The station focussed on news and sport 24-hours a day; the
comedy, music, education and children’s shows of the old Radio 5 were cast to
the four winds.
Digging out the Radio
Times for that week here’s the schedule for day one:
Opening proceedings at 5 a.m. was Jane Garvey with Morning Reports, the programme remains a
5 Live fixture to this day.
Looking after The
Breakfast Programme was 5 Live’s kingpin Peter Allen, one of only three
voices heard that day that have lasted the full twenty years.
Poached from Today was
Diana Madill to present The Magazine from
8.35 a.m. to midday. As well as a
phone-in there were daily features on the environment, health, conservation,
science and film and video reviews.
Rising star Eddie Mair presented the two-hour Midday with Mair, at the time still
presenting Radio 4’s Saturday morning travel show Breakaway. Mair’s show included
a daily Moneycheck with Liz Barclay,
later of You and Yours.
From Radio 1’s Newsbeat
and, at the time the new BBC1 current affairs show Here and Now, came Sybil Ruscoe with Ruscoe on Five between 2 and 4 p.m.
The only daytime presenter to come over from the old Radio 5
was John Inverdale with the imaginatively titled John Inverdale Nationwide.
‘Invers’ still works for the network, most recently hosting the
Cheltenham Festival coverage.
At 7 p.m. each day was News
Extra followed most evenings by sports coverage. On the launch day it was
Pat Murphy’s series Good for a Quote
starting with the career of Tommy Docherty and then Jon Champion with Champion Sport featuring commentary on
the Sheffield United/ West Ham match. In
week one there was also Football Plus
with Jonathan Legard and Trevor
Brooking’s Football Night. Friday
night’s, from week two, saw Parky back on the radio with Parkinson on Sport.
News Talk at 10
p.m. was an hour-long discussion of different aspects of news and current
affairs themed each evening. On Monday there was the BBC’s Social Affairs
Correspondent Niall Dickson. On Tuesday Paul Reynolds had a kind of From Our Own Correspondent. Wednesday was Nigel Cassidy on matters
financial and Thursday all things political with John Sergeant. Friday nights
were a little different with a 30 minute review of the newspaper business, Stop Press, usually presented by John
Diamond, followed by Financial Week
with Heather Peyton, who had previously worked on Radio 4’s The Financial World Tonight.
Between 11 p.m. and midnight
a round-up of news, sport and business in Night Extra followed by The
Other Side of Midnight with Tim Grundy. On other evenings you'd hear After Hours, a live talk show “where
nothing is taboo”, though no host is listed, can anyone remember who it was?
Meanwhile on Thursday night Stuart Cosgrove’s talk show was Night Moves.
Rounding off the day, between 2 and 5 a.m., another stalwart
of the station’s schedules Up All Night
with Rhod Sharpe, the third of the voices still on air today. The weekend
presenter was former-LBC man Richard Dallyn.
And finally honorary mention must go to Adrian Chiles. He‘d
also worked on The Financial World Tonight
and joined Radio 5 Live as the business reporter in Wake Up to Money, which then was part of Morning Reports, and so was heard on day one. Of course he went
off to do his TV work for the Beeb and ITV but returned to the station last
year as co-host Friday’s 5 Live Drive.
3 comments:
One of the presenters of After Hours was Vincent Hanna
As well as Allen, Chiles and Sharpe, Pat Murphy is still on the station twenty years on, reporting on football and cricket with great distinction.
Excellent post. Its really informative and helpful. Thanks.
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