contained in music, poetry and marvellous effects”.

Over on Radio 1 the main event of the day was a 6-hour show featuring The Nation’s All-Time Top 100, the whole jointly presented by Noel Edmonds, Tony Blackburn and Paul Burnett. This chart was based on a poll conducted in late 1976 in which listeners were invited to forecast the Top 3 for the following week and also to write on their postcard the name of their all-time favourite track. The chart aired just before Christmas, with Tony Blackburn, and got this Jubilee Day repeat. The Top 10 was:

1 I’m Not in Love – 10CC

2 Maggie May – Rod Stewart

3 Without You – Nilsson

4 Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

5 Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel

6 Hey Jude – The Beatles

7 Sailing – Rod Stewart

8 Seasons in the Sun – Terry Jacks

9 Alright Now – Free

10 I’m Still Waiting – Diana Ross

Tony is back for the Diamond Jubilee with Radio 2’s countdown of the 60 best-selling single artists of the last six decades.

Jubilee Trailer - Adrian Juste
Radio 1 070677

During the afternoon of Tuesday 7 June it was David Hamilton, normally a simulcast with Radio 2 but going its own way today on 247 metres, and It’s DLT OK! Between 7 and 10 p.m. there was a rare link-up between Radio 1 and the BBC’s local radio stations in a Jubilee Special under the control of Simon Bates. Rounding off the day was John Peel, presumably not featuring The Sex Pistol’s God Save the Queen, though he had played it a couple of times the previous month.  

Radio Times illustration by Eric Gill

Radio 2 offered alternative coverage to Radio 4’s more formal output of the royal events. The day kicked off with Colin Berry and then Brian Matthew playing 25 years of hits. Wogan was on holiday this week so Brian was covering the breakfast slot. The main programme between 10 am. and 1 p.m. provided commentary from Pete “Open House” Murray and Jimmy Young with Ray Moore holding the fort and playing the odd record at Broadcasting House. 

Ray Moore

 

Back on air for an hour at 1 p.m. was another veteran of the Coronation radio coverage Jean Metcalfe with Jubilee Requests. Hosting the afternoon show in place of Diddy David was Wally Whyton. As Radio 2 was the main sports channel Wally’s show also included racing from Sandown and Redcar, county cricket, the John Player tennis tournament and the Tour of Britain Milk Race. The Queen’s Speech to the Commonwealth was carried by both Radio 1 and 2 and chief announcer Jimmy Kingsbury provided the links.

Jimmy Kingsbury

It was pretty much a normal Radio 2 schedule for rest of the day though I note that Esther Rantzen made a guest appearance on Waggoners’ Walk. Des Lynam was back just after midnight with a 10-minute round-up of A Right Royal Day.    

The Queen’s River Progress took place on Thursday 9 June and was carried by Radio 2 with Ray Moore commentating, a special afternoon show with Jean Challis and then coverage of the Beating Retreat during John Dunn’s show with Chris Martin-Jenkins at Horse Guard’s Parade.

Other voices heard on-air on the Jubilee Bank Holiday included a brief return to news reading duties on Radios 1 and 2 for Bruce Wyndham who’d retired from the BBC the previous year. You’d have also heard James Alexander Gordon, David Bellan, Tom Edwards and Ruth Cubbin reading the news and Tim Gudgin announcing. On Radio 4 the continuity/news reading team was Harriet Cass (the only one still with the station), Pauline Bushnell, Edward Cole, Bryan Martin and David Willmott. 

BBC Radio York – Take 1

Question: When did a papal intervention change the course of BBC history? The answer, when Pope John Paul II visited the UK in 1982 and led to the opening, one year early, of BBC Radio York.

In reality it was a transient affair, just a little over 24 hours to allow coverage of the Pope’s visit to the Knavesmire, the racecourse at York, on Monday 31^st May 1982. The Radio Times described the arrangements for the radio station as follows:

For the benefit of the citizens of York and over quarter of a million pilgrims expected to converge on the Knavesmire Racecourse, BBC Radio York is being opened up for a day – a year early. To cover the papal visit a team of experienced local radio staff are broadcasting on a temporary transmitter for which the Home Office has given special permission. BBC Radio York goes on air at 6.0 pm on Sunday and will broadcast its own coverage until 9.0 pm on Spring Bank Holiday Monday.  

Those local radio staff came from BBC Radio’s Cleveland, Humberside, Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield, all of whom shared some of the coverage over the weekend. Heading the team was Mike Hollingworth (Cleveland) with Michael Cooke (Sheffield), Chris Hawksworth (Leeds), Jack Baker (?), Robin Pulford (Humberside), Harry Gration (Leeds), Liz Ambler (Leeds), Ian Wilson (?), Peter Byrne (Leeds) and John Cundy (Leeds).

Radio York’s coverage was transmitted on 666 kHz, or 450 metres, only and sounded a bit ropey 40 miles away in Goole where I recorded this tantalisingly brief snippet.

Radio York 300582

Radio York went on air for real on 4 July 1983.  

Radio York's Bootham Row HQ photographed earlier this year

Thanks to Dave Rhodes for suggesting this blog post.

Here Are the Results of the United Kingdom Jury

The Eurovision Song Contest exists in its own musical bubble, long since divorced from any pop music you’ll hear on the radio (was it ever?). And as for the voting, with all the block voting and old alliances it’s just as enjoyable, perhaps more so, than the efforts of the singers.

For many years the voices of Eurovision in the UK were Radio 2 colleagues Terry Wogan, Ray Moore and Colin Berry.

Colin was spokesman for UK jury at Eurovision over 25 years from 1977 to 2002, as well as popping up on the Song for Europe shows. In an exclusive look behind the scenes I asked Colin if he’d reveal some of the secrets of the jury room.

In the mid-70s the role of jury spokesperson had been in the capable hands (voice?) of Ray Moore but when he was asked to take over the Radio 2 commentary Ray suggested Colin’s name to the producers. 

The number of jury members tended to change over the years, in particular once BT televoting started. Colin recalls that “we had to have a smaller jury just in case the lines went down, but the jury votes never got used in my time. The figure sixteen sticks in my mind during the jury voting years. The jury was a cross-section of ages from 16 to over 60, from all walks of life. Many were selected from viewers who wrote in, or staff who had neighbours interested and so on.” If the jury vote was tied there was a show of hands for the disputed entry. As spokesman Colin didn’t get a vote but did have the casting vote on A Song for Europe “if it came into play…it didn’t!”      

On the day of broadcast the jury were assembled at Television Centre were they would watch the afternoon full dress rehearsal and there was a chance for them to hear any of the songs again if they wished. In the 70s and 80s the London end was under the control of Light Entertainment Organiser Tony James. Tony, who Colin thought “was a great ambassador for the BBC and did everything with great finesse.” He made sure that the jury members were well looked after, that all the introductions were made, providing a waitress-service dinner and having studio tours during breaks. When Tony’s team left in the 90s it was all “clipboards and vouchers for the BBC canteen.”

During the contest itself Colin also had a monitor and a lip-microphone should “Wogan’s line vanish and there was a need for me to continue commentary. It never happened, but got within thirty seconds of it one year.”

When it came to announcing the UK decision there was an agreed script but “as the years passed I deviated a bit to make it less formal. Others did too eventually, but they tended to overdo it sometimes, building up the part.” You can hear Colin’s first announcement back in 1977 on this recording at 1:46:00:

And his last appearance in 2002 at 2:06:00, by which time the event was twice as long.

In 2002 the Beeb acknowledged Colin’s 25 years in the role and so threw him a lunch and presented him with a BBC inscribed microphone but at the same time they let it be known that changes were planned for the following year (as it transpired in the form of Lorraine Kelly) and that he’d no longer be required. This was despite supportive words from the King of Eurovision Terry Wogan who started his after-lunch speech by saying "I don't know why you’re getting rid of yer man....if it ain't broke why mend it?"

Mind you Colin’s relationship with Eurovision didn’t end there. Keeping it in the family, his daughter Marina made a bid for a place in the 2010 final as part of the girl group Miss Fitz. They didn’t get through to Oslo; the UK was represented by Josh Dubovie (who?) who came 25^th.

So what does Colin think of this year’s UK entry from Englebert Humperdink? “I would be very surprised if he clinches it for us,” he told me. “We are running out of ideas to put us in the running. You just can't shake off the political voting I'm afraid”.

After 25 years closely watching Eurovision Colin has his favourites. Of the winners he loved Take Me to Your Heaven by Charlotte Nilsson.

Of the ones that “got away” Colin felt “there was a huge voting mistake one year in the 80's on Song For Europe. Amongst the six suggested songs was So Do I from Mike Redway and Fiona Kennedy. It would have stormed Eurovision, but the regional juries put it in 6th place!”

The Eurovision Song Contest is broadcast this Saturday at 8 p.m. (UK time).

Robin Gibb – Fraternally Yours

As a tribute to Robin Gibb here are The Bee Gees twenty one years ago in conversation with Nicky Campbell. As well as chatting to Nicky you’ll hear Robin, Maurice and Barry sing exclusive live versions of some of their best known hits.

The programme The Bee Gees – Fraternally Yours was first broadcast on Radio 1 on 1^st January 1991. This is an edited version.  

Robin Hugh Gibb 1949-2012

2 Day - Rewind

Time to rewind and hear the sound of BBC Radio 2 back in 1989.

In the week that the network shakes up its schedule as part of this Thursday’s 2Day here’s my own Radio 2 mash-up with a chance to enjoy Thursday 9 February 1989 condensed into 20 minutes.

That days programming went something like this:

0100 Bill Rennells with Nightride

0300 A Little Night Music

0400 Alan Dedicoat

0530 Chris Stuart

0730 Derek Jameson

0930 Ken Bruce

1100 Jimmy Young

1300 David Jacobs

1400 Gloria Hunniford

1530 Adrian Love

1700 John Dunn

1900 Wally Whyton

2100 Paul Jones

2200 Thirty Minutes’ Worth

2230 The Houghton Weavers

2300 Brain Matthew with Round Midnight

And how different it sounds to today’s station.  Under Head of Music Frances Line’s management Radio 2 had changed direction with a music policy aimed squarely at the over-40s and based on “melody, familiarity and excellence”. A year later Line issued the document BBC Radio 2:Into the Nineties stipulating that all daily sequence shows should include “film music, show tunes, accessible folk, country and jazz, strict tempo, popular classics, light music, Latin, brass and military bands, music of the Twenties, Thirties, Forties, Fifties and Sixties; opera and operetta. More strings and less thump!”

So listen out for snatches of music from the likes of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Jo Stafford (no bad thing) whom you’d be hard pressed to hear during the week these days.

This year I’ve gone multimedia and posted the file on YouTube. OK, admittedly it’s not that exciting with added photos but it’s my first attempt. Incidentally John Dunn was sick on this day and taking his place was Charles Nove. For whatever reason I didn’t record Charles’s show.

Last year’s 2Day was on 22 June 2011. The station seemed keen to have Zoe Ball do the promotion and she featured on the cover of the Radio Times alongside Chris Evans. This is Zoe on BBC1’s The One Show.

And last year I gave you Radio 2’s output for 3 April 1980 distilled into just 12 minutes. Here it is again.

Radio 2 030480

Sandi Jones Request Show

Good to see the British press celebrating the successes one of the BBC World Service’s shows. This article from the Daily Express is undated but my guess is I cut it out in 1979.  It reads: “One of the world’s most popular broadcasters is British, works in London and yet is virtually unknown in this country”.

It goes on to say “Sandi Jones a 34-year old housewife from Fareham, Hants is the unassuming hostess of one of the most popular radio programmes in the world.

Each Sunday the BBC World Service broadcasts live the Sandi Jones request show, a 45-minute musical mixture ranging from classical to pop, with the accent on golden oldies”.

Oh dear! “Virtually unknown”. “Housewife”. Well only if you ignore the fact that Sandi had been broadcasting for the previous decade and had hosted one of the most popular and longest running shows on British radio. Why she even had her own jingle!

Sandi Jones

Sandi had been in the Women’s Royal Naval Service before joining the British Forces Broadcasting Services team in Cologne. As part of the team working on the evening music and speech programme Time Out she soon graduated to hosting the German end of Family Favourites back in 1970. By 1973 she was the main presenter at the London end, taking over from Michael Aspel. Alan Grace’s history of the BFBS in Germany takes up the story:

Sandi can still recall her first Family Favourites link: “I didn’t have time to be nervous because Mike was so easy to work with. He had a wicked sense of humour and we just bounced off each other.” Later when Sandi met Michael in London, he said, “Do you know there are little old ladies across Britain who think you and I are having an affair!” The BBC were impressed with Sandi’s style and she was asked to stand in for Michael when he went on leave and this led to her taking over the programme when she moved back to England.

 

Whilst still hosting Family Favourites, she left the programme in 1976, Sandi became one of the main presenters of the World Service’s Request Show that started in late 1975. Also on the roster were Brian Matthew, Don Moss and later Tony Myatt. Sandi’s request show ran for the next ten years or so. In the meantime she was also working for her local BBC station, Radio Solent where she was regularly on air from 1978 to 2001. After hanging up her headphones Sandi worked as a guest courier with a tour company.

I've no recordings of Sandi on the World Service - if you have please contact me - but here she is with a Family Favourites revival from 30 July 1995.
Two-Way Family Favourites

The Killing Off of Ceefax is a Bad Idea

Thanks to Steve Morton for this guest blog post on the BBC’s CEEFAX service, now in its death throes with the final roll-out of digital tv and the “Red Button”. Steve’s career was as an RF engineer with various Government departments. Nowadays he blogs about life here in France and has a keen interest in new technology as well as the old tech Filofax.

It's a sad day when it was announced that the main TV transmitter in the South East of England shut down its analogue service and went digital only. Now I'm not against digital transmission, far from it. But along with the killing off of the analogue TV service saw the last of the Ceefax teletext service that first came on air back in 1974. It reminds you how old you are when you see a technology come in and go out nearly 40 years later!

For all its faults Ceefax has one big advantage over the internet, which is infinite bandwidth in terms of the number of customers it can serve at any one time. Being a broadcast only service it doesn't suffer from overload when lots of users are looking for information at the same time.

We are all so used to turning on our PC's and calling up say a travel news website to see what the current road conditions are etc. However think back to the bad winters recently when the trains have all ground to a halt due to a few inches of snow and you will soon see where Ceefax could still have a purpose. During these periods of bad weather the common complaint from train passengers is 'we couldn't find out any information' or 'the website crashed'.

Well it would with such a huge peak in demand placed on the servers during that sort of weather event, who will design their webserver to have such a huge capacity for those odd less than five percent time periods when the traffic demands soars to unseen levels....

With Ceefax there is no such problem, it just kept pumping out the information pages as required, the receiver filtered the pages to show just the information you wanted. As long as someone in an office or control centre somewhere could up-date the information everyone with a Ceefax receiver would have up to date information.

Going back to the 1980's some of you might remember the BBC B microcomputer, there was a teletext add-on for this machine, in a way it was a form of internet connection although you couldn't send data or emails only receive information.

The technology for a teletext decoder is so tried and tested and as cheap as chips these days that it could be easily be built into a tablet computer as a receive terminal for times when you just need to receive information not transmit it. This’d most probably be a function that could be designed in software.

Now you might say that's ok, but Ceefax is a bit 'blocky' and low res, yes but there were other higher res versions of the specification that were agreed but never fully implemented.

Maybe the new 'Digital Teletext' as used on the Digital TV systems might find its way in to tablets and mobile phones in the future for my 'receive only data service' which for a lot of people just wanting a news up date or travel up date will be more than enough... and cheap too.

Further reading:
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/04/18/ceefax_london/
http://johnosbornepoet.blogspot.com/2012/04/pages-from-ceefax.html
http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/teletext/teletext_bbc.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext