S1 Ep526: Sheila Borrett - First female announcer on BBC's National Service
When the BBC first deigned to put a woman on the radio as an announcer back in 1933 on the |National Service, they anticipated green-ink complaints for sure. Maybe not, however, quite so many from women. Sheila Borrett was the trailblazer’s name. Following much press interest, her tenure lasted but three months in the light of some 10,000 complaints. Imagine how Radio 4's 'Feedback' programme ...
6m Aug 20, 2012
6m
S1 Ep525: Radio Caroline - returns on the Ross Revenge
Radio Caroline was a survivor. Probably the most fondly-remembered of the 60s pirates, Caroline was the one which continued as the 1967 UK legislation prohibited Brits from playing a part in the stations. Caroline was more than a business, it was a cause. As her ships floundered, with the Mi Amigo suffering in bad 1980 weather, she needed a new home. August 1983 saw her return, on board the Ro...
2m Aug 19, 2012
2m
S1 Ep524: Dennis Maitland speaks in 80s - (MD Trent, Aire)
Dennis Maitland was one of the generation of radio managers who transferred from the pirate ships to the early land-based licensed commercial stations (ILR). Dennis was a commercial man, venturing into radio from Odhams, having worked for the Daily Mail group. His radio career started in earnest in 1964. Philip Birch (who went on to launch Piccadilly) invited him to join 'Radio X'. This was th...
6m Aug 18, 2012
6m
S1 Ep523: BBC 1Xtra - Launch
6m Aug 18, 2012
6m
S1 Ep522: Tony Blackburn - on Radio 1 ceasing jingles
As a seasoned radio veteran, Chris Moyles loved his jingles. Whilst the target audience and Radio 1’s  approach suggested maybe something more contemporary might be in order, Moyles proudly commissioned close harmony idents as lengthy as the ad breaks on most commercial stations. So wrong for Radio 1, Chris knew they would become right. And I loved them.  So, when Moyles gave up the breakfast s...
3m Aug 17, 2012
3m
S1 Ep521: Jimmy Gordon - Radio Clyde
ILR had a founding generation: a small and varied group of pioneers who tackled the task of establishing UK commercial radio. As the first tranche of stations came on air between 1973 and 1976, these individuals carved out their businesses in very different ways, dependent largely on their own backgrounds. The model for ILR was, at that time, unknown. Was the best route to please the regulator?...
1m Aug 16, 2012
1m
S1 Ep520: John Peters - Trent's fifth birthday in 1980
There are undoubtedly some key influences in music radio: the Blackburn sound; the Steve Wright sound; and the list goes on. There was certainly too ‘a UBN sound’. UBN being the biscuit factory station which was the training ground for so many early ILR broadcasters, as this new trickle of early stations mined the UK in the 1970s for people who understood contemporary music radio. This well-pro...
12m Aug 16, 2012
12m
S1 Ep519: Robert Robinson - Tribute
Some voices are calming. Their very sound suggests long Summer evenings, roses round the door and a rustic, polite England where nothing could possibly come to any harm. Radio 4 is a frequent home of such voices, and maybe few better than Robert Robinson. ‘Bob’ was a journalist who, amongst other roles, acted as radio critic for the Sunday Times. Off to TV he went, before stopping off in radio...
1m Aug 08, 2012
1m
S1 Ep518: Sunrise - Launch
1m Aug 04, 2012
1m
S1 Ep517: Terry Wogan - Tribute
Some choice pieces from the rich life of Terry Wogan, who died in January 2016. http://davidlloyd-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/farewell-terry.html
4m Aug 01, 2012
4m
S1 Ep516: Danny Wallace - First Xfm breakfast
2m Jul 31, 2012
2m
S1 Ep515: Teddy Johnson
On radio, Teddy Johnson joined Luxembourg in May 1948, playing a key role both on-air and in management as the station resumed after Wartime; he hosted the Top 20, amongst other shows. On the BBC Light Programme/Radio 2, he was heard on Saturday mornings and on shows such as ‘the Song Stylists’. As he tells on this clip, like so many natural communicators, he struggled with the then BBC habit o...
1m Jul 29, 2012
1m
S1 Ep514: Dale Winton - Mayday 1982 - Trent
Dale Winton arrived at Trent with the objective of becoming a star. He was yet another of a talented bunch from UBN, the successful station broadcasting to the United Biscuits factories; back then a key training ground for a young commercial radio industry. Dale's first Trent show was aired on 6th August 1977. Dale graduated through the schedule, eventually ending up at a fitting home mid-morn...
6m Jul 29, 2012
6m
S1 Ep513: David Cameron on Absolute Radio - 2009
26s Jul 29, 2012
26s
S1 Ep512: Northsound - Launch
3m Jul 26, 2012
3m
S1 Ep511: David Jacobs - Medley
2m Jul 24, 2012
2m
S1 Ep510: Brian Matthew - Medley
3m Jul 24, 2012
3m
S1 Ep509: 6KH
15 August 1924 saw the launch of 6KH in Hull on 896 kHz. The station was another relay of 2ZY, with local programming added in, as Audrey Nicholson recalls as she ponders over the first chap in charge.
1m Jul 23, 2012
1m
S1 Ep508: 5NO
5NO came on air on 24th December 1922 on 743 kHz. Tom Payne was in charge.
1m Jul 23, 2012
1m
S1 Ep507: 6LV
6LV in Liverpool started broadcasting on 318 metres on 11th June 1924. John Dunkley recalls here, followed by the charming Muriel Levy ‘Aunt Muriel’.  Launch programming included 'A concert of three hours duration was given at the Philharmonic Hall to which...the Liverpool Police band contributed'. 'There were speeches by the Lord Mayor  and Sir William Herdman  of Liverpool University'
1m Jul 23, 2012
1m
S1 Ep506: 2LS
8 July 1924 saw the launch of 2LS for Leeds and Bradford on 935 kHz. Albert Eldred, who was in charge, recalls; followed by Philip Fox who helped to build it.
4m Jul 23, 2012
4m
S1 Ep505: 2ZY
2ZY was Manchester’s first radio station, on-air from 1922 to 1927, beginning its tests (when tests were essential) on 17 May 1922, with regular programmes beginning on 15 November 1922. It was a day after the famous 2LO from London; and just over an hour after Birmingham's 5IT. These were the early days of broadcasting, when different radio manufacturers came together to form the British Broad...
7m Jul 23, 2012
7m
S1 Ep504: Giles Squire promo - Metro
In just a few seconds, this promo sums up a time and place in radio. Giles Squire, later to be a leading light in commercial radio programme management, sells in his programme on Newcastle's Metro Radio to the listeners. Using his poshest voice, Giles gives us a complete menu of all the things which made up his show, and every other commercial radio mid-morning show back then: music, interview...
1m Jul 23, 2012
1m
S1 Ep503: Mike Read - Radio 1 Roadshow
The Radio One Roadshow, launched in 1973, was a phenomenon. Seventies music stars were not always essential to draw the crowds; the disc jockeys alone were often sufficient, escaping from the medium wave into the open air in their coloured nylon shirts or branded jackets. Maybe the seventies were such a dull decade, that mere radio presenters in shorts were enough to cause a stir. A great Joh...
1m Jul 22, 2012
1m
S1 Ep502: Radio 355 - The end
4m Jul 19, 2012
4m
S1 Ep501: DLT - Moon landing
July 1969. It was the feat of the Century. Man walked on the Moon. Live pictures beamed back to a sleepless, black and white Britain. But, putting the euphoria of the first steps behind him, how chuffed Neil Armstrong must have been next day, on hearing DLT offer his hairy cornflake congratulations via BBC Radio 1.
26s Jul 17, 2012
26s
S1 Ep500: Dave Cash - Tribute
Dave Cash, famously half of 'Kenny (Everett) and Cash' began broadcasting in Canada. The influences there poised him well for the move to pirate Radio London, aged 21. After the familiar spell at Radio Luxembourg, he returned to be part of the large team at Radio 1's outset, before moving to Capital where he spent 21 years. The 'Kenny & Cash' programme was revived there on land. After Capital,...
2m Jul 17, 2012
2m
S1 Ep499: Tony Blackburn - Caroline
There is thankfully much archive audio of Tony Blackburn through his career. Annoyingly for those of us who started out in radio with a squeaky, embarrassing voice, Tony seems to have always sounded, well, like he does now. His first station was Caroline in July 1964, and there are recordings from even there which sound already like those of a seasoned music radio presenter. Here, though, he s...
1m Jul 16, 2012
1m
S1 Ep498: Radio Scotland - Medley
2m Jul 14, 2012
2m
S1 Ep497: Radio Victory launch - 1975
Those of a certain age can recite the names of the UK's first 19 commercial stations, a little bit like you remember those useful lists one learnt at school. Radio Victory was one of them, bouncing on air on the 14th October, 1975. Like so many of the first tranche, it attracted a healthy audience and much local love, not least for it striking the right chord when so many in its TSA were affect...
1m Jul 14, 2012
1m
S1 Ep496: The Super Station
I recall the first night of this back in July 1988. Management and staff gathered at our station late at night to push up the fader and hear the excitement of the project known as 'Radio Radio', branded on air as 'The Super Station'. These were the first, tentative steps into networking; and engineers got very excited. The service was broadcast from 10.00 p.m until 6.00 a.m on a number of ILR...
1m Jul 14, 2012
1m
S1 Ep495: Metro Radio - Launch
Enjoy the opening of Metro Radio, from its studios in Swalwell, Gateshead on 15 July 1974. This proud station, the sixth to launch in the ILR network, was to be home for the likes of young Giles Squire, and James Whale. Metro became a hub of early consolidation, reaching out from the North and acquiring the Yorkshire Radio Network, before being acquired by EMAP, and later Bauer.
5m Jul 13, 2012
5m
S1 Ep494: Radio Hallam - Closedown
Roger Moffat.
21s Jul 12, 2012
21s
S1 Ep493: Frank Gillard - In action as War Correspondent
17th June 1944.
27s Jul 12, 2012
27s
S1 Ep492: Last BBC Bush House broadcast
July 12th 2012 saw the last broadcast for the BBC World Service made from Bush House in London. It had remained there in its rented home for more than 70 years after it moved in, inch by inch, following bomb damage to Broadcasting House. More history here at http://audioboo.fm/boos/777579-bbc-world-medley. In these final moments, hear the Director General bid farewell to the great House.
1m Jul 12, 2012
1m
S1 Ep491: Moyles breakfast anno - and Ben Cooper comment
He was self-dubbed the 'Saviour of Radio One'. In some people's eyes, likely his own, it was true. Chris Moyles became the longest-serving breakfast show presenter on Radio One, eventually usurping its first presenter, Tony Blackburn. None of the other twelve acts quite managed that. Maybe not surprisingly for someone of that length of tenure, there was constant speculation about the end of hi...
7m Jul 11, 2012
7m
S1 Ep490: Compass FM - Launch
3m Jul 10, 2012
3m
S1 Ep489: IBA - Complaints announcement
26s Jul 10, 2012
26s
S1 Ep488: Radio City - Launch
1m Jul 10, 2012
1m
S1 Ep487: Radio Hallam - Launch
When your first song sticks, it’s not a good omen, but Hallam seems to have done pretty well regardless. It’s also a great anecdote to relate in later years, although it likely did not feel that way for poor Johnny Moran at the time. Radio Hallam began broadcasting in 1974, the eighth Independent Local Radio station, amidst a blaze of “£20,000 of publicity”. The station had won the Sheffield li...
3m Jul 10, 2012
3m
S1 Ep486: Invicta Sound - Launch
3m Jul 10, 2012
3m
S1 Ep485: Signal - Launch
4m Jul 10, 2012
4m
S1 Ep484: Dorothy Torry on Lord Reith
This is a truly fascinating, rare, personal insight into the personality of Lord Reith, the BBC's first Director General. Dorothy Torry who worked in his office as a 'PA', and who'd begun with the BBC in 1936, reminisces with Becky Milligan. (Heard on BBC Radio 4, Broadcasting House, July 2012). You can't help but like her. Follow my #radiomoments daily on Twitter @davidlloydradio. And enjoy ...
7m Jul 08, 2012
7m
S1 Ep483: John Marsh - July 2010 - Radio 2
Many working in radio have a recurring nightmare. You are on-air and everything conspires against you. You wake up in a sweat. For a journalist or news announcer, that nightmare is of a bulletin where all the audio and scripts are wrong, or fail to appear, and you have to blunder your way through. Occasionally, exactly that happens. Witness John Marsh reading the Radio 2 news in Sarah Kennedy's...
4m Jul 06, 2012
4m
S1 Ep482: Magic 828 - Launch
1m Jul 05, 2012
1m
S1 Ep481: Minster FM - Launch
1m Jun 30, 2012
1m
S1 Ep480: 208 - Radio Luxembourg, new frequency
20s Jun 30, 2012
20s
S1 Ep479: BBC Radio Medway
BBC Radio Medway took to the air from Chatham in 1970. In 1983, its area was broadened to serve Kent and the name changed in sympathy. Sadly, that meant the end of jingles like this. Quality. 
1m Jun 30, 2012
1m
S1 Ep478: Trent montage
A fifteen minute dash through the life of Radio Trent, drawing on assorted random clips to illustrate the sound of the UK's 13th commercial radio station. If you lived in Nottingham in the '70s and '80s, this may chime. If you didn't, it likely won't. My full, indulgent memories of Trent - and more audio - are explored in the blog at http://davidlloyd-radio.blogspot.co.uk/ Meanwhile, on this ...
14m Jun 28, 2012
14m
S1 Ep477: Pennine - Test
3m Jun 24, 2012
3m