Channel Travel Radio

On occasional forays back to the UK (when we “allez to Calais”) taking the autoroute north roadside signs encourage us tune in to Autoroute Info 107.7, a bilingual traffic news service. I was recently reminded that a similar service existed on the other side of la Manche when I came across this audio clip of Channel Travel Radio (an Audioboo posted by user 'belfastchild', now longer active):

Channel Travel Radio first aired on 107.6 FM in August 1995. But how did it work? I am indebted to broadcaster Ian McGregor, who helped set up the station, for this lowdown.  

Channel Travel Radio was licensed as a long running RSL paid for by Eurotunnel and located in their control room. The broadcasters sat in a glass booth behind the controllers so we could see everything that was going on.

Eurotunnel sub-contracted the first licence to Capital Radio to run the station. It was live for eight hours a day (7-11 a.m. and 1-5 p.m.) and a loop tape (no real time information) the rest of the time.   The shows were double-headed with a French speaking co-host.

The late Gavin Lawrence set it up, Capital sub-contracted the day-to-day running of the station to him.  I helped him devise the format and we practised it together one Easter Sunday afternoon, making tweaks as we went along, but it was his gig, he was our boss and answerable directly to Capital.

Capital's format was very upbeat, everything had a music bed and I recall we had drop ins from Dr Fox and Alan Freeman.  I remember one sunny day playing Mungo Jerry's In the Summertime (for we had free reign on the playlist) and the big boss from Capital, who happened to heading down the M20 for a meeting with us at the time, said to me afterwards he was fine about the song but would prefer I played the Shaggy version, so they wanted very contemporary.  Eurotunnel wanted a toned down format and eventually gave the contract to Radio Services Limited, who made it “more Radio 4” with music, and very toned down music at that including a lot of classical.  Eurotunnel managed to run it live 24/7.  The presenters worked longer shifts and pre-recorded carts were used for the French announcements rather than a second presenter.

I recall there were two sets of 'partner' voices.  Male presenters would get a female jingle voice and French announcer and female colleagues would have a male voice.

Although the Radio Services station had announcers on duty round the clock a lot of the output, i.e. weather forecasts, currency checks etc, was pre-recorded.  The live links were mostly reserved for real time running information.

Unfortunately Ian’s whole audio archive was wiped last year but with the help of former colleague Michaela Segol here are a couple of clips of the Capital format station featuring both Michaela and Ian:

Courtesy of Simon Trevallion is this recording of the Radio Services incarnation:

Channel Travel Radio’s broadcast licence was revoked in September 2000 following Eurotunnel’s decision to pull the plug on further funding for the station. Ian continues:

The stumbling block was that the Radio Authority licence required the station to be impartial, so we had to give out ferry news as well - and of course the ferry operators weren't contributing to the station's running costs, which always stuck in Eurotunnel's craw.  Having said that, the Eurotunnel exit from the M20 came before the ferry turn offs, so Eurotunnel was always gleeful when there was weather disruption as many ferry customers would make a quick decision to bail off the motorway early and take the shuttle exit.   Eurotunnel eventually closed the station and handed the licence back to the Radio Authority.

The presenters on the Capital run Channel Travel Radio were:

Gavin Lawrence (BBC Radio Kent, BBC Essex, BBC London, Invicta, Arrow FM, Sovereign FM)

Ian McGregor (BBC Radio Kent, BBC Travel Centre, now running Just Talking Communications)

Julie Maddocks (also at Invicta FM, ITN News Channel, BBC Radio Kent and now BBC London)

Hosting the French side of things were:

Michaela Segol (who would become the station manager under Radio Services Ltd and then Programme Coordinator at KMFM)

Aurelie Claudel (previously in sales at Invicta)

Ann Marie Glasheen (a Belgian actress)

Pippa Sparkes (now with Metro Networks and BBC London travel)

On the station run by Radio Services Ltd (under Group MD Lisa Kerr) the station manager and presenter was Michaela Segol. The on air talent included:

Don Durbridge (more on Don here)

Simon Trevallion (on the Spanish based Ace FM and community station Digital Hits One)

Nathan Cooper (later at Mix 96 in Aylesbury and now Bucks Radio)
Richard Adams (went on to Neptune Radio then KMfm as regional programme controller and then  Adams Media Services) 

Steve Phillips (later with BBC London travel, then various media strategy/communications roles at  RBS, Barclays and ITV)

Andy McColl (travel reporter and presenter for BBC and commercial stations, producer (Output Manager) at Traffic Radio and then LBC and XFM Manchester, now Project manger for iSAMS Ltd)

Bobbie Pryor (now with BBC Radio 2)

Romilly Paradine (formerly of Essex Radio/Breeze AM)

Brian Sims (later at Sovereign Radio in Eastbourne)

James Day (ex Voice of Peace and Caroline 558)

Richard Harding (BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Hereward FM, Island FM in Guernsey and now reporter for South Hams Newspapers)

Jayne Constantinis (at the time a BBC TV continuity announcer)

Hayley Edmunds (former BBC Broadcast Assistant now Director of Learning for Humanities at the Marsh Academy in Kent)

Mark Carter (now on BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey) 

This was the last of six summer posts on travel and transport.

My thanks go to Ian McGregor, Michaela Segol and Simon Trevallion.

[This post was updated in January 2023]. 

Going Places Goes Supersonic

The supersonic age promised so much but delivered so little. It fizzled out, not with a sonic boom but with a whimper. But you cannot deny the fascination of the symbol of supersonic flight, Concorde.

In this 1989 edition of Radio 4’s Going Places Clive Jacobs celebrates the 20^th anniversary of the first UK test flight. Listen out just over half-way through for the heart-stopping moment when Concorde crashes into the World Trade Center, fortunately it’s a flight simulator.

This programme was broadcast on 31 March 1989.

This is the fifth of six summer posts on travel and transport.

Motorway Manner

Continuing this summer’s theme of travel here’s Motorway Manner. Journalist Ian Morton “talks to motorway users and assesses how the development of the network has affected lives and driving habits”.

Broadcast on Radio 4 in 1980, the producer is David Rayvern-Allen.

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This is the fourth of six summer posts on travel and transport.

Motoring and the Motorist

Long before Clarkson, May and Hammond’s escapades on Top Gear the country’s car advice came from a former engineer and member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, Bill Hartley.

For sixteen years Bill Hartley was the main presenter of the BBC radio magazine programme Motoring and the Motorist, a “weekly survey of the world of motoring”. The programme, which by the mid-60s was attracting an audience of nearly one million, covered ordinary motoring topics, “the everyday problems we all have to face. We leave to others the competitive motoring sports, the cult of the veteran car and the specialized technical developments”.

Motoring and the Motorist started on the Midland Home Service on 6 January 1953, initially produced by the grandly named Horace Saunders-Jacobs. It was transmitted nationally on Friday evenings on the Third Network from 11 October 1957 with, from about 1960, a Saturday repeat on the Home Service. David Glencross produced the show for a while; he would eventually become a chief officer at the IBA/ITC. When David left Birmingham production duties fell to Jim Prestridge, a regular contributor to the series and a Midland region talks producer who, on the retirement of Bill Hartley in late 1969, became the main presenter for the remainder of its run.

The series had its genesis in an earlier 1946 programme called How’s Your Car? The BBC’s Talks Department had wanted a series to help motorists keep their cars going at a time when there were few new models and garage services were limited. The idea had come from Bill Hartley and Bob Horsley, two motor industry experts but with no broadcasting experience.   

It was Bill Hartley’s idea to proceed with Motoring and the Motorist. He would edit and introduce each programme and interview many of the contributors Bill was born 29 August 1911 and educated at Dauntsey’s School, Wiltshire. He joined the Daimler Company at their London works in 1929 and stayed there 21 years mainly working in the experimental and development department. During the war he acted as the company’s Army liaison officer. Bill resigned from Daimler in 1950 to become a full-time motoring writer and broadcaster. He wrote for the Illustrated London News, Practical Motorist, Reader’s Digest and the AA’s Drive magazine as well as authoring the Owner-Driver handbooks for many popular cars. He broadcast on motoring matters for the Central Office of Information, was a BBC motor racing commentator and, from 1957, one of the newsreaders on the Midland regional television service alongside Edmund Marshall and Anthony Raymont. Bill Hartley died in Devon on 19 February 1970.

For two years between 1967 and 1969 Bill had a motoring column in the Radio Times in a new ‘lifestyle’ supplement alongside Percy Thrower’s gardening tips and Zena Skinner’s recipes. It was all very practical advice on driving technique, planning your journey and simple mechanical guidance: “how long is it since you looked carefully at all those water hose joints around your engine? Probably a long time.”

Motoring and the Motorist transferred to Radio 4 in 1967 and, following a major schedule shake-up across all the networks, moved to Sunday lunchtimes on 5 April 1970. Its final outing, with Jim Prestridge still presenting, was on 26 June 1977. In its place, though now moved to 18.30 on a Friday, was Going Places. Its brief was wider, looking at travel, transport policy and holidays and to prove the point its first presenter was ‘everyman’ Barry Norman. Barry was succeeded by Richard Hudson-Evans who, like Bill Hartley, had worked in the motor industry and wrote, and continues to write, for motoring journals. 

By now practical car advice was on offer on the BBC’s Top Gear television series, long before its subsequent boy racer incarnation. Like Motoring and the Motorist this originated from the BBC in Birmingham (though the programme had moved to London in 1963), presumably something to do with the proximity to the UK’s then car industry. Top Gear’s pedigree itself can be traced back to ITV’s Drive-In (1971-78) with Shaw Taylor, BBC2’s Wheelbase (1964-75) and, of course, to Motoring and the Motorist (1953-77).  

This is the third of six summer posts on travel and transport. 

Edit 19.11.12: Thank you to the Hartley family who got back to me about this post (see comments below). I am happy to correct the fact that Bill Hartley didn't retire in 1969 but, at the time of his death in 1970, was still working on the programme.

It's Time to Breakaway

Breakaway was one of Radio 4’s consumer based shows that came along in the late 1970s alongside Going Places, The Food Programme and Money Box, which started on the same day.

The first programme in September 1979 presented by radio ‘everyman’ Barry Norman promised a “breakaway from routine” with Sir Ralph Richardson on motorcycling with a Spanish parrot, Wynford Vaughan-Thomas on the postcards of Donald McGill and Richard Vaughan with the Sealed Knot Society. 

Eventually Breakaway would confine itself to holiday reports, travel tips and the like and for a decade (1980-1990) it was hosted by Bernard Falk, best known for his reporting on BBC1’s Nationwide.  When producer Jenny Mallinson Duff left for Channel 4’s travel series Travelog she took Bernard with her. This ‘conflict of interest’ led to him being dropped from the Radio 4 show.  

Subsequent presenters included Julian Pettifer, Ken Bruce, Anne Gregg, Bill Oddie, Eddie Mair, Simon Parkes and finally Pete McCarthy. For many years the show, always broadcast on a Saturday morning, was sandwiched between Sport on 4 and Loose Ends. It was finally swept aside as part of controller James Boyle’s schedule changes in April 1998.

But it’s back to July 1987 for this American Independence Day special in which Anthony Denselow visits Boston and Martin Muncaster goes to Kansas. Alongside Bernard Falk in this abbreviated recording are Susan Marling and Nigel Coombs.

This is the first of six summer posts on travel and transport.