Death of a Princess

My abiding memory of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales twenty years ago this Thursday, is the almost surreal way the country was in limbo for a week following the tragic events in Paris. Half the country was in mourning for a woman they'd never met while the other half were bemused by their reaction. Mind you that didn't stop cynical old me recording some of the radio output on that Sunday as broadcasters tried to come to terms with the news and how to handle the death of a royal for which there'd been no rehearsals.

I didn't start recording earlier enough on Sunday 31 August 1997 to hear how the news was broken to the waking nation. Here's what I did commit to tape. By 10 am Radio 1 was already using back-to-back ambient music - some of the tracks are listed below - interspersed with announcements from Mark Goodier and extended news reports here with Richard Evans. 

Many commercial radio stations came together to take IRN's bulletins and played instrumental tracks. I'm sure they featured more than just Kenny Gee's Songbird but that's all I recorded and have heard since on other recordings. This segment starts at 11.30 am and was taken from Viking Radio. 

Radio 2 dropped its morning schedule (Good Morning Sunday remained but shifted to 9 am) and under normal circumstances would have aired a pre-recorded Desmond Carrington show at 1 pm. Des and producer Dave Alyott convinced controller Jim Moir that they could handle a live show from their home studio with an appropriate playlist. This recording starts with an extended 12-minute news bulletin read by Paul Leighton.

At 39 minutes its back to Radio 1 and at 4 pm listeners would've expected to hear the UK Top 40 but both the BBC and the Network Chart from Capital were cancelled as a mark of respect. At the start of this recording Lisa I'Anson introduces Tina Ritchie with a 3-minute bulletin and then an announcement from Mark Goodier.   

Both Radio 4 and 5 live combined resources throughout the day. This news special with Charlie Lee Potter and Allan Robb was broadcast at 5 pm.

Following the week of almost suspended animation, that and the clamouring for a public display of grief from the royal family, the funeral occupied most of the airtime on Saturday 6 September from 8.30 am. This is part of the BBC coverage carried across all stations. The announcer is David Miles and commentating in this clip are James Naughtie and Chris Stuart.   

There are other off-air recordings from 31 August 1997 available online. Radio Tapes has airchecks from CBS and ABC in the States plus the BBC World Service as relayed by Minnesota Public Radio KNGA.

The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive has more BBC World Service coverage.

This webpage recreates the original MHP Pick of the Continuity Announcements page with reinstated audio and looks at the timeline mainly from a TV perspective.   

In this blog post Matthew Rudd recalls working overnight at Viking FM as the news broke.

Radio 1's playlist on 31 August 1997 included:

The Last Stand - Aloof

The Tones - Nova Nova

Culture Clash - Sacred Spirit

After Life - Blue Bar

Pressure Drop - Dusk

Pat Metheny - Sueno Con Mexico

Sabres of Paradise - Haunted Dancehall

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Merry Xmas Mr Lawrence

Apollo 440 - Stealth Mass in FM

Giorgio Moroder - Love's Theme from Midnight Express

Leftfield - Fanfare of Life

Nights Interlude - Nightmares on Wax. 

The Viking Invasion – Part 7 – Viking FM

To conclude this series of posts on Viking Radio here are a few random bits of publicity some audio memories from the late 90s and early 00s.

From the mid 90s some team publicity shots with the DJs posing in their Petroleum clothing.

 

The breakfast star from late 1993 was king of the wind-ups Simon Logan. Readers of a Viking FM publicity leaflet were told that Simon is “out of bed at 4.30 each morning to feed his cat Mostyn”. 

This is part of Simon’s last show at Viking FM (before his move to Radio Aire) on 19 December 1997. Simon currently broadcasts daily on BBC Radio Newcastle.

A selection of publicity cards (and some of the blurb from the back) from the late 90s:

Sam Heywood

Her birthday is 18 February. Sam’s favourite bands are Alanis Morissette and Sash and she thinks the sexiest person is Matthew Perry – Chandler from Friends. (After 13 years at Viking Sam is now on KCFM as Programme Manager).

David Johnson

Born 23 January. His favourite TV shows are TOTP, Friends and The Clothes Show and his favourite movie is The Italian Job. (At the time I think David was doing drivetime. He went on to work at Century FM and Key 103)

Scott Makin

Birthday on 13 May. His favourite experience at Viking was meeting Melinda Messenger and getting a kiss. (Scott was later at Century FM, Real Radio and now at Hallam FM)

Joel Ross

His birthday is 31 May. His favourite band is The Spice Girls and his favourite TV show is Prisoner Cell Block H. (Joel along with JK teamed up for the Viking breakfast show. Their subsequent career on radio and TV is well documented).

Jason King
Born on 6 January. Thinks the sexiest person is Claire Goose. Loves to eat curry, pizza and boiled egg and soldiers. His favourite experience at the station was doing the “full monty” in front of 2000 women.

When JK and Joel left Viking it was Simon Hirst that took over the breakfast slot. From Aircheckdownloads.com here’s Hirsty in June 2002.

From 2000 Viking’s new logo using EMAP’s ‘Big City’ branding.

Another clip from Aircheckdownloads.com, this time Steve Jordan who returned to Viking last year having originally been on air at the station between 1995 and 1999.

The Viking Invasion – Part 6 – More Gold and the Big Easy

Changes in ownership and changes in branding, something that is now the norm in the industry, started to happen in the late 80s: the transition from “independent” to “commercial” radio.  

On 31 October 1988 Viking Gold had launched but by 1 May 1989 it was now Classic Gold and networked to Hull, Bradford and Sheffield.  A year later it was snapped up by the expanding Metro Radio Group and was soon re-titled Great Yorkshire Radio (to complement their Great North Radio in Newcastle). A decline in audiences and the realisation that the Gold name and format was perhaps, erm, “radio gold”, it became Great Yorkshire Gold in 1994. (Does anyone know the exact date?). (In fact it was 13 September 1993 according to John Foster who presented the first show, so he should know!)

Classic Gold promo
 

Great Yorkshire Gold jingles
 

From a 1995 Gold publicity leaflet, at a time when Steven Parkinson was the Programme Controller, the DJ line-up at Great Yorkshire Gold was:

John Foster – these days broadcasting daily on BBC Tees
Mark Jones – formerly “Mark Joenz” of Radio City and still working in radio in the North-West
Steve Colman – latterly with Magic 1152 in the North-East
Chris Straw – ex-Radio Sheffield but other than that nothing known though I have found this clip from 1996:

Gerry Kersey – still broadcasting every Sunday afternoon on BBC Radio Sheffield
Ann Hodgson – ??
Peter Hetherington – is or was serving time in prison
Peter Fairhead – mentioned in the last Viking post
John Harding – who went into radio management and currently works for Bauer Media

This undated schedule also shows an old favourite on the air, Tim Jibson with his Goldmine Gold Show, Steve Fountain (latterly Head of Radio at the KM Group) and the networked, ahem, Savile’s Travels.

Here’s two Great Yorkshire Gold airchecks. Firstly from 16 August 1996 Peter Fairhead sitting in for Al Dupres. You’ll notice those classic JAM jingles familiar to Radio 1 listeners in the 70s complete with  “Beep Beep Yeah Travel News”.

By the time of this Al Dupres show on Monday 10 February 1997 the station’s days were numbered prior to the Magic makeover.

The Metro group had been bought out by media group EMAP in August 1995 and they started to roll out their Magic branding. On 12 February 1997 Great Yorkshire Gold was replaced by Magic 1161 using what it called “The Big Easy” format. With a mix of oldies and contemporary hits with long sweeps of music that seemed to consist of Phil Collins and Celine Dion, or that may be just my memory of it!

The launch was live from Cave Castle in South Cave. In charge of proceedings was Nick Wright - still doing his thing daily on the Magic network. Nick’s first guest, on the phone from Geneva, was Phil Collins (talking for far too long before we get into the first record, Two Hearts so I’ve edited this bit but listen out for the mystery voice asking “you are there, aren’t you?”).

In the next and final post what’s going on over on FM.

The Viking Invasion – Part 5 – Splits and Mergers

Our story now moves to 1987, a year of change behind the scenes and on-air at Viking Radio. The ILR stations were gradually loosening their IBA shackles and the rules on ownership now allowed the merger of Radio Hallam and Pennine Radio and then Viking Radio to form the Yorkshire Radio Network.

The first evidence of YRN on-air was on the evening of 19 May 1987 when Tim Finlay presented the launch show airing on all three stations. Along with Steve 'Bongo' Tong and Les Smith the joint shows filled the hours between 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Tim Finlay 190587

The other change in radio, both commercial and BBC, was the Government’s decision to take “a decisive step away from simulcasting” on FM and AM.  Viking had already dipped its toe into the water with its Sunday afternoon music (FM) and rugby league (AM) split. Here’s Viking’s schedule in 1987, by now we’d also got Saturday split programming with Sportacular (terrible title) versus Afternoon Delight with Diana Luke.

When it came to full-time permanent changes in simulcasting first out of the blocks was County Sound, on 1 June 1988 splitting to form Premier Radio on FM and County Sound Gold on AM. In August Piccadilly was renamed Key 103 whilst its AM service morphed into Piccadilly Gold. On 4 October GEM-AM launched out of the Radio Trent and Leicester Sound grouping. And on 1 November we had the Capital FM/Capital Gold split on a full-time basis (it had been at the weekend only since July). Meanwhile Viking Gold launched on 1161 AM at noon on 31 October,

On air for the first full day (1 November) were Peter Fairhead, Alan Ross, Tim Jibson, Al Dupres and John Uphoff all making good use of those PAMS jingles re-sings. (Sorry, I've no recordings of Alan or Al).

Peter Fairhead
Tim Jibson
John Uphoff

The Viking Gold launch team was as follows:

Peter Fairhead had joined the team from Pennine Radio and would go on to present on Classic Gold and Great Yorkshire Gold (more of which in future posts). You can hear Peter each week on WHCR in Hull and on UK Country Radio.

Tim Jibson was already part of the Viking team and would also work on the later local Gold stations. Tim launched KCFM and now runs Adventures in Radio Ltd.

Alan Ross was Viking Gold’s Programme Controller and came from the Pennine side of the operation. He’d started at DevonAir before moving to CBC and Red Dragon Radio. Alan would also work on the subsequent Classic Gold service before a move back to Pennine (later The Pulse). From 1994 at Touch Radio and then Magic 1170 in Stockton  where he stayed for over 14 years retiring from the Breakfast Show just last month as part of the increasing networking of Magic programming.

John Uphoff was also from Pennine. By 1991 he’d moved to Jersey working on commercial radio and then for the BBC. Sadly John died in 2008 aged 46.

Keith Skues has, it seems, been DJ-ing for ever. When Viking Gold launched he was the Group Programme Consultant for YRN. Read more about Keith in my Hallam post.

Al Dupres has long been involved in radio in the Hull area working on the later Gold incarnations, Magic, KCFM and WHCR. As well as doing voiceover work Al can currently be heard on Radio Caroline.

Meanwhile over on FM Viking Radio's 1988 team was Dave Fewster, Steve King,
Chris Bell, Martin Lee, Tim Finlay and Freddie Allen

Viking Gold’s life was short, by May the following year it became Classic Gold. More of that in a future post.

The Viking Invasion – Part 4 – Country Wars

It was High Noon in Hull. Viking versus Humberside. The battle was over country music presenter Tex Milne.

Tex had long been on the BBC station and, as the Hull Daily Mail of 16 January 1986 reported, he had “dropped a bombshell on Radio Humberside by announcing on air that he is leaving to join commercial rivals Viking.” Apparently he’d been feeling “uncertain” about his future and had heard that he was due to be dropped by boss Geoff Sargieson.  For Viking’s manager Roger Brooks it was the second coup that month as they’d also secured the services of Paul Burnett.

Country music shows were not uncommon on the early ILR stations with their public service remit.  From day one Viking Country was hosted by Pete Ryan but it seems he was dropped a couple of years later. I’ve no idea why or indeed what happened to him after that.

Pete Ryan

Meanwhile Tex Milne (was a country music presenter better named, though I’m guessing it wasn’t his actual name) was already well known for presenting Country Music Time and had been with Humberside since 1972. He was a storeman with a Hull based company but his interest in country and western dated back to 1959. For a while he worked in a record shop and in 1968 was compering at the original Hull Country Music Club. 

Tex Milne

It wouldn’t be too many years before Viking, along with many other commercial stations dropped their specialist music shows. Meanwhile over on Radio Humberside regular Sunday country music shows continued with Tammy Cline and later Bob Preedy.

Christmas Countdown – 15 December – Ant & Rosie

There’s a unwritten rule that all commercial radio breakfast shows must be (a) constantly plugged all day and (b) hosted by a couple of DJs, ideally one male, one female. Presumably the expected on-air chemistry will produce great results.  

This time last year Viking FM Breakfast host Paul Foster had left the station in November and filling in at short notice was Drivetime DJ Ant Nichols alongside Rosie Madison. For December the station was running a ‘Cliff is Cool’ campaign. Probably started in response to the launch of Absolute 60s in November that had declared itself a Cliff-free zone, despite his musical contribution in that decade. For Viking though it was all in the name of the Cash4Kids charity.
 

Ant & Rosie_151211

Tomorrow Danny Baker.

The Viking Invasion – Part 3 – Vikings and Pirates Around the Clock

Eighteen months after launch Viking Radio had a schedule shake-up with some new names on the roster and was now broadcasting round the clock. Here’s how an advertising feature in one of the local papers sold the changes.

More star names, more music, more local personalities and am even faster and brighter news service are all part of the exciting 24 hours a day schedule for the winter months on the area’s number one station, Viking.

Goole Times 24 January 1985

Carl Kingston, who’d joined the station that January (see above), now hosted an afternoon show offering “a combination of star interviews, new quizzes and music from both the charts and his extensive selection of Golden Oldies.”

Tim Jibson

Local lad Carl had moved from rival BBC station Radio Humberside; he was not the only one as Tim Jibson  had also “crossed over” that year to present two shows each Saturday. Tim has the honour, along with Dave Fewster, of having worked Hull’s three main stations (Humberside, Viking and KCFM).

Steve Tong, who’d been with Viking from the off was given a permanent slot on the weekday teatime show at 6 p.m.

Carl Gresham

Carl Gresham (‘The Gresh’) had a new Sunday night show that brought “his nostalgic concoction of musical memories with the accent on melody”.

But it was three other features of this winter schedule that presaged the way that commercial radio would develop in the late 80s. Firstly the AM/FM split. Between 3 and 6 p.m. on Sundays listeners on 258 metres could hear Sunday Sport whilst over on 102.7 the music continued with Paul Massey.

Secondly we see the start of “gold” programming with former pirate DJ Jay Jackson (aka Crispian St Peters, real name Howard Rose) presenting the Sunday lunchtime Pirate Gold show complete with those classic PAMS jingles.

The third aspect was the sharing or networking of programmes across more than one station, in this case Viking and Pennine. Kicking off proceedings between 8 p.m. and midnight from 28 October was Andy Hollins.  Apparently on one show he did a great link saying that if you could get Pennine on 102.5 and Viking on 102.7 you’d get a wonderful phasing effect to blow your ears off!

Andy Hollins

I recall a teenage Andy Hollins from his time at Kingston Radio (Hull’s hospital radio service). He’d come into the studio on a Saturday, around midday I think, do a quick bit of prep and then go on air with a chart show, complete with a Pick of the Pops type countdown, extremely slick and professional. Then it was out of studio with ne’er a word to anyone.  

Hollins would make a tearful exit from Viking in the summer of 1986 (see newspaper cutting below) after, according to MD Roger Brooks, "repeatedly hinting on the air that he was leaving the station." Indeed he was going to join Radio Tees and would later work for BRMB.    

This is a clip of Andy on that first joint show. If only he could remember the name of the “other” station!

Hull Daily Mail 18 June 1986

Providing the programmes overnight between midnight and 6 a.m. were Pennine’s Dave Nixon and Graham King.  Here’s Dave in the early hours of 30 October, note the use of a Mezzoforte track, a particular DJ favourite at the time, for his weather bed.

In 1986 the pre-midnight show would revert back to being on Viking only, with Tony Fisher over on Pennine at the same time, and shared programming from midnight to 6 a.m.

This is the third in an occasional series of posts on the history of commercial radio in East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

Thanks again to Paul Bromley.

The Viking Invasion – Part 2 - So Why Not Take Your Time and Bridge the Humber

Viking Radio’s launch date was set for Tuesday 17 April 1984.

First on air would be ‘ageing groover’ Dave Fewster. Dave had started his broadcasting career in hospital radio in Warrington before moving to Red Rose Radio and Marcher Sound. When Viking Radio beckoned Dave became a regular DJ in the area later appearing on Radio Humberside, KCFM and community station WHCR. Alongside this Dave found time to establish and later sell Chem-Dry UK up on Swinemoor Lane in Beverley.

Here’s Dave Fewster and Steve King enjoying some banter in 1987 (apologies for the odd buzzing sound).

Following Dave was, er Dave. Jamieson this time, with Notice Board. Dave’s radio career runs as follows: hospital radio in Edinburgh, guest DJ on Radio 1 Club, Radio Leicester, BRMB, BBC Scotland, Radio Clyde, Mercia Sound, Viking Radio, Radio Tees, Central TV, then on a freelance basis back to BRMB, Xtra AM, Heart FM and now enjoying life in Spain working on Coastline FM.

Here’s part of Notice Board on Day 1. Towards the end listen out for Dave getting somewhat exasperated trying to contact Beverley, Australia.

                                                                       

Inviting listeners to a Packed Lunch was Steve King. Steve was at Radio Aire over in Leeds before moving to Hull. He rose through the management ranks at Viking, Hallam, Aire, Metro Radio Group and Forever Broadcasting. Now at EMAP Steve is the Programme Director for their network.

In the afternoon it was Checkout with Mark Allen. Mark had previously been as Wiltshire Radio and later may have moved to Australia. In this clip listen out too for news reporter Hugh Pym, later to work for ITN, Sky and now Chief Economics correspondent for the BBC.

Note the use of programme titles, a much favoured practice at the early ILR stations and reminiscent of the old BBC style (Midday Spin, Music to Midnight and so on). The rationale for this was, according to Dave Jamieson (Viking’s first Programme Organiser), “we believed that anyone reading our schedule in the local paper would get a better idea of the output from (vague!) descriptions of the individual programmes, than simply a list of names.  Until you get into the top echelons of radio where the presenters are personalities in their own right, names mean very little.” 

At launch Viking only transmitted for 14½ hours on weekdays. Dave Jamieson explained that “the IBA was very nervous in 1984, following the failure of Centre Radio in Leicester the previous October.  They couldn't afford to be seen to give a franchise to another company which would eventually fail.  So they restricted our broadcasting hours, insisting that we opened at 5.30am and closed down at 10.00pm at night on weekdays and midnight at weekends.  Unthinkable nowadays of course!  Within six months though, they relented (a little!) and we went from 5.00am to midnight everyday.”

Opening up the day, from the Wednesday, on Daybreak was Les Smith. Les had started in radio in South Africa before returning home and joining Viking. Subsequently he would appear on the Yorkshire Radio Network and Compass Radio.

Closing the day with Fast Forward, as well as hosting the cleverly titled North and South Bank Show on Sunday evening, was ex-Swansea Sound DJ Kerry Evans. 

In this clip you’ll notice that Dave Golley was working both ends of the day as he was reporting from Boothferry Park.  And there’s a soothing goodnight jingle to close the first day’s proceedings.

Those early schedules promised much more than pop music of course. ILR stations were still trying to be “all things to all people” and providing programmes that would serve a wide cross-section of the audience. So we had farming programmes, local business topics and music for jazz, country and brass band aficionados.

Inevitably there was a bit of poaching from the local BBC competition. The Presentation Department secretary came from Radio Humberside and she in turn acted as go-between in negotiating to bring sports presenter Dave Gibbins (below) onto the team.

Also there at launch was Steve Colman, though mysteriously missing from the publicity and schedules. Steve’s first show was on Friday night at 10 p.m., with Night Light. Steve went on to work at Metro and Magic 1152.

The final ingredient in the on-air mix were the jingles, those wonderful full orchestral over-the-top jingles. Several production companies were approached to produce Viking first jingle package before the commission went to Cath Baxter. The bonus here was that Cath Baxter was based locally at Cawood near Selby, though the jingles were recorded over at the Strawberry Studios in Stockport. On vocal duties were Steve Butler and Sheila Gott, both seasoned jingle singers with Alfasound.  

The package offered about 100 jingles, with all the various alternative mixes. These instrumental versions of the main image song and the sports theme let you appreciate the work of arranger Paul Flush. You can see where Chris Moyles and the guys at Music4 got their ideas from can’t you?

So here’s Viking’s launch from that Tuesday morning just before 7 a.m.

MD Roger Brooks provides the opening announcement before the Viking song. The first adverts are for the TSB, Comet, North Country Breweries, Humberside Property & Motor Guide and Paul Dixon Motors. The news is read by David Golley and certainly demonstrates Viking’s commitment to news - the first record, Kool and the Gang’s Celebration, doesn’t kick in until 12 minutes past 7! Dave Fewster then cues in It’s a Miracle by Culture Club.

An advertisement feature published in the Hull Daily Mail the day before the launch gave more details about the news team which was headed by Colin Palmer who had spent the previous ten years at BRMB. The team of journalists were David Golley from Wiltshire Radio, Mike O’Neill and Richard Ventre had both been on local papers, Hugh Pym ex. BBC Radio Oxford and Simon Garrett from BRMB.

As well as FM and AM Viking could be heard in Hull on Channel D of the cable system operated by Rediffusion and on the Radio Line by dialling 211258 – yes remember that, radio over the telephone in the days when Hull Telephones offered unlimited local calls for about 5p.

Viking Radio was one of the first stations (after Southern Sound, Gwent Broadcasting and Signal Radio) to use the new frequency sub-band 102.2 to 104.5 MHz, this was beyond the 97.7 to 102.1 MHz still used by the police and emergency radio communications in some parts of the country. When the station launched there was nothing near it on that part of the dial so the signal went for miles. Dave Jamieson remembers former colleagues at Mercia Sound telling him that they’d heard the opening day “clear as a bell” and that he’d had a telegram (remember those?) from the IBA engineers who’d overseen the technical installation of the studios that read “Congratulations on the start of broadcasting to Humberside on medium wave, and to the world on VHF!”

Coming up: network splits, country wars and Viking goes gold.

Thanks to Dave Jamieson and Paul Bromley for their assistance with this post.

The Viking Invasion - Part 1 - Testing, Testing

There were two Viking invasions in Yorkshire. The first sometime in the 9^th century and the second, more precisely, in 1984. This was the year that commercial radio arrived in East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire (carefully avoiding any reference to  Humberside).

The first nineteen independent local radio stations had launched between 1973 and 1976. The second phase kicked off in 1980, with a service based in Hull twenty-seventh on the list.

The first we locals know of the new service was in 1982 with public notices and flyers inviting anyone to attend meetings to hear about the radio application by a group calling themselves Humber Bridge Radio. I ended up going to the Hull Truck Theatre meeting, though regrettably I can remember virtually nothing about it.

Pre-launch the Managing Director was Ian Rufus, whose radio experience included working as a reporter at Hallam in the 70s and launching Mercia Sound in 1980. Six months before it was due to go on-air Roger Brooks was now managing the station, Rufus having returned to Mercia, which now had a new name - Viking Radio.   

Alongside Brooks, also ex-Hallam, was Programme Organiser Dave Jamieson, fresh from Mercia Sound.  Dave had been appointed by Rufus but decided to join Viking anyway when his boss moved back to Coventry. He was the first of the team to relocate to Hull and bought a house in Pearson Park, just minutes away from Viking’s first temporary offices at the old Rediffusion House on Beverley Road. Later they would de-camp to 62 High Street in the Old Town before moving into the newly re-furbished HQ in an old docks office building on Commercial Road.  Dave recalls that in his spare rooms at his house he had the MD, Sales Director and Presentation Department secretary all boarding with him for a while. Together with the MD he went through the audition tapes that had been sent in (they didn’t have to advertise) to draw up the DJ short list. They wanted at least one female voice on the team but none of the demos made the grade. A draft schedule and Presentation Manual with guidelines on the station ‘style’ was put together with a view to launch on 17 April.

Commercial Radio HQ pictured in 2011

Test transmissions started in mid-March beaming out on 258 metres medium wave (1161 kHz) and 102.7 MHz on VHF/FM. Initially tests followed the IBA-prescribed guidelines of a number of one-hour pre-recorded selections of music and formal announcements every 15 minutes. Dave Jamieson told me that he thought “this was a waste, because, apart from everything, the new team of presenters needed to gain experience using the equipment. So I rang the IBA and asked if we could do the test transmissions live, provided we stuck to the format.  After a bit of persuasion, they agreed, so we were able to give time checks and promote the programme line-up and so on.” These music tests started on 30 March and as far as is known Viking was the first and possibly the only ILR station to do live transmissions.

In this sequence of tests you’ll hear the official IBA announcement that I recorded on 27 March and then a whole host of programme trailers all recorded on 4 April.

 

In the next post: Viking Radio launches, meet the DJs and all about those wonderful opening jingles.

Thanks to Dave Jamieson for his help with this post. You can hear Dave every weekday afternoon on Spain’s Coastline FM.