The Wireless Foxtrot

The early days of radio broadcasting inspired a number of songs about the new medium. There was Flotsam and Jetsam’s Little Betty Bouncer who ‘loves an announcer down at the BBC’, On the Air by Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans and Radio Times –‘the daily times that Big Ben chimes are radio times’- played by Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Band. Predating these songs was 2-L-0, a foxtrot by Montague Clayton published in 1923, and recently discussed on the British Broadcasting Century Facebook page.  

Was 2LO the first tune written about a radio station? Probably. But was it the first tune about radio? Well no. Months before the British Broadcasting Company came into existence in November 1922 there was song called Everybody’s List’ning-in.

According to The Era newspaper this was ‘the First Wireless Song’. On 24 May 1922 they announced it as follows: 'Messrs Chappell and Co are publishing the first wireless song fox-trot, entitled Everybody’s List’ning In, both the words and music by Ernest Longstaffe, the composer of Loony Melody and Auld Nest and incidentally of the music of His Girl now running at the Gaiety'.

A few days later on 27 May 1922 London’s The Evening News said: 'Inspired apparently by the publicity given of late in the Press to the subject of wireless telephony and broadcasting, Ernest Longstaffe, the composer who wrote a good deal of the  music of The Golden Moth and His Girl, has written a song fox-trot called Everybody’s List’ning-in'. 

What’s remarkable is that when the song was published there was actually very little coming through the ether for listeners to tune their cat whiskers into. There was the frivolities of Peter Eckersley and his team at 2MT in Writtle that had started in the February and, going on air the same month the song was published, 2LO in London and 2ZY in Manchester. Of course, if the atmospherics were in your favour you could also pick up stations from the continent and even the USA.  

An internet search reveals just a short extract of the music and lyrics from the song which goes: ‘Everybody’s listening. Sitting at home and listening. Everybody’s list’ning in. Pick ‘em up as they go, to and fro’. Whether the song was recorded on a 78 remains, for the moment, a mystery. It was, however, broadcast at least once as it was played on Glasgow station 5SC during the afternoon Hour of Melody on 21 January 1924. (With thanks to Mike Barraclough for spotting this).  

As for Ernest Longstaffe (pictured above), he was a composer, arranger and conductor who would eventually join the staff of the BBC. From 1926 he worked on dozens of radio revues and pantomimes, many of the early ones starring Tommy Handley, and the concert party show The Air-do-Wells. He became a full-time staff member as a producer in the Variety department in May 1935 and was mostly associated with The Pig and Whistle (1938-44), a series of rural tales centred round a village pub, written by Charles Penrose, aka The Laughing Policeman, and The Happidrome (1941-47) set in an imaginary variety theatre. Each week it would sign off with the song ‘We three in Happidrome, working for the BBC, Ramsbottom and Enoch and me.’ Longest-running though, was Palace of Varieties (1937-39 & 1944-58) which he both produced and conducted the resident orchestra. It aimed to recapture the atmosphere of old-time Music Halls. Longstaffe was billed as the ‘licensee and manager’ of the establishment and the entertainment in the early programmes was provided by the likes of Suzette Tarri, Al Bowlly, Harry Hemsley, Clapham and Dwyer and Gillie Potter. Various people chaired proceedings including actor Bill Stephens, Nosmo King and Rob Currie. For the recordings the artists wore full make-up and traditional costumes and the studio audience were given song sheets and urged to join in the choruses of the old favourites. Presumably this provided the inspiration for television’s The Good Old Days.    

If you know more about Everybody’s List’ning In please contact me.

Tune-in to 1978

Tracking down programme schedules for the original ILR stations is a bit of a hit and miss affair. They were never granted any column inches in the TV Times as the ITV contractors had little vested interest in the stations, though ATV, Granada and Scottish did have minority holdings in BRMB, Piccadilly and Clyde.

Local newspapers would carry listings and each station would often publish publicity leaflets or their own mini newspaper.  There was some coverage in the NME as I recall and between 1972 and 1975 we had the subscription-only Script "the magazine on alternative radio"  whose remit covered the offshore and land-based pirates as well as both commercial and BBC local radio. 

Re-titled Radio Guide in 1975, by 1976 it dealt exclusively with the ILR stations and later that year was published by Independent Television Publications, the association of ITV companies behind the TV Times.  As a stand-alone ITP magazine it was short-lived and in 1978 became part of the quarterly Tune-in (a TV Times Extra). In 1980 that too was dropped just on the point when the network of stations was expanding beyond the initial nineteen.

So what was on your local commercial station forty years ago? The Christmas edition of Tune-in features cover stars Olivia Newton-John and Cliff Richard. The Radio Guide, from Beacon to Victory, features dozens of familiar names though I reckon there's no more than a handful still regularly on-air.