Radio listening in East Yorkshire

I grew up in East Yorkshire or, as it was known for a while for political reasons that now escape me, North Humberside. Listening to the radio in the 1970s a limited range of stations was available. (This is not to infer that there was a limited range of programmes on offer of course) Just the four BBC national stations, BBC Radio Humberside, Radio Luxembourg in the evenings and all those foreign stations on the dial. I distinctly remember hearing pop music from a Dutch station (in Hilversum?) on a Sunday afternoon before the Top 20. Commercial radio, in the shape of Viking Radio, didn’t arrive until 1984.

Of course if you fiddled around with the dial a bit you’d hear the BBC World Service and, coming through the ether, the English services of Radio’s Moscow, Sweden, Prague and Tirana. You felt a frisson of excitement as you dared to listen to the likes of Moscow and Tirana in those Cold War days.

Eventually I realised that if I had the radio upstairs and got the aerial pointing in just the right direction I could pick up some ILR stations. Radio Tees was a particular favourite and often had the best reception-this was in the era of Dave Gregory, Alistair Pirrie and Brain Anderson. Occasionally I’d get Pennine Radio and, if the weather conditions were right Radio Hallam. Other BBC local radio services also caught my ear especially Radio Sheffield, I enjoyed listening to the late Tony Capstick’s somewhat shambolic style.

On the odd rare day if the atmospherics were just right you could catch a station from even further afield. One such day was Sunday 28 May 1978 when the weather was exceptionally hot. Extraordinarily I picked up, according to notes I made at the time, Capital Radio, LBC, Radio London, Radio Oxford, Radio Birmingham and Radio Solent.

Found on the end of a cassette are these recordings made that day (a few snippets edited together on the radio cassette I had at the time) of London, Oxford, Capital and LBC plus Tees and Pennine:



Here are a few jingles recorded in the late 70s from Radio Tees and Pennine Radio:



And from Radio Luxembourg on a fading 208 signal these excerpts date from 1982:



Recorded on 2 April 1982 on Radio Sheffield clips of Tony Capstick and Afternoon Delight:



These programme extracts are from Radio Moscow in 1980 and 1982:



Finally some audio from other ‘foreign’ stations – Radio Sweden, Radio Prague, Radio Tirana and the Voice of America. These date from 1979 through to 1982:



Coming up shortly posts with audio from the BBC World Service and my old local station BBC Radio Humberside.