Radio Moments - Clips

It would be a dream of mine to be collected from a nursing home of Brinsworth House’s reputation to pop in to Radio 2 to host Pick of The Pops. Alan Freeman managed it. At the age of 72, here he is on his last programme proper on Radio 2 in April 2000.

Thanks - as ever - to Richard White, for his great collection of chart audio.

Another fond look back to this week in radio history, for the week ending 17th April 2015, as heard at the end of the week's RadioTalk podcast from Radio Today.

How much fun it was being an anorak paper boy waking up early in the 1980s. Radio 1 used to open up with a collage of jingles just before it began the day’s transmissions.

On one dark October morning in 1987, the station began the day with a full demo for its bright new, perfect JAM jingles, voiced impeccably by Simon Bates. It was only ever aired once. And that’s once more than most jingle demos are aired. I wonder if the Controller Beerling knew, or whether this was some tech op having the time of his life. Enjoy the full segment, recorded from beautiful AM.

Another fond look back to this week in radio history, for the week ending 17th April 2015, as heard at the end of the week's RadioTalk podcast from Radio Today.

How much fun it was being an anorak paper boy waking up early in the 1980s. Radio 1 used to open up with a collage of jingles just before it began the day’s transmissions.

On one dark October morning in 1987, the station began the day with a full demo for its bright new, perfect JAM jingles, voiced impeccably by Simon Bates. It was only ever aired once. And that’s once more than most jingle demos are aired. I wonder if the Controller Beerling knew, or whether this was some tech op having the time of his life. Enjoy the full segment, recorded from beautiful AM.

It seems inconceivable now that cigarettes could be widely advertised on broadcast media. Television advertising of tobacco products was banned in the UK in 1965. There was little reason to ban radio ads as there was no commercial radio at that stage in this country. They were heard widely, however, on stations beaming their signals into the UK: the pirate stations and Radio Luxembourg. I can still sing along to the merry melodies; and there is something so cute about the pre-decimal prices for these cancerous beauties: "20 long size cigarettes for 4/10". The creative is beautifully American as is the voice processing.

By the 60s, music radio stations across the World were pumping our powerful close harmony jingles, often created lovingly by the experienced American jingle houses. Back home, whilst BBC Radio 1 and 2 followed suit, the new BBC local stations followed a more traditional route at the outset. Where the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was a little too busy to lend a hand, local pipers, bands and vocalists were called upon to create musical ditties.

Enjoy here the 1968 Radio Sheffield song, uncovered by a listener in 2015 on an old tape recording, and played enthusiastically by Rony Robinson.

Another fond look back to this week in radio history, for the week ending 10th April 2015, as heard at the end of the week's RadioTalk podcast from Radio Today.

Stan Freberg, voice actor, comedian and broadcaster, has died. Enjoy here one execution from his work for the US Radio Advertising Bureau in 1964. A decade before legal commercial radio had begun in a fragmented way in the UK, the mature American market was boasting the merits of the medium in a powerful way

After Piccadilly's first year on air, Steve England and colleague James Whiteley in the station's creative team, paused for a few hours to assemble this 'station sound' demonstration for clients. It put this Manchester commercial sound in a historical context, jetting at speed from Marconi to Spotmaster cart machines and then onto the meat of the new station. Enjoy within some bright early daytime shows.