Beyond Our Ken

The announcement on 17 January this year sent shockwaves throughout the nation. People were asking: “just what the hell are Radio2 playing at?” Others were saying what a feather in the cap it was for Bauer. Yes, after 31 years on the mid-morning show, Ken Bruce was leaving. And taking PopMaster with him!

Coming as it did on the heels of the departure of Steve Wright (from weekday afternoons at least), Paul O’Grady and Vanessa Feltz, the loss was a major blow for the station. Ken’s show has Radio 2’s largest audience at 8.2m listeners, about a million ahead of the breakfast show. The world really did seem to stop for PopMaster.

Ken has been heard on Radio 2 for 43 years, has been full-time for 38 of them and on mid-mornings for a total of 35 years (a four year run from 1986 to 1990 and then back from 1992). Three decades on the same show on the same station is pretty remarkable so you can understand Ken’s decision to quit whilst he’s ahead, and well before he’s inevitably given the push. No doubt Radio 2’s daytime music policy was also behind the decision.   

Ken got his break into radio by volunteering at Glasgow’s Hospital Broadcasting Service. One of his contemporaries at HBS was a young lad named Charles Nove. In 2018 they got together for an hour as part of an HBS 48-hour charity marathon. Here’s what they had to say:

It was through BBC Scotland announcer Iain Purdon, himself a former HBS volunteer, that Ken got a job as radio announcer. His first broadcast was “a badly read 10 o’clock news” and, typically for that time, his other duties ranged from programme links, introducing concert to reading football results. In 1977, and into 1978, Radio Scotland had Radio 4 as its sustaining service so the announcers were expected to not only introduce any Scottish opt-outs, but to also cover all gaps between programmes emanating from London.  From November 1978, coinciding with a number of other wavelength changes across the BBC network, Radio Scotland became a full single service for all of the country. Ken was one of the voices heard on the opening gala night and he secured both a weeknight show Night Beat – ‘music and chat for your late night entertainment’ – alternating duties with Iain Purdon and later Charles Nove, plus the Saturday morning edition of Good Morning, Scotland with ‘news and interviews, music to suit all tastes, a look at the gardener’s world, information for the traveller and a guide to what’s on in Scotland’.     

By February 1980 Ken was presenting his own afternoon show on Radio Scotland, initially 3 days a week then every weekday later that year. By now freelance rather than on the staff, he switched to mid-mornings in 1981, ultimately achieving a listenership of 500,000, and was then back to afternoons in January 1983. Ken was also presenting the Sunday morning show Beat the Band. The concept here was that listeners would phone in and challenge the studio band, the Bernard Sumner Quartet, to play whatever tune they named. If they didn’t know it the caller could claim a £4 reward.

Ken had already started to make the occasional appearance on national radio in 1980 when he took over the presenting duties from David Findlay, who’d tragically died earlier that year, on the occasional (every 6 weeks or so) Scottish editions of Radio 2 Ballroom featuring Jim MacLeod and his Band.

In 1982 Ken was keen to move south and went down to London to meet Radio 2 boss David Hatch. The result was some holiday cover for Ray Moore on Radio 2’s early show for a couple of weeks that September and a full month the following May. It was something of a baptism of fire on his first day as Terry Wogan, who was due to follow on the breakfast show, had slept in and Ken had to cover for an hour. It got his name known. Ken and Ray’s styles were not dissimilar and their careers would continue to cross until Ray untimely death in 1989. It would be Ken that presented the tribute programme to Ray. 

By now a known name at Broadcasting House it was Incoming Radio 2 controller Bryant Marriott that offered Ken his first regular show on the station, a Saturday late-night show to start in January 1984. Publicising the show in the Radio Times the article opened on the unscheduled Wogan cover and let the rest of the country know about his mammoth three hour and 20 minute afternoon show on Radio Scotland. As to his broadcasting style he described it to be “as natural as possible under the circumstances. I like to think of the people I’m talking to as rather like me. That way it’s easy to relate to them.”

1984 proved to be a busy year for Ken with his daily show in Scotland, weekend commutes to London for the Saturday show as well as covering for Steve Jones on Radio 2’s lunchtime show for a couple of weeks and then a fortnight in for John Dunn at drivetime. The reward was to be offered the prime slot, weekday breakfast starting in January 1985 when Wogan left to start his 3 times a week BBC1 chat show. The move meant an end to his time at Radio Scotland. Wogan’s natural successor had been seen as Ray Moore – David Hamilton’s name was also in the frame – so Ken’s promotion was big news. 

The scheduling of the breakfast show was a little crazy, starting quite late at 8.05 and running to 10.30 am but in the event Ken’s tenure was short, just fifteen months. From April 1986 they’d offered it to ex-Fleet Street editor Derek Jameson. 

To compensate for the loss of the breakfast slot Ken was moved to a weekday mid-morning show, a time that would become his natural home for most of the next 30+ years, The show was mainly requests and dedications (what we now seem to call ‘shout outs’), billed as ‘a mid-morning mix of melodic music, featuring your favourite Golden Moments’.

This was a busy time for Ken. In addition to his regular music shows he also appeared elsewhere on the network. In 1986 he took over as team captain, and later as quizmaster, on the long-running quiz Pop Score. He also chaired The ABC Quiz which ran for six series between 1986 and 1991. From 1997 through to 2018 he was a semi-regular presenter of Friday Night is Music Night.

Of course Ken has also been linked with the radio commentary for the Eurovision Song Contest for over three decades. He took over from Ray Moore in 1988 and has covered them all since. Prior to that he had been involved with A Song for Europe when he was the Scottish spokesperson in 1978 and first appeared in-vision in the role in 1983. He continued to be associated with A Song for Europe for many years, either providing the radio commentary whilst Terry Wogan covered the TV side or in previewing the entries on his mid-morning show.    

In this montage of clips you’ll hear Ken from 1984 through to 1990. The recordings date from 18 August 1984, 22 December 1984, 29 December 1984, 27 January 1986, 7 April 1986, Olympics coverage 24 September 1988, 9 February 1989, 2 April 1990, The ABC Quiz 18 August 1986 and the Eurovision Song Contest 5 May 1990.

Over on Radio 4 Ken presented the Saturday morning travel show Breakaway between September 1990 and April 1992. Meanwhile on the BBC World Service he had a weekly 30 minute show starting in May 1988 and running through to August 1993.     

London Calling (May 1988) announces the start of
Ken's BBC World Service show

Ken would occasionally appear as a panellist on radio quizzes or game shows including Some of These Days, The Press Gang, Quote...Unquote and, in this example, On the Air. This was a quiz about radio and in this recording from the fourth series from 1987 he’s appearing with three broadcasting veterans: Michael Aspel, Barry Took and Nigel Rees. On the Air was devised and presented by David Rider.  

It was change again in April 1990 when a reshuffle under yet another controller, this time Frances Line, saw Ken moved to a weekday late show with a 10 pm start, taking over from Brian Matthew’s highly successful Round Midnight.  He was told that it was “a chance to launch a brand new programme into a new area”. Ken saw it as a demotion. It offered some features such as reports from the BBC’s regional correspondents, a short story, a newspaper review but by Ken’s own admission he struggled with the hours. “I was a morning person.”

That show only lasted nine months as from January 1991 he did a swap with Chris Stuart, who’d been looking after the early show since the death of Ray Moore. Finally after a year of early shifts from 6 January 1992 Ken was moved back to weekday mid-mornings with a 9.30 start. Exactly where he’s been ever since, until this week. 

At first those mid-morning shows picked up he’d left off in 1990 with requests and dedications. The main feature was Pick of the Hits (1992-96) with listeners also asked to send in their Pick of the Year letters. 1998 saw a bit of an overhaul as the show gained an extra 30 minutes –Jimmy Young’s show start time being moved from 11.30 to noon – and the introduction of The Headline Hunt (1998-2001), though I’m scratching my head to recall what this was all about. Two others features that year have become part of the radio landscape: Love Songs and, of course, PopMaster. Tracks of My Years would follow in 2000.      

The 2022 PopMaster trophy

On the origins of PopMaster Ken recalls a meeting with his producer Colin Martin. “Colin suggested a quiz might bring some added value to the show, so between us, with the invaluable additions to the think tank of pop maestro Phil Swern, we came up with the format and title for PopMaster.” First heard on 16 February 1998 the format has hardly changed since with its straightforward scoring system, six point bonus questions and the 3 in 10. The prizes have changed, from an inflatable chair, shower radio, Radio 2 watch, CD wallet, digital radio, through to Bluetooth headphones and the much sought after One Year Out Tee Shirt. Showing great foresight Ken, Colin and Phil trademarked PopMaster in July 1998 which is why radio’s most listened to quiz is going with Ken over to GHR.   

On 28 May 2021 Ken hosted a PopMaster rematch between the first ever contestants back in 1998, brothers David and Mark Taylor. It’s not exactly a high-scoring contest.

Ken’s last show on BBC Radio 2 is this Friday (3 March). His first show on Greatest Hits Radio is on Monday 3 April.

In 2020 Ken spoke to David Lloyd for his Radio Conversations series. You’ll find that online on Audioboom, Podfollow etc. in 2013 Tim Blackmore spoke to Ken for the Radio Academy podcast. I’ve uploaded that interview on YouTube.

Here’s Ken in action on this selection of airchecks.

(1) From 18 February 1985 just six weeks into Ken’s run on the breakfast show.

(2) Later that year on 14 November 1985 a scoped version of the first hour of the breakfast show.

(3) From 24 December 1990 Ken is covering the early show a couple of weeks ahead of him taking over the programme.

(4) Moving on a year here’s Ken again on the early show on 17 December 1991.

(5) A mid-morning show from 30 January 2004 with all the regular features. Tracks of My Years features Gary Jules and listeners can vote for the final Something for the Weekend record. Note how PopMaster is in two separate parts and contestants get a choice of three bonus categories.

(6) Almost exactly five years later from 28 January 2009 with Tracks of My Years chosen by Craig David. We hear the tail end of Terry’s show, Lynn Bowles has the traffic and the news is read by Charles Nove and Fenella Fudge.

(7) Ken celebrates his 70^th birthday from his home studio in this recording from 2 February 2021.

Radio 2 show dates:

Saturday night late show 21 January 1984 to 29 December 1984

Breakfast Show 7 January 1985 to 4 April 1986

Mid-morning show 7 April 1986 to 30 March 1990

Late show (Monday-Thursday) 2 April 1990 to 27 December 1990

Weekday Early show 7 January 1991 to 20 December 1991

Mid-morning show 6 January 1992 to 3 March 2023 

Popping the Questions

Question: What's the name of the first Radio 2 pop quiz presented by Ken Bruce? If you answered Pop Master then you could be said to be "one quiz out!" The answer is Pop Score, the quiz that ran from 1972 to 1992 which Ken chaired for the last five series.

Devised by Light Entertainment producer Richard Willcox is was initially seen as a Radio 1 versus Radio 2 contest (early series were carried on both stations) with Tony Blackburn captaining the Radio 1 side and Terry Wogan representing Radio 2. Popping the questions was Pete Murray. Willcox continued to produce and write all the questions, and indeed do the audience warm-up, for the first fifteen series until Mark Robson took over production. By this time Willcox  had already brought in a certain Phil 'The Collector' Swern to help set the questions. Phil had previously attended some of the show's recordings to 'help' Tony with some of his answers until he was thrown out of the Paris studio a few shows later.    

Early guest stars were a  little eclectic to say the least. You can hardly say it was on trend, more like a decade behind. Many of the musicians had been sixties hitmakers with virtually no current chart performers taking part in the early series with perhaps the exception of Lynsey de Paul, Dana, Neil Sedaka, Long John Baldry and Mike Batt. But Deryck Guyler and Reg Varney?

In time under Willcox's tenure a smaller pool of contributors was called upon, often appearing on a other radio panel games. For instance we have actor Patrick Mower (also on The Law Game), singing impressionist Johnny More and Ray Alan (both on The Impressionists), Lance Percival (also on Wit's End and Just a Minute) and Duggie Brown (also on The Name's the Game and Dealing with Daniels). Some folk such as Tim Rice (also on Just a Minute and Trivia Test Match) really knew their stuff but generally it was a chance to muck about and the quiz side was never taken that seriously.    

Later series, produced by Robson, Dirk Maggs and Phil Clarke took things a little more seriously, but only just, with people from the music business and DJs. Typically a show might include rounds such as continuing to sing a song after its faded (think of Clue's Pick Up Song), correcting song titles, identifying song covers or  records played backwards, and a final quick-fire round. Throughout the quiz the chairman would, depending on how many points they'd scored in the round, read out so many letters of a song title that team's could guess at any time for bonus points.   

The old Blackburn/Wogan rivalary ended in 1977, though they returned for the 200th edition in 1987. Coming in as team captain for Terry was David Hamilton and a couple of series later Ray Moore replaced Tony. Ray in turn would become chairman when Pete left the BBC and after a series of different captains - Joe Brown, Duggie Brown and Helen Shapiro, who eventually became a show regular - new boy Ken Bruce was drafted in.

Following Ray's untimely death Ken took over as quizmaster (Ken was also hosting the Radio 2 general knowledge show The ABC Quiz) and with David off to commercial radio the team captains settled down to be Helen Shapiro and Alan Freeman.       

It all came to an end in April 1992 by which time panel games were virtually a thing of the past  on Radio 2.

Six years later Ken Bruce and Phil Swern, who had both worked together on Pop Score,  put their heads together (together with Ken's then producer Colin Martin) and came up with the format for Pop Master. The daily music quiz which stops the country is celebrated tonight in the Radio 2 programme One Year Out-The PopMasterStory and tomorrow sees the second All Day quiz.

Series Details

Question masters:

Pete Murray series 1 to 10.

Ray Moore series 11 to 13

Ken Bruce series 14 to 18 

The theme tune used for the majority of Pop Score's run was Chicken Feathers by film and TV composer Pat Williams from his 1968 album Think. In the late 80s Weather Report's Birdland was used for a while.  

Series 1 Team captains Tony Blackburn (TB) and Terry Wogan (TW)

24 Oct 1972-6 Feb 1973

Guests: Ken Goodwin, Alan Price, Lynsey de Paul, Kenny Lynch, Roger Greenaway, Rolf Harris, Peter Noone, Vince Hill, Dana, Roy Castle, Anita Harris, Georgie Fame, Tim Rice, Lance Percival andTony Brandon

Series 2 TB TW

20 June 1973-20 Mar 1974

Roger Whittaker, Peter Noone, Tony Brandon, Lance Percival, Wally Whyton, Leslie Crowther, Bob Monkhouse, Mitch Murray, Roy Castle, Dana, Chris Barber, Joe Brown, Jimmy Tarbuck, Adrienne Posta, David Jacobs, George Chisholm, Kenneth Williams, Tim Rice, Gerry Marsden, Peter Jones, Deryck Guyler, June Whitfield, Bernard Cribbins, Johnny Pearson, Matt Monro, Lonnie Donegan, Rolf Harris, Ron Goodwin, Reg Varney, Eric Idle, Ray Fell, Frankie Vaughan, Michael Aspel, Diana Dors, Jon Pertwee, Kenny Ball, Neil Sedaka, Dickie Henderson, Peter Goodwright and Henry Cooper.  

Series 3 TB TW (Paul Burnett covered for TB on two shows and Tim Rice covered for TW on two shows)

2 Oct 1974-26 Mar 1975 Leslie Crowther, Henry Cooper, Cathy McGowan, Bob Monkhouse, Joe Brown, Kenny Ball, Ray Alan, Long John Baldry, Michael Parkinson, Marian Montgomery, Ray Fell, Vince Hill, Clive lea, Tim Rice, Ronnie Carroll, Matt Monro, Mike Batt, Mitch Murray, Cindy Kent, Roy Castle, Diana Dors, Norman, Newell, Roger Whittaker, Ray Barrett and Roger Kitter 

Series 4 TB TW

30 Oct 1975-22 Jan 1976

Bernard Cribbins, Tim Rice, Diana Dors, Kenny Ball, Roy Hudd, Ray Alan, George Chisholm, Long John Baldry, Lonnie Donegan, Rolf Harris, Clive Lea and Johnny Moore

Series 5 TB TW

13 Sept-29 Nov 1976

Leslie Crowther, Diana Dors, Bernard Cribbins, Tim Rice, Rolf Harris, Charlie Williams, Johnny More, Duggie Brown, Bobby Knutt, Jack Douglas, Patrick Mower

Series 6 TB TW

1 Sept-17 Nov 1977

Bobby Knutt, Bernard Cribbins, Faith Brown, Derek Griffiths, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Vince Hill, Duggie Brown, Ray Alan, Johnny More, Patrick Mower, Dave Evans and Tim Rice (also captain on a couple of shows) 

Series 7 TB David Hamilton (DH)

11 Sept-27 Nov 1978

Lance Percival, Joe Brown, Mike Batt, Clive Lea, Patrick Mower, Johnny More, Tony Brandon, Bill Oddie, Rolf Harris, Bobby Knutt, Dave Evans and Tim Rice

Series 8 TB DH

19 May-4 Aug 1980

Dave Dee, Lance Percival, Mike Batt, Vince Hill, Joe Brown, Tim Rice, Duggie Brown, Bernard Cribbins, Bobby Knutt and Johnny More

An edition of Pop Score from this series is on Mixcloud here though sadly the last couple of minutes are missing.

Series 9 DH Ray Moore (RM)

24 Aug -9 Nov 1981

Faith brown, Johnny More, Duggie Brown, Lance Percival, Rolf Harris, Tim Rice, Joe Longthorne, Dave Evans, Vince Hill, Acker Bilk and Joe Brown

Series 10 DH RM

20 June-5 Sep 1983

Helen Shapiro, Acker Bilk, Joe Brown, Vince Hill, Duggie Brown (also captain on two shows), Patrick Mower, Susan Maughan, Freddie Garrity and Mike Berry

I've unearthed the 7th programme from this series.

Series 11 DH (Other captain was either Duggie Brown, Joe Brown or Helen Shapiro)

19 Feb-14 May 1985

Rolf Harris, Mike Berry, Acker Bilk, Helen Shapiro, Clodagh Rodgers, Susan Maughan, Frank Ifield, and Russ Conway

I've previously posted the 11th programme in this series before but only recently uploaded it to YouTube

Series 12 DH Ken Bruce (KB)

15 Mar-24 May 1986

Frank Ifield, Acker Bilk, Duggie Brown, Helen Shapiro, Lonnie Donegan, Vince Hill, Helen Shapiro, Tim Rice, Des Cluskey, Con Cluskey, Noddy Holder and Paul Nicholas

Series 13 DH KB

14 Mar-20 June 1987 (includes 200th edition with Pete Murray, Terry Wogan and Tony Blackburn)

Alvin Stardust, Helen Shapiro, Lynn Sheppard, Denny Laine, Rick Wakeman, Noddy Holder, Steve Marriott, Acker Bilk, Tim Rice and Frank Ifield 

Series 14 Helen Shapiro (HS) + either Joe Brown, TB, Adrian Love or Paul Jones (First to be compiled by Phil Swern)

12 Mar-28 May 1988

Cathy McGowan, Adrian Love, Tony Blackburn, Duggie Brown, Dave Dee, Gloria Hunniford, Rick Wakeman, Tommy Vance, Noddy Holder, Robbie Vincent, Tom McGuinness

Series 15 HS + either Adrian Love or Alan Freeman (AF)

25 Mar-10 June 1989

Duggie Brown, Rick Wakeman, Rolf Harris, Peter Dickson, Noddy Holder, John Craven, Tim Rice, Alvin Stardust, Paul Jones and Vince Hill

Series 16 HS AF (Producer Dirk Maggs)

21 Apr-7 July 1990

Janice Long, Adrian Love, Sheila Ferguson, Paul Jones, Duggie Brown, Stephanie de Sykes, Joe Brown, Rose-Marie, Don Powell, Lyn Paul and Colin Berry

The first edition of this series is available on Mixcloud here. 

Series 17 HS AF

27 April-15 June 1991

Cheryl Baker, Adrian Love, Wendy Richard, Noddy Holder, Alvin Stardust, Janice Long, Rose-Marie and Colin Berry

Series 18 HS AF (Prod Phil Clarke)

28 Feb-17 April 1992

Terry Wogan, Pete Murray, Adrian Love, Lyn Paul, Lynsey de Paul, Alvin Stardust, Noddy Holder and Rose-Marie

As is typical with virtually all Radio 2 panel shows from this era they've never been repeated since they ended so if you've got any recordings of Pop Score please let me know.

We Stop for PopMaster

Today Ken Bruce is hosting an All Day PopMaster contest with DJs from the BBC and commercial radio taking part.

PopMaster was first featured on Ken's mid-morning show in 1998, although 1996 is quoted in the quiz book. Two years out! (Oh, how I wanted to type one year out). The idea for the quiz had been suggested by Ken's producer Colin Martin and they enlisted Phil 'The Collector' Swern to compile the questions.  

I've managed to find an example from 2004 where the format was slightly different from the current set-up. Part1 occurred at 10.30 but contestant number two didn't appear until 11.15 and then after another record the Three in Ten. See how you get on with these questions from 30 January 2004. They certainly seem easier than the current question level. 

    

All Day PopMaster starts during the Radio 2 breakfast show with Dermot O'Leary sitting in for Zoe and the final during Sara Cox's drivetime show.

Can I Take That Again? - Part 3

Imagine playing the unexpurgated version of a record rather than the radio edit. And on Radio 2 daytime too! Poor old Stewpot got some stick when the explicit version of The Beautiful South's Don't Marry Her slipped through the net.

Not sure of the exact date of this incident though I'm guessing it was the year of release 1996. You'll hear Ed fade down the track and then the following day Ken Bruce and Jimmy Young have some fun at Ed's expense.

Thank you to whoever sent me this audio earlier in the year. Apologies but I've lost your name and email address.

On the Light - Part 8 "Music for Everyone"

Friday Night has been Music Night for over sixty years. In the eighth of nine posts celebrating the BBC Light Programme I pay tribute to Friday Night is Music Night, still a fixture in Radio 2's schedule and one that takes the accolade of being the world's longest running live orchestral music show.

First heard on 25 September 1953 (1) the show was created to showcase the BBC Concert Orchestra that had been formed the previous year. (2) The brief to principal conductor Sidney Torch was to create a Friday-night show that would "help people relax after the week's hard work and put them in the right mood for a happy weekend."

The programme's repertoire consisted of that loosely-defined genre of 'light' music, operetta, military music, show tunes with the addition of songs from the Great American songbook, film themes and, more recently jazz classic and pop songs.   

Sidney Torch (above) appeared on Friday Night is Music Night until 1972 but his vision, and indeed, his arrangements remain part of the programme and are often revisited. Other principal conductors have included Vilem Tausky, Kenneth Alwyn, Marcus Dods, Ashley Lawrence, Barry Wadsworth and Robin Stapleton.

Also part of the FNMN repertory company were pianists William Davies and Robert Docker, soprano  Cynthia Glover, baritone John Lawrenson and the delightfully named brother and sister act Vernon and Maryetta Midgley. In the early shows the BBC Men's Chorus would feature; later John McCarthy directed a vocal group called The Friday Knights, subsequently just billed as The John McCarthy Singers.  

Friday Night is Music Night has always toured the country, and occasionally over in Europe, but between 1953 and 1972 its main base was the Camden Theatre. From 1972 until 2002 the usual venue was the Hippodrome, Golders Green.

Like many Light Programme music shows the presenting duties fell to one of the continuity announcers. At first this was Philip Slessor and then from 1958 to 1972 the main presenter was Jimmy Kingsbury with some shows being picked up by John Webster, John Hobday, Robin Boyle (pictured above), David Geary, Frank Phillips, Jon Curle, Bryan Martin, Douglas Smith and Eugene Fraser. Robin would become the main presenter, and, to date,  the programme's longest-serving between 1972 and 1998. When he stepped down the role was fulfilled by Richard Baker, Brain Kay, John Dunn and the current incumbent Ken Bruce, as well as many guest presenters. 

For the programme selection I'm turning the clock back just twelve years when Friday Night is Music Night celebrated it's fiftieth anniversary. Ken Bruce presents the show from the Symphony Hall in Birmingham with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Robin Stapleton. This show was broadcast on Radio 2 on 5 September 2003.

1 - In its early days the programme had an appreciative audience of four million (1958 figures). By 1963 it pulled in one and a half million.

2 - It traces its origins to the BBC Theatre Orchestra that was re-formed as the BBC Opera Orchestra in 1949 and then the Concert Orchestra three years later.   

February 2024 note: in April 2020 Friday Night is Music Night moved to Sunday evenings becoming Sunday Night is Music Night. Radio 2 dropped the programme in late 2023, apart from occasional 'special' concerts. From April 2024 Friday Night is Music Night returns on Radio 3. 

A Day on 2

Set the controls for the 18th of February 1985.

Imagine being able to fashion a radio time-travelling device that can receive your favourite show from the past or being able to listen again to an historic broadcast (and no I’m not talking about 4 Extra!)  

OK, so it probably wouldn’t be BBC Radio 2 on 18 February 1985. As far as I know nothing earth-shatteringly significant happened that day. But, for no real apparent reason, thirty years ago I decided to stick some tapes in my cassette recorder and capture that days output, well a large chunk of it.

This is your chance to hear again how the station sounded in the mid-80s, from Night Ride to Round Midnight, stopping off at the JY show, John Dunn’s Mystery Voice and all points in between.  Here's a quick rundown of the day in jingle form and the full Radio Times schedule.

These are the technical bits: I’m posting the clips on my YouTube channel just to ensure a wider audience. I’ve chopped out most of the commercial music tracks in order to avoid any copyright notices. So far this seems to have worked, though for some reason listeners in Germany may not be able to hear all the programmes, sorry Germany.

I’ll be posting the shows online during the day of the 18 February 2015 at the same time as their original start time – although to avoid staying up all night Peter Dickson and Colin Berry’s show will be available on Tuesday night. Each time a programme is added I’ll update this blog post, send a Tweet and update my Facebook page. All times in GMT of course.

Unfortunately I didn’t record every show that day. So you won’t hear the specialist music shows with Alan Dell and Humph, the mid-afternoon sequence Music All the Way or that evening’s Star Sound Special.  However, elsewhere on this blog you can read about and hear Alan Dell, Humphrey Lyttelton and Music All the Way.  Also the quality of the audio is variable, this is nothing to do with my FM reception at the time but more the fact I used budget tapes.

Kicking things off at 1 a.m. was Peter Dickson with a suitably jokey start to Nightride. Peter took care of the overnight shifts alternating with either Bill Rennells or Charles Nove. Lack of needletime meant we still had doses of the Radio Orchestra, the Brian Lemon Trio and so on. Making the first of two appearances that day is John Fogerty, whose new album Centrefield had just been released, although Peter seems not to know the former lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival. There’s a also a talk from Barney Lawrence – anyone know who he is? This kind of (mildly) comical talk was still a feature of Nightride just as they had been on You and the Night and the Music. 

Following Nightride was a repeat of the previous day’s Two’s Best with John Dunn, demonstrating that the current overnight repeat policy is nothing new. Sadly I didn’t record this programme.

At the time the king of the early shows was Colin Berry who’d had early starts, on and off, since January 1976. Getting up before dawn every day must have been taking its toll as Colin reports he’s practically wrecked the studio and nearly garrotted himself with his headphone lead. Note also a mention of changes that evening on BBC TV, he’s referring to a new BBC1 globe and the launch of EastEnders. Listen out too for a news summary from David Bellan.



At 6 a.m. enter the still much missed Ray Moore. Ray’s on form this morning, witness that lovely intro into the Shakin’ Stevens track There’s also mention of the announcers over on Radio 3 with Tarmac Rigby and Miss Hughes who’s apparently “gone into tax exile”. Towards the end of this recording catch Bill Rennells voicing a trail for Gloria’s show later that day and her special guest David Cassidy – more on that to follow.



It’s “hello chums” from Ken Bruce on the Radio 2 breakfast show. Perhaps it should have been the Late, Late Breakfast Show as Ken didn’t go on-air until 8.05 am. At the time of this recording he’d been presenting the programme for just six weeks. Punctuating proceedings are Steve Madden reading the news and Pause for Thought with the Rev Roger Royle. Listeners to Radio 2’s current morning output will notice how much calmer it all was thirty years ago; no shouting, no whooping, no laughing acolytes and no-one else to read the traffic news.

The matters on Jimmy Young’s agenda at 10.30 are the Falklands, the miners, school dinners and Winter Fuel Allowances. In this extract he interviews SNP MP Gordon Wilson about his Cold Climate Allowance Bill and Peter Smith of teachers’ union AMMA about school kids supposedly having ‘chips with everything’. In contrast to Jeremy Vine’s show no listeners appeared on the programme to voice their opinions, all the feedback from “the listener” is read out by Jim himself. “Bye for now!”

“Hello there!” It’s amazing to think that Radio 2 took an hour out each lunchtime for David Jacobs to play “our kind of music”. Much as I love the music he played it really did seem like the station was stepping back to the days of the Light Programme, even including a track by Frank Chacksfield, a regular on the Light.



As a reminder that Radio 2 used to have women presenters during the day on weekdays here’s Gloria Hunniford with an edited version of her 90-minute show. Promised guest David Cassidy is a no-show, having backed out at 12 noon due to a “contractual difficulty”, so instead its Bonnie Langford! Glo’s second guest is author John Byrne Cooke, son of Alistair Cooke. 

From 3.30 pm it’s as if Radio 2 had a short interlude and put up the audio equivalent of the test card whilst Music All the Way was on. This was a 30-minute sequence of music on record and BBC sessions. I didn’t record the programme for 18 February but you can hear an edition from February 1986 here. Of Music All the Way former Radio 2 presenter and announcer Charles Nove commented: “An odd little duty, that one, which involved heading for one of Broadcasting House's least popular studios (bit of lashup, no windows, dodgy ventilation etc) and doing the live top and tail for this, and playing in the music, ‘supervised’ by the BBC's most panicky producer and a bored engineer. Overmanning? Never!”

In all the recordings so far you’ll have heard very little new music, and certainly nothing that would trouble the charts. That’s why David Hamilton’s show was such a breath of fresh air, and rightly dubbed “the music show”. There’s also plenty of listener interaction and prizes available in The Music Game and Spot the Intro. 

The reigning monarch of drivetime for an eon was John Dunn. The show’s mix of music, topical interviews and a quiz – in this case the long-running Mystery Voice competition – is still the template for today’s Radio 2 offering. Providing the programme rundown at the end of this recording is John Marsh.



There are no recordings of Alan Dell’s double bill of the Dance Band Days and the Big Band Era but you can hear other editions here. Nor did I tape Humphrey Lyttelton with The Best of Jazz but there’s plenty of Humph here. And again I inexplicably failed to record Star Sound Special in which John Benson featured the music of Nelson Riddle. But what you can hear again is the third edition of a new panel game, and the second dose that day of David Hamilton, in Some of These Days. The premise of the programme was to answer questions about news, events, TV shows and music that happened on that day in history. On the panel are Peter Jones, Sheila Tracy, Fiona Fullerton and Barry Cryer.  



Closing proceedings for the day is Brian Matthew with the daily arts and music show Round Midnight, at this point more than halfway through its 12 year run.  Brian’s guests are Patrick Marr and James Roose-Evans talking about the revival of George Axelrod’s play The Seven Year Itch and author Nickolai Tolstoy plugging his latest book The Quest for Merlin. 

Christmas Countdown – 6 December – Ken Bruce

Amazingly Ken has occupied Radio 2’s mid-morning slot for twenty years; it’s a broadcasting institution.

In this recording you’ll hear all the usual features: The Love Song, Pop Master, Tracks of My Years (Ralph McTell) and the banter with travel reporter Lynn Bowles. This show also includes a magical live performance from Carole King.
 

Ken Bruce_061211

Tomorrow Radio Humberside.