Following the launch of the first three home radio stations
in November 1967 - Leicester, Sheffield and Merseyside - the rollout of the
experimental BBC local radio stations resumed on 31 January 1968 in Nottingham.
The BBC previously had a presence in the city in the early
1920s when relay station 5NG based in Bridlesmith Gate had contributed a small
number of programmes to supplement the service from 2LO. The post-war Home
Service also had an East Midlands Representative housed in the Bentinck
Buildings in Wheeler Gate, later Wilson House on Derby Road, who was expected
to contribute reports and programmes for the Midlands Region. Throughout the
50s and 60s that representative was Gerald Nethercot, and so he was ideally
placed to be appointed as the first Station Manager for Radio Nottingham.
The new station was housed in studios at the back of York
House on Mansfield Road transmitting a
VHF only service on 94.8Mhz. Gerald Nethercot had gathered together a dozen
staff to run the station and after some test transmission it was formally
opened on the evening, at 6.00 pm, rather an odd time for a station launch. Programme
organiser Robert McLeish introduced the chimes of Little John from the Council
House, Nethercot outlined the plans for the new station and there were short
speeches from the Lord Mayor and the Postmaster General Edward Short. That evening's entertainment consisted of Wednesday Club, which was an early
fixture in the schedules billed as "of special interest to the blind"
and presented by George Miller. This was followed by the documentary, Snot's Estate, a light-hearted look at
the history of the city written by Emrys Bryson of the Evening Post and produced by Tony Church.
Here's how the Radio Nottingham schedules looked (above) after
nearly a year of operation, with the Radio
Times listings for the week commencing 11 January 1969. Typically of the
early local stations though they broadcast throughout the day, from just before
7.00 am to around 8.00 pm the actual number of hours on air totalled about
seven, with various gaps during the day given over to network programmes which,
according to the blurb at the top of the page, were taken from Radios 1, 2, 3
and 4. So in between the local programmes you'd have a burst of the JY Prog and
The World at One, though I'm not
aware they ever switched over to Radio 3.
This is how BBC Radio Nottingham sounded in its early days together with some later clips from the early 70s:
There was no breakfast show as such and the early morning
schedule had the look of the old Home Service about it with short programmes
billed as Town Crier and Morning Town Ride interspersed with the
national news, presumably Radio 4's 10-minute bulletins. No presenters are
listed but they will have been drawn from the team of presenter/producers who,
when the station launched, were Tony Church, Tony Cook (ex. Anglia TV and not
to be confused with the Radio Trent/Centre Radio news presenter namesake),
Keith Salmon, Colin Walters and Bob Brookes.
The staffing structure in 1968. From The First Ten Years by Trevor Dann |
London-born Tony Church had ambitions to work in the film
industry and had studied at the National Film School and freelanced in sound
and lighting jobs before he was called up for his National Service. Moving to Nottingham
in 1950 he worked at the Playhouse for 13 years, leaving following an artistic disagreement with director Tyrone
Guthrie. Moving over to the BBC Midlands Region as a producer he joined Radio
Nottingham from the start and stayed with the station for 20 years. Tony died
in 2006 aged 75.
Page from the 1978 BBC booklet Serving Neighbourhood and Nation |
Colin Walters, listed here as presenting Trademark Nottingham and Sports Preview, is best known as the MD
at Manchester's Piccadilly Radio from 1974 to 1991. He'd studied at Nottingham
University in the early 60s before a brief spell as a news reporter on the Loughborough Monitor and as Deputy
Editor at the Fleet Street Letter. At
Radio Nottingham Colin progressed from presenter/producer to deputy manager in
1970 and then manager by 1972. With the arrival of commercial radio he
successfully applied for the role of programme controller at Piccadilly. After
leaving Manchester he was a consultant and advised on several commercial radio
bids. Now retired and living in France.
Radio Nottingham's answer to Gus Honeybun was Squeg, a squirrel
who supposedly lived on
top of the transmitter at Colwick. Invented by Tony
Church, here he's pictured with Gina Madgett.
|
At this time the station didn't have its own newsroom and, in common with the other fledging BBC local stations, news bulletins were supplied by local news agency. One of those writing the bulletins was John Hobson (pictured above) over at Bradshaw's News Agency. "Our office was across the city, and the one who drew the short straw had a fifteen-minute walk to the studio carrying the bulletin in a big brown envelope". John had started his journalistic career at Ilkeston Advertiser and then the Ilkeston Pioneer, Wolverhampton Star, Nottingham Evening News and then the Nottingham Post. In 1970 he was asked to form the first BBC local radio station newsroom at Nottingham where he became the news editor. John left the BBC in 1986 to take over the Leicester News Service and later worked as a freelance reporter and media trainer. He died in 2014 aged 76.
Other names listed in the 1968 schedule include Bob Brookes who'd joined from the Nottingham University's Adult Education Department and would be the main producer in charge of the station's education output and Kit Poxon, previously at Nottingham County Council and who'd later work at Radio Derby.
Providing the Saturday afternoon sports reporting, though
not listed here, is likely to have been Colin Slater. A local newspaper journalist
he'd joined the station in the summer of 1968 and continued as a match
commentator until the end of the 2016/17 season.
One name I can't overlook is the man would come to define
the station during his 28 years at Radio Nottingham. Dennis McCarthy came from
an acting family and had ended up in Nottingham when he was evacuated during
World War Two. He was a movie collector and a dog breeder of some renown, and
it was because of this that he got the chance to make his first broadcast with
a report about Crufts within a few days of the station going on air. On the
back of his performance he was offered some other freelance report work and
eventually some programmes, one of the earliest I can trace is a 15-minute Mapperley Hospital Show. By 1969 he'd
got his own show of music and interviews, Date
with Dennis which ran for a number of years and he also presented Take the
Lead billed as 'local dog news and the breed of the week'. A regular Sunday
show followed - in which he managed to rope in his own family, son Owen (aka
Digger) and daughter Tara - and by 1974 he'd gained what would be his regular
weekday slot, Afternoon Special, which
ran until his untimely death in 1996.
You can read and hear more about Dennis McCarthy on David Lloyd's Radio Moments blog.
The Radio Nottingham team will be celebrating 50 years on
air this Wednesday and Trevor Dann has compiled a retrospective of the
station's history called On the Street Where You Live Presented by Simon Mayo it was broadcast yesterday and will be availlable to listen again for 29 days.
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