When I started this blog in 2010 I had no notion that it
would take the direction that it did. From a few ramblings about radio shows
that I used to listen to I now research and write about the less explored
corners of UK radio history. I receive questions and contributions from
listeners and broadcasters around the globe. I've written over 500 posts, tens
of thousands of words and uploaded hundreds of audio clips.
Fortunately there are people out there that read all this,
thank you.
If my blog stats are to be believed I've hit one million
page views this month. So I've dug into
the stats to see what has most caught your attention. Here's the top 10, in reverse order.
This was scheduled to mark the 25th anniversary of the
launch of the largely overlooked national service, BBC Radio Five. This mash-up
of news, sport, music, education, schools and children's programmes enjoyed a short life of just under
four years before Radio 5 live came along. Fortunately I'd taped some of the
opening and closing shows so there's plenty of audio. The nature of the
programmes means that little gets repeated, though some dramas have turned up
on Radio 4 Extra.
I can't really explain why this appears in the top 10 but
presumably someone linked to it on a website or Facebook group. Written to mark
90 years of the programme that in truth
I've hardly ever listened to. If you like this kind of thing try out the
YouTube channel Archive of Recorded
Church Music.
This was one of my first posts that required a fair bit of
research. I chose the Radio 2's early show rather than the breakfast show as
that show gets plenty of coverage elsewhere, though I eventually wrote about
that in January this year. I was grateful to hear from three presenters who'd
worked on those early morning shows: Tom Edwards, Colin Berry and Paul
Hollingdale and they've continued to field my radio questions since, though
sadly Paul died a couple of years ago.
Of all the posts I've written this, including part two,
involved the most work. An attempt to list all the announcers and newsreaders
on Radio 4 since 1967 I started pulling together names, audio and photos in
late 2014, some three years before it went live.
As I mention in the post this exercise wouldn't have been
possible without the help of David Mitchell, a fellow enthusiast who'd religiously
been noting names since the mid-60s. David and I exchanged countless emails
swapping names and dates. I heard from a number of former and current
announcers who were, quite frankly, surprised, and pleased, that someone was
marking their on-air efforts. Chief announcer Chris Aldridge couldn't have been
more helpful in explaining what he and his team did and passed my draft list on
to his colleagues for comment and additions.
If this previous post took the longest to research this one
must have taken less than an hour. It was written in response to an interview
on Alison Butterworth's late-night Radio Lancashire show with a 'Mark Dean' who
purported to be a former Radio Caroline DJ. His story was already beginning to
unravel when Paul Rowley. the BBC local radio Political Correspondent and
pirate radio nut, challenged his grasp of the facts. This story was picked up
by a number of websites and forums who linked to this post. Back in 2013 BBC
radio output was only available to listen again for 7 days so my recording was
the only place to hear what had occurred.
As a postscript to this it transpired that 'Mark Dean' was
in fact Malcolm Coward and his only connection to the station was as a driver
for the Radio Caroline Roadshow, a mobile disco run by fans in the 1970s. More
on that story here.
The sound of Out of
the Blue on Saturday afternoons has been part of the broadcasting landscape
for over seven decades and this post was my nod to the long history of Sports Report. Various Sports Reports
books issued over the years helped immensely and fortunately I'd kept most of
the recent anniversary specials. The voices of Peter Jones, Bryon Butler et al always
seem to evoke warm memories.
You'll have gathered that I like to mark programme
anniversaries, it helps to generate blog views if nothing else. This one was
part of a series to celebrate the 70th anniversary since the start of the Third
Programme in 1946. Inspired by the fact that one of my favourite radio
comedies, Patterson, was first heard
on Radio 3, I decided to explore other comedies heard on that station that,
unexpectedly, used to schedule occasional sitcoms and comic plays.
The story was taken up by Tim Worthington in his exhaustive
study The Larks Ascending
Another common theme here is that of radio announcers. This
2011 was my attempt to list those I'd heard on Radio 2 from the mid-70s to the
early 80s. This and the related post probably attract views simply because of
the sheer number of names that they contain.
Sadly a number of once familiar voices have passed away
since I wrote this post and a linked post:
Liz Allen, Don Durbridge, Len Jackson, Tim Gudgin, James Alexander
Gordon, Paddy O'Byrne and Sheila Tracy.
More announcers in a post that found an appreciative
audience on the Friends of Radio 3 forum, hence, I suspect, its appearance on
this list. Audio of the bits in between programmes rarely survive in the
official archive so these voices represent what is now a bygone age.
In the top spot is this post published in September 2012
that attempted to fill in the gaps of the names of Radio 2 announcers and
newsreaders with another 60 voices that hadn't featured in my 2011 round-up. It
was timed coincide with the phasing out of the separate newsreader role in
favour of broadcast journalists who also read the bulletins. Fortunately I'd
had some insider knowledge of this plan which gave me a few months to pull this
lot together. From the feedback I received I know this acknowledgment was
welcomed in Western House.
Other popular ones are anything to do with the late Ray
Moore, my David Symonds article, the Shipping Forecast, World Service memories,
Alan Freeman and some of the ILR Down Your Local posts.
