RadioMoments - Clips

A BBC Radio Scotland educational broadcast for primary school children - on producing the Radio 1 breakfast show in the days of Simon Mayo. 

The announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II on a selection of national UK radio stations.  With Twitter beating them all in timeliness, by its very nature, it shows, nevertheless, the role for radio in today's media world. A human voice leading listeners through challenging times.

Tony Lyman began his radio career in hospital radio at Radio Nene Valley – whilst working as a postie - before making his radio debut on board the Voice of Peace, anchored just off Tel Aviv.  From there, he joined Trent in Nottingham in May 1979, assuming the role of relief presenter before graduating to his late-night slot, for which he’s fondly remembered on a station which then owned its market. He spent time too at the then National Broadcasting School as he honed his craft. Like many, he progressed up the schedule, with spells on breakfast and on the mid-morning show – and moving across to Leicester Sound at its launch, before returning to Trent.   The East Midlands was to become his long-term home, appearing on the oldies service GEM AM, Classic Gold, Century 106 and Saga Radio before moving to BBC local radio, eventually settling down at BBC Radio Derby. Tony was a calm, quiet operator who, like many presenters, just got better and better as a natural, witty communicator. In this audio, hear Tony’s early Trent work, then Classic Gold – and clips from what was to be his final programme on Radio Derby. Tony died in May 2021.

This montage illustrates how UK radio broke into regular programming on the event of the death of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh on Friday 10th April 2021. The gaps are as broadcast – there were several handbrake turns, as the internal procedures demanded. It does not do justice to the many thoughtful links by so many broadcasters as the day unfolded – and the carefully crafted obituary pieces aired.

In the most expected move in UK radio, Simon  Mayo transfers from Scala weekdays to Greatest Hits Radio. He calls upon the decent 'new term' analogy - just as he did when beginning  Radio 1  breakfast.

When Simon arrived at Bauer-owned Scala Radio, a few of us stroked our chins and thought he'd turn up on Greatest Hits Radio before too long. On the 1st February 2021, he announced just that.

How many true radio greats are on air in a generation? A dozen? Jane Garvey is high on my version of that list.  And if the list is a chart, she's still on the way up. She leaves Woman's Hour at just the right time to carve out a Jane-shaped future - where she can own the next decade in UK radio and beyond. Like most greats, her brilliance sounds effortless - and, frankly, I doubt she does have to put in the effort many would have to when seeking anything like the standards she does. Authentic, irreverent, intelligent, honest. All the traits which show radio at its best. A baby boomer - just - inspired by the likes of Janice Long - and the poetic Ray Moore, she arrived at Radio 4's Woman's Hour via Radio Wyvern in Worcester, BBC Hereford and Worcester and the launch of BBC Five Live.  Thirteen years later, she left the programme  - and this clip is from the final edition of Woman's Hour on 31st December 2019. She's joined by the wonderful Elizabeth Day - who will also be a big part of radio's next era - and I've gone to pains to add on Jane's intro to the drama at the programme's end...

What a wonderful culture clash - with Alan Freeman at his peak hosting Pick of the Pops and hitting a Radio 2 junction.

27th September 2020 saw Keith Skues hit the stab on Mr Tambourine Man for the final time, as his 500th show marked the end of his broadcasting career at the BBC, aged 81.  As he previewed some of the songs to come, he conceded that he might not fit them all in. Last shows can be like that.  Other choice moments included: “Are you familiar with a gentleman called Tim Davie?” “Keith: ‘Why should I be?” His 60-year career included: the British Forces Network in Cologne; pirate radio on board Caroline and London; BBC Radio 1 at its launch; programme director of Radio Hallam; and a long spell in BBC Local Radio. His farewell show was broadcast across local radio in the East of England across BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, BBC Essex, BBC Radio Lincolnshire, BBC Radio Norfolk, BBC Radio Northampton, BBC Radio Suffolk and BBC Three Counties Radio. Ten minutes before the end, hear him express his regret for never finding a wife. Anyone who knows how Keith works know how well he prepares each show.  There are moments here he clearly couldn’t. 

The style and voice of characters like Cousin Brucie dominated AM radio in the 50s and 60s in the US - whilst life in UK radio was altogether more sedate. Gradually, life changed there as it has here. He moved around and his famous WABC went all talk.  But in 2020 - some 46 years since he appeared on the station, he was back - aged 84.  The chap who'd listened to Bruce Morrow as a kid ended up buying the station - and, off peak, chose to give his old hero another go. Brucie was back - with his old jingles and his old reverb. 'You can imagine why I'm so emotional'.

2020 and another slew of stations reach the end of the road, as national radio brands become bigger. This time, Bauer incorporate more of their new acquisitions into their branded world after a journey which, thanks to the competition authorities, has been more protracted than any sane person would have wished. The arguments in favour of the brand and networked approach are well-rehearsed, and we all appreciate that the future of radio in a broader audio world - not least with the economics of COVID around us - is a very different picture, and it is dangerous to imagine that everything can carry on in the way it did in previous generations. Nevertheless, for the human beings involved, the closures are hugely sad.  Some of the individuals have new radio homes – others do not. But in this series of hugely professional and thoroughly authentic farewells, you can hear the pain.  Economics aside - as I do not have access to their accounts - some of these operations have proven that local radio can have a place – most evident in smaller proud communities where its is well run by a committed team. The overheads of these stations will fall, national revenues will grow and one imagines, local revenues may fall. In some cases audiences may rise, and in others they may fall.  It remains to be seen whether Bauer will feel in five years’ time that each of the moves were wise for the organisation overall. In smaller broadcast areas, particularly, where reach was high, yet overall audience volume (and thus national revenues) will never be huge owing simply to the TSA size, the balance of all these factors- taken together with the growth in overall brand might -  is an interesting one.  Recordings here  from the final weekday of broadcasting on 28th August 2020 before the new approach begins on September 1st.

On 27 August 1990 the BBC launched its fifth national radio station – Radio 5 - the first network addition since 1967, using the frequencies 693 and 909, formerly occupied by Radio 2.  Radio 5 carried sport, educational and children’s programmes.  In 1994 Radio 5 was replaced by Radio 5 Live, featuring news and sport. 

Dotty's last breakfast show on 1Xtra on 30th July 2020

The new breakfast show on Kiss launched on 3rd August 2020 with Jordan and Perri.

On 30th July 2020, Norman Smith announced his farewell from the BBC. He joined the BBC as a local radio reporter in 1986, becoming a parliamentary correspondent in 1993, appearing on BBC Radio 4 on Today and Yesterday In Parliament. Assistant political editor since 2014, his 6.33 morning appearances were a familiar part of the Today routine.

If you’ve ever hosted a chart, you’ll know that precision counts.  Every word. Every second. You have little space to adlib around errors inconspicuously. Remember that too in vinyl days without digits counting down in front of you, just a pile of black singles and a list of songs with your scribbled timings all over it. Bruno Brookes was a chart great on Radio 1 – without doubt. On this occasion though on 6th July 86, listen to the moment when he played number three – then launched into the rundown and the number one – leaving out number two. Every chart presenter on any station ever will feel for him. As you can hear, he then had to play the number two after the number one just to hit the end of the hour… (It was also the 400th show since the 2 hour Top 40 started on 12 November 1978) Chart audio and diligence as ever - from Richard White.

Times Radio launched on 29th June 2020. (Blog post to follow)

Making its debut on Independence Day weekend in 1970 on just 7 stations, the American Top 40 would grow to be heard around the World on more than a thousand stations in more than 50 countries. It was hosted at launch and through to 1988 by Casey Kasem. He was to be succeeded by Shadoe Stevens, with Casey moving to Westwood One to host a rival show. American Top 40 ended in 1995, but returned in 1998.

As the French government prepared to sign an armistice with the Nazis, President Charles De Gaulle turned up at BH on 18th June 1940 to broadcast to France on the BBC. This report, on the 80th anniversary of that momentous broadcast was compiled by Edward Stourton for Radio 4's World at One.

Things  go wrong in radio.  It happens to all of us. It's worse when they go wrong at the beginning of your show, as it then puts you in the wrong mood and things go downhill from there.   Here, Tony Blackburn kicks off his Top 40 on the 25th May 1980. He's taken the trouble to pre-record the opener, just to make sure it's perfect - but then airs the wrong version.... (Thanks to Richard White)

I cannot think of any other time when so many commercial and BBC stations have united to broadcast a single co-ordinated message. The Mental Health Minute 2020 featured the voices of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, England captain Harry Kane, singer-songwriter Dua Lipa, actor David Tennant and heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.  The initiative had begun in 2018. Overseen excellently by Radiocentre and Heads Together, the mental health campaign, it was aired on hundreds of stations to audiences of around 20m.   Hear here how 17 of the stations put their arm around 2020's timely campain.

Five months after announcing he was to leave, Christian O'Connell left Absolute Radio on May 18th 2018. He had hosted the breakfast show for 12 years, firstly on Virgin Radio then Absolute Radio as it re-branded. Christian moved to a new life in Australia - and a new career on-air at on Gold FM in Melbourne.

Pete Mitchell died on March the 12th 2020, aged  61. He'd been on-air for 34 years, and was well-known as one half of Pete and Geoff and for his time at Virgin Radio in the 2000s.  Chris Evans pays this generous, fond and fitting tribute - as aired on Virgin Radio in April 2020.

Talk radio American style  on COVID 19.  Government is shutting down - and Mark Levin is not happy. 'Let my people go'. Truly shocking radio. 'You're telling everyone to stay home. And save toilet paper. And go on the internet and sing to each other...'

On 10th July 1969, the BBC published a short report ‘Broadcasting in the 70s’, “to enable BBC radio to play a full part in the broadcasting pattern of the seventies”. The report, carried out by an internal study group, assisted by McKinsey & Co, acknowledged that ‘radio is very far from dead’, with the inference some thought it might be, once TV took hold. The thinking was utterly sound. Just as, in other countries, radio had long become more targeted rather than trying to be all things to all people, here the BBC was seeking to make some sense of its networks and place the right programmes on the right channel - so that each could have a more definite identity. Whilst the rationale appears obvious, it contrasted with the previous reality where programmes were almost scattered across the BBC’s outlets. The report accepts that whilst the BBC had responded to change over the years, with the creation of local radio and Radio 1 etc, such changes had ‘been grafted piecemeal on to a tree planted in an earlier age of broadcasting’. Under the report, Radio 4, which had retained  much of the DNA of its predecessor, the BBC Home Service, would be focused primarily on ‘detailed news and current affairs’ and a development of ‘the four main news and magazine periods - breakfast time, lunch time, early evening, and late evening’. The late evening change saw ‘The Ten O’ Clock’ become ‘The World Tonight. The BBC’s Year Book of 1971 reflected on the changes, suggesting that ‘The World Tonight’, alongside ‘Today’, offered ‘a first -class service of hard news. But each of them has developed its own style and its own range of subject- matter, which derives not only from the personality of the people presenting and producing the programme, but also from their estimate of the varying needs of the listeners. Thus, 'Today' has especially in mind the mood and pace of the going -to -work audience. 'The World at One' aims at the housewife and at the worker switching on at lunchtime. 'The World Tonight' caters for the relaxed listener who is prepared for a fuller, more leisurely survey of what has been in the day's news’. The first edition of ‘The World Tonight’ was broadcast on Monday 6th April 1970, hosted by respected foreign correspondent, Douglas Stuart. The Radio Times billed: ‘Douglas Stuart reporting, with voices and opinions from around the world’. Here, Douglas is interviewed by current host, Ritula Shah.

As BBC news implemented its latest round of cuts, the axe fell on 5 Live's Wake Up to Money and Mickey Clarke said his goodbyes with a lengthy tribute on the programme on February 28th 2020. It coincided with the biggest fall in the markets since the financial crisis, but there was little doubt which topic the programme chose as the dominant one.   Mickey had  been a part of 5 Live since it launched in 1994.

After almost 30 years at Lincs FM - graduating from rookie journo to head honcho - Sean Dunderdale  left commercial radio in February 2020. Having hosted all his ‘last programmes’ (sport and the legendary Farming Programme), he dropped in for a farewell newscast. The bulletin was accommodated in a programme hosted by Eddie Shaw and just before another VO by Ed Bretten, both names who were also on air in the station’s very earliest days. It was thus a nod to the wise and a fond echo of 1992 just as the station prepares for its new owners to take the reins. Sean leaves the commercial industry having made a broad contribution which stretches far beyond his home station – and has remembered his roots through an ongoing ready support of hospital radio. Sean was one of the voices who created the reputation which Lincs FM enjoyed – as one of the last stations of its kind.

A flick across BBC Radio 4, Radio Ulster, Radio Wales, BBC Scotland, BBC local radio, Hits Radio, Heart, LBC and Talk Radio at 2300 on 31st Jan 2019 as the UK left the EU.

The death of Nicholas Parsons was announced on 28th January 2020.  Hear, here his 'home service' Radio 4 announce the news - and enjoy the PM programme's fond coverage as panellists Gyles Brandreth and Janey Godley are offered 'just a minute' to tell why they regarded him so fondly.

Nicholas Parsons died in January 2020, aged 96. He'd been on air with his 'Just a Minute' programme on BBC Radio 4 since it began in 1967.  Here, enjoy clips from his final edition - with Stephen Fry, Jan Ravens, Pam Ayres and Paul Merton - aired in September 2019. My tribute here. (https://www.davidlloydradio.com/post/without-hesitation-repetition-or-deviation-a-tribute-to-nicholas-parsons)

Most of us have done it at some stage in our career. Aired something that was not destined for so being. In the fortunate examples - such as this  - there are no expletives.  Tony likely kicked himself, though, as a perfect chart opener was not aired on 11th Jan 1981 as he no doubt produced - but an earlier version. In pursuit of excellence - he'd evidently tried it twice. Those sort of things usually make a presenter so annoyed, they mess up everything after. Tony didn't though.