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Not the A to Z of Radio Comedy: I is for In One Ear
I first heard Steve Brown on Radio 4’s late-night live comedy show In One Ear. His songs, musical skits and attempts to paint himself as the “affable sex symbol” were an integral part of the show....
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Wogan House
Wogan House falls silent this month as engineers continue to decommission the BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music studios. The stations have been based in what was then Western House since 2006, at the time of the...
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An Everyday Story of an Omnibus Edition
As any BBC Radio 4 controller knows, you ‘refresh’ the schedules at your peril. And what’s more, to tinker with The Archers is sure to incur the wrath of any dyed-in-the-wool Ambridge fan. Cue the...
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The Not Now Show
So The Now Show becomes The Then Show after this next series as time is called on one of radio’s longest running comedy shows. Punt and Dennis have casting their eye over topical news stories for the...
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Shipping Movements
A little bit of radio broadcasting history happens today as, for the first time since 1956, there will no longer four shipping forecasts a day. This is all part of the plan to decommission Radio 4’s...
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Back to Square One
In what is sure to be an election year in the UK the Prime Minister (at time of writing Rishi Sunak) is fond of saying that were the current Opposition (at time of writing, the Labour Party) to win...
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A Sideways Look at D-Day
For the duration of the Second World War the teenage Anthony Smith looked upon the unfolding events with “belligerent glee”. He recalls how they never questioned the “unity of purpose” or “the...
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Election Night with Arthur
If you watching what is sure to be an exciting night of election results coverage this week and you opt for BBC One, then you might like to know that Arthur is back. I am at this point obliged to say...
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Elections on the Third
Aside from the news bulletins you can pretty much escape the General Election ballyhoo on BBC Radio 3. But that wasn’t always the case.One of the now forgotten pieces of radio broadcasting is, I...
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Hello, Hull Relay Station Calling
Radio broadcasting from Hull is one hundred years old this week. Now that may come as a surprise to listeners of BBC Radio Humberside who probably thought the station was about half that age. This...
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More More Moore
It’s now more than 30 years ago since Ray Moore’s passing but he remains fondly remembered by listeners and fellow broadcasters alike. Comments such as “the best presenter Radio 2 ever had... still...
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The Monday Movie Quiz
In my previous post I presented some recordings of Ray Moore during his Radio 2 early show years. But there’s another programme that Ray was associated with for just over a decade and that’s The Monday...
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Home Truths
While playing ‘ground-breakers, obscurities and session tracks’ on BBC Radio 1 by night, John Peel was taking a ‘wry look at the foibles of family life’ on BBC Radio 4 by day. That Radio 4 programme...
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Jazz Score
There’s no shortage of music quizzes on the radio from the current all out pop variety of PopMaster and Ten to the Top and the former Pop Score (1972-92) to the general music quiz ‘from Bach to the...
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Worldwide Requests
In May 2012 I wrote about the BBC World Service request show hosted by Sandi Jones and ended the post by writing “I've no recordings of Sandi on the World Service - if you have please contact me”. Well...
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The King and the Cotswold Shepherd
Ninety years ago on Christmas Day 1934, King George V was at Sandringham House preparing to make his broadcast to Britain and the Empire. Just before three o’clock his message was introduced not by a...
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Home Service Day 1964
This coming Saturday (28 December) BBC Radio 4 Extra is going to party like its 1964. For day only, all the programmes between 6am and 10pm are what you would’ve heard on the BBC Home Service in...
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The Sarah Ward Collection
It’s the final Sarah Ward Collection on Jazz FM this evening as Sarah ‘steps back’ from the weekly show after seven decades in broadcasting. It marks the end of a career for British radio’s...
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Churchill and the BBC
When Winston Churchill died on 24 January 1965 the BBC went into full obit mode, a special Radio Times supplement printed and plans made to broadcast the state funeral on Saturday 30th (1) But the...
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Give Us A Conch
Conch (noun) a thick heavy spiral shell occasionally bearing long projections of various marine gastropod molluscs of the family Strombidae.Give Us A Conch (later The Conch Quiz) was a light-hearted...
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News Briefing in Brief
Tomorrow morning BBC Radio 4 will, for the last time, broadcast the early morning News Briefing. A fixture of Radio 4’s schedule for nearly half a century it’s yet another victim of financial cuts.News...
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On the Front Line with the Robinsons
Before the Archers, before the Nashs and Tysons, and even before the Dales, there was one radio family that had millions of listeners tuning into their wireless sets each day – and that was the...
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Radio Lives - Colin Berry
He was Mr Radio 2 for four decades, the warm, trusted ever-present voice who read thousands of news bulletins and presented hundreds of music programmes. He deputised for many of the other DJs on the...
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Questions of Sport
Questions on sport are always a part of any general knowledge quiz but radio has, with just a couple of minor exceptions, pretty much stayed away sports-based quiz shows for the last 30 years....
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Go Man Go
Go Man Go was another of those BBC Light Programme lunchtime music shows that proliferated during the 1950s and 1960s. Recorded before a frenzied young audience they offered the latest hits as...
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