The
1986 Peacock Committee is now best remembered for its proposal that the BBC
should privatise Radios 1 and 2. That recommendation was forgotten about,
though the idea still continues to appear at intervals. As for the commercial
radio sector Peacock suggested that “IBA regulation of radio should be replaced
by a looser regime”. Here’s
how BBC Radio 4’s Six O’Clock News
reported the Committee’s findings on 3 July 1986. The newsreader is David Symonds, the reports
by John Parry and John Sergeant.
A year later
the Government issued the Green Paper Radio:
Choices and Opportunities proposing changes to the regulatory framework for
Independent Local Radio. It also signalled the end to simulcasting on both AM
and FM and paved the way for the Broadcasting Act 1990 that saw the launch of
the three Independent National Radio stations, dozens of local and community
stations and the establishment of the Radio Authority.
This
edition of BBC Radio 4’s Analysis titled
More than Two Can Play looks at what
the future may hold for radio broadcasting in terms of content and the way it’s
transmitted. The programme is presented by David Wheeler, produced by Fraser
Steel and was broadcast on 20 May 1987.
There
are contributions from Chris Dickins, Brian Wenham, David Mellor, Brian West,
Jimmy Gordon, Bevan Jones, Clement Freud, Robin Corbett, Sam Brittan, Philip Crooks,
Tony Currie, Jocelyn Hay, Monica Sims and Phil Layden.
A year ago a poster on the R2OK forum asked whether anyone had any recollections about David Symonds. The post below is based on my response to that query supplemented with additional research and audio.
David was born in Oxford in 1943. At university he read botany for a year but left and headed off for New Zealand where he got his first radio job working for the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.
He returned to the UK in 1965 and joined the BBC as a staff announcer working across all the networks. For the first 18 months he mainly read the news on the Home Service and presented classical programmes on the Third Programme. But he ‘swapped’ with David Dunhill and joined the Light Programme taking turns on Playtime, Newly Pressed and Breakfast Special. His break came when he took over from Keith Fordyce on the Sunday morning pop show Easy Beat.
David was part of Radio 1’s launch team in September 1967. Initially he presented a weekday afternoon show between 5.30 and 7.30 p.m. from October 1967 to February 1968. The time changed to 4.30 to 6.25 p.m. between February and July 1968. From July 1968 to January 1969 he was on air from 4.15 to 5.45 p.m.
In January 1969 he lost his daily show to Tony Brandon and moved to Sunday mornings, back in his old Easy Beat slot, where he was billed as ‘Uncle David Symonds’. Symonds on Sunday ran until September 1969 when DLT took over. During this period David was also one of the DJs on Radio One Club and during February he covered for Tony Blackburn on the Breakfast Show.
From April to October 1970 he presented the Monday editions of Sounds of the Seventies, before leaving the station. He spent time in recording studios learning about production and for a while managed the bands The Purple Gang and Fairfield Parlour. Back in radio by 1973 David was a production manager for Radio Luxembourg.
Writing in The Independent in 1992 he explained the possible reason his demotion from his Radio 1 weekday show: "In 1969 I was the first (and, as far as I know the only) Radio 1 DJ to be busted. I had left my overnight bag in a Doncaster hotel while on assignment for Radio 1 Club. An over-zealous manager called in the police when he found a small amount of grass in the bag. Douglas Muggeridge, who by then had replaced Robin Scott as controller, assured me that no stigma would attach to my BBC career. Perhaps it was coincidence, then, that the latter became downwardly mobile from that moment on, and I left Radio 1 altogether in 1971".
David’s voice was the first DJ on air when Capital Radio launched in October 1973.
Here's David in action on the Capital Countdown on 15 February 1975.
A couple of years later he was chosen as the first Programme Controller for Radio Victory in Portsmouth. He was at Victory for a year or so. This aircheck dates from 22 June 1976.
By 1978 he was back at the Beeb as a Radio 4 announcer. He did many of the promotions for Radio 4 UK in advance of the move to 1500m in the November. His was the first voice to welcome listeners to Radio 4 on long wave. His stint here lasted from October 1978 to August 1979.
In July 1979 David was again had an afternoon music show this time on Radio 2 presentingMuch More Music, a programme of easy listening. This started on 9 July 1979 and ran through until 1981. These clips date from 1979 and 1980.
Then it was off to California to live out “the lost dream of sun, sea and rock 'n' roll” presenting the morning show on station KEZY in Los Angeles.
Back in the UK by 1985 David was again on Radio 4 as an announcer and newsreader. Here he is on 3 July 1986 with news of the Peacock Committee report on broadcasting.
By all accounts David “hated” his time on Radio 4 and so jumped at the chance to return to pop music presenting on Capital Gold from 1988 until about 1993.
Dreams of broadcasting from somewhat sunnier climes were realised when David moved to Cyprus in about 1995. There he set up radio station Coast FM in Limassol as well as running Rondor Creative Services Ltd. Saying that “it was everything I’ve lived for since I was a boy” the station ran for about 10 years. But the recession hit and earlier this year David sold the company to new Russian owners. Apparently his intention was to apply for a new radio licence for a station that is more “international” than “English”; Do you have any recordings of David on either Radio 1 or Capital Gold? If so I'd love to hear from you.
Inspired by Radio 2's 2DAY event on the 22nd of this month - which promises a taste of the full schedule over a 12 hour period - here's 24 hours of Radio 2 from Thursday 3 April 1980 compressed into just 12 minutes*.
In this montage you'll hear: Bill Rennells, Ray Moore, Terry Wogan, Jimmy Young, David Hamilton, Ed Stewart, David Symonds (who gets the date wrong), John Dunn, Wally Whyton, Colin Berry, Alan Dell, David Bellan, Brian Matthew and Sheila Tracy.
* In January 2020: I' added a clip from You and the Night and the Music with Sheila Tracy to this sequence so that it now runs at nearly 15 minutes, admittedly making a nonsense of the blog post title.
As the D-Day of 23 November 1978 approached BBC Radio was running this promotional material for all the networks, though I can only recall it being played out on Radio 4. Again the publicity is voiced by David Symonds.
On the 22nd over on Radio 1 Dave Lee Travis was telling his listeners about the changes. The promo was voiced by the unlikely combination of John Snagge and Kid Jensen.
Later that day the Radio 4 Six O’Clock news outlined the engineering aspect of the work required. Reporter Nicholas Jones spoke to Chief Engineer Duncan McEwan and Head of Radio Aubrey Singer. The newsreader is Susan Denny.
Over on Radio 3 John Holmstrom was closing the network for the day and offering concerned listeners reassurance and how to avoid hearing “the Albanian Archers”.
At midnight 1500 metres long wave switched from Radio 2 to Radio 4. Here’s Brian Matthew before midnight and David Symonds after midnight (I cheated slightly and recorded this on VHF). I assume this is the first play of Sailing By.
Radio 2 had planned to be broadcasting 24 hours a day at this stage but industrial problems prevented this, so the station closed at 2 a.m. and re-opened at 5 a.m. The early morning announcing shift was taken by Presentation Editor Jimmy Kingsbury. The Early Show is presented by Tony Brandon.
With BBC Radio 4 moving to long wave in November 1978, and the improved national coverage that brought, it was able to promote itself as “Radio 4 UK.”
In the run-up to the wavelength changes the network sought to publicise both the new programmes as well as the existing services it provided. Most of this promotional work was voiced by David Symonds.
Radio Times 23 November 1978
In this sequence lasting just under nine minutes you’ll hear David plus, at the end, John Timpson on Today:
The UK Theme
When, in 2006, the then Controller of Radio 4 Mark Damazer axed the UK Theme that opened the station each morning even the BBC got into a muddle about when it was first used. The history of Radio 4 online continues to erroneously state that the UK Theme was introduced in 1973 when, of course, it was launched in 1978 to coincide with Radio 4 UK.
The UK Theme was aired on Radio 4 before 23 November 1978 whenever there was an appropriate gap in the schedules. Here, for example, you can hear it played on the 20th and introduced by announcer Edgar Martin:
Despite what a certain online encyclopaedia says this is not the first play for the theme. My own recording is from Friday 17 November when Charles Collville was on duty. Here’s what he had to say after playing the theme:
Let’s hear the theme in use to open proceedings on Radio 4. Moving forward to 29 January 1982 this is Eugene Fraser welcoming in a new day of broadcasting:
Before the UK Theme was introduced Radio 4 started each day with another Fritz Spiegel composition known as 'A Skipping Tune'. This had been in use from the summer of 1973. Here's an on-air recording from 1977. The music starts 30 seconds in after the test tone beeps:
