The Radio Show (Revived)

In October 1988 to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the national radio stations the BBC revived the old Radio Show format: an exhibition at Earl's Court to celebrate the medium. These national exhibitions had been running since the 1920s until the mid 60s, with a break for the war, styled as Radiolympia and later The Radio Show.

For the 1988 show the BBC had two working studios and a purpose built theatre for recordings of Gardeners' Question Time and Any Questions? The Radio Times joined in with a special cover designed by Bob Murdoch and six feature pages looking at each of the four radio networks, local radio, the World Service and the latest technology, Radio Data Systems.  

A number of shows were broadcast live or recorded at Earl's Court including Bruno Brookes, Gary Davies, Singled Out, Woman's Hour, You and Yours, Desert Island Discs, Folk on 2 and Friday Night is Music Night. On Saturday 1 October Adrian Juste was live on Radio 1 (in this recording uploaded by David Cunningham).

To celebrate 21 years of Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4 David Frost presented a live variety show on Radio 2 on the evening of Friday 30 September titled The Radio Show Radio Show. Unfortunately I've only got 30 minutes of the hour long show so if you a complete copy please contact me. The opening announcements come from Stuart Grundy for Radio 1, James Alexander Gordon for Radio 2, Piers Burton-Page for Radio 3 and Peter Donaldson for Radio 4. In this recording  you'll also hear the BBC Radio Orchestra, the Stephen Hill Singers, Richard Murdoch, the Week Ending team of Sally Grace, David Tate and Jon Glover and star guest Frankie Howerd.

Fun at One - Adrian Juste

It’s what Saturday lunchtimes were made for. For many years filling the 1 to 2 p.m. slot on Radio 1 was an hour of music and comedy pulled together by Adrian Juste.  Think hit records from Kim Wilde and The Eurythmics interspersed with clips of Hancock and Bob Newhart and the occasional specially written sketch.

That mix of pop and comedy had been inspired by Jack Jackson’s ‘record roundabout’ shows on the Light Programme and Radio 1. Jack’s final show, a Bank Holiday special on Radio 2, had aired in 1977. Adrian’s shows became a fixture on most Saturdays between 1978 and the start of 1994, though for a while in the mid-80s he was moved to Sunday mornings and later Sunday afternoons. The Saturday shows benefitted from going out in stereo on VHF, at the time a scare resource for Radio 1, whilst over on Radio 2 we had comedy such as The News Huddlines and then the first half-hour of Sport on 2.    

Juste was the voice of Radio 1 for nearly 17 years. Programme trailers, campaign promos and those Roadshow intros (“today live from the boating lake, Cleethorpes…” etc.), he did them all. In addition he often provided the technical support, playing in the records or on standby at Broadcasting House during an OB should the line go down. Not forgetting a fair few New Year’s Eve Party shows too. No wonder Adrian was bitter was he was given the boot as part of Matthew Bannister’s DJ cull in 1993.

Here’s the second half of Adrian’s last show that went out on 1st January 1994. There’s some fun to be had, not to mention a touch of bitterness, towards the end with Adrian looking for new employment, “Slung out after 17 years” and going into panto, “Have you seen my career? Yes, it's behind you!”

And this is Adrian in the early days with a Saturday lunchtime show from 14th November1981.

Juste has appeared on the radio intermittently since leaving Radio 1, most recently on BBC Radio Devon with a 2012 Christmas special offering much the same mix as before.  

Sounds of 1980

Well it’s nearly come to end. Did you last the course for a year? Radio 2’s supremely enjoyable documentary series Sounds of the 20^th Century concludes this Thursday evening with a review of 2000.

The juxtaposition of music and news reportage is very powerful and can sometime pack quite an emotional punch. I don’t know what the listening figures have been like but I’m aware that there has been demand for podcast and CD versions of the series, both unlikely given the cost of rights for the music and some of the archive material.

Of course the idea for the series itself is a recycled one and has its genesis in Radio 1’s 1980 series 25 Years of Rock (1955-79). That was so popular that it was repeated with added years in 1985 as 30 Years of Rock (1955-1984). I have that series on tape so it’s been interesting to spot the differences between it and the current version. 

Both 25 Years of Rock and 30 Years of Rock relied heavily on the old newsreel films (British Pathé and Movietone) for their news stories. So it was apposite that Adrian Juste’s light-hearted look at the events of 1980, 26 Years of Rock, used the voice of British Pathé for 30 years, Bob Danvers-Walker.

26 Years of Rock was first broadcast on Radio 1 on Friday 26 December 1980. This recording is of the revised repeat on Saturday 26 September 1981. 
 

 

Sounds of the 20th Century tracklistings

British Pathé website