Radio Moments - Clips

Tom Browne was an unusual appointment to Radio 1, but for a generation, his perfect counting down of the hits on a Sunday was part of growing up. Short and sweet, yet thoroughly engaging, this former actor's presentation kept the 70s warm as an electric blanket.

Tom took over from Alan Freeman and hosted the chart from 1 October 1972 to 26 March 1978, albeit it was contained within the last hour of 'Solid Gold Sixty' until 17th March 1674, before just becoming the chart proper. This hour was special too for being relayed on Radio 2's FM (and LW) frequencies, back in the days when Radio 1 relied on medium wave only.

Enjoy here, Tom's final countdown on 26 March 1978 before handing the year jingles and sound effects to Simon Bates.

Thanks to Richard White for the audio from which this was truncated. There is little Richard does not know about charts - and little audio he has not retained in full.

Radio in London was not competitive for many years. Capital and LBC had the City to themselves for a decade and a half, until London Jazz Radio, came on air as Jazz FM in 1990. Back then, the new regulator, the Radio Authority saw 'broadening listening choice' as a matter of licensing music new formats, rather than allowing any appreciable competition and choice in the mainstream. Like many stations in that tough climate, not least a lone specialist station, this project of love struggled, being taken over by Golden Rose Communications the following year.

In a bid to broaden the appeal, the station re-branded as JFM, reverting to Jazz FM after just over a year. As the station extended to the North West, but failed to win other UK FM licences, or acquire licences with which it might broaden the scope of its business, it was then sold to GMG in late 2002, which re-branded the station as Smooth in 2005.

Jazz, nevertheless, had acquired a reputation and a following which was exploited as platforms grew. The format lives on now on DAB and online

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Radio came to Scotland on 6th March 1923 as 5SC launched, from a dusty attic on Bath Street, in the showbiz corner of town. It was the 6th in the early string of tentative BBC local radio stations. As with many of them, children;s programming was quickly established on the schedule. In charge of that, and women's programming, was Kathleen Garscadden ('Auntie Cyclone') who relishes here those pioneering years.

Another fond look back to this week in radio history, for the week ending 6th March 2015, as heard at the end of the week's RadioTalk podcast from Radio Today.

Another fond look back to this week in radio history, for the week ending 27th February 2015, as heard at the end of the week's RadioTalk podcast from Radio Today.

Chris Rainbow, the musician who wrote and sung on many jingles, including Capital 194, passed away on 25th Feb 2015, aged 68. He was a great friend of Kenny Everett, and fondly remembered for this famous Radio 1 Jingle, and many versions of it.

On 21st Feb 1988, Mark Goodier presented the Top 40 on BBC Radio 1 for the first time, becoming the regular stand-in before taking over from Bruno on 30 Sep 1990.

Another fond look back to this week in radio history, for the week ending 20th February 2015, as heard at the end of the week's RadioTalk podcast from Radio Today.

This is how the new radio station for the Home Counties changed from Jack on March 10th 2014

Another fond look back to this week in radio history, for the week ending 13th February 2015, as heard at the end of the week's RadioTalk podcast from Radio Today.