Radio West
PeopleRadio West
People
Some (hopefully non-libellous) thoughts on the people who worked at Bristol's first commercial radio station. This list neither is exhaustive nor claims to be accurate, and I would appreciate any corrections or offers of further information. Contact me at amrogers1@gmail.com. Many thanks to those who have done so so far - it has been great to correspond with you all. Thanks to Paul White for providing me with particularly useful information, and to Julian Watson for sounds and pictures taken from the Radio West Annual, 1983.
Use your browser back button to come back to the top, after viewing each mini-biography. There are some useful links too. Click on some of the presenter pictures to hear their name jingles.
I last updated this page on 3 March 2008.
If you have any good-quality recordings of Radio West, please let me know!
Andrew Rogers on Radio West (Well, we've all had dreams)
In addition, in preparation for the "merger", Dave Barrett, Dave Bowen and Lynda Couch from Wiltshire Radio broadcast on the station during its last few weeks. Dave Bowen sat in for Mark Seaman on the Light Lunch, Dave Barrett presented the Late Show, and Lynda Couch presented West Tonight. Meanwhile several West presenters and news staff were working for Wiltshire Radio.
The wild and wacky Watershed
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GWR used the building for many years, but the studios are now (July 2007) Mackenzie's Cafe Bar
A well-known local freelance journalist, Tom was a member of Radio West's news team. I believe Tom now works for the BBC in Bristol, in a senior position.
Cliff presented West's folk music programme which ran from October 1981 to October 1982, on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. Although Cliff left the station when the programme was discontinued, folk made a return to West in early 1985 when Tooki Garrett presented "Tooki's Folk" on Sunday evenings after the Network Chart Show.
Judy co-presented with Bryan Chalker for some time on his afternoon show, and later had her own help-the-consumer type programme during the "speech block" in 1983.
Along with Andy Fox, Chris was the voice of rock on Radio West, and is the Bristol rep. for Virgin Records as well as the voice that introduces the acts on the main stage at Glastonbury. Chris reappeared on Bristol radio some years later, presenting "The Real Alternative" on what was then 107.3 The Eagle. Sadly this became Bristol's Star, and Chris moved to 106.3 Bridge FM in Bridgend, but again, that station came under new ownership, and Chris is no longer there.
Gill joined the station from DevonAir Radio where she had been co-presenting a daytime magazine programme, firstly with Paul Owens and later with Ian Waugh. On Radio West she presented a variety of features and had her own Sunday breakfast show. Gill also co-presented "The Good Neighbour Show" on HTV West with fellow Radio West presenter Fred Wedlock. Gill left Radio West shortly before it closed and now works behind the scenes at BBC Hereford and Worcester.
Gill will do your voiceovers for you
Dave was West's first programme controller and
presented shows on Sunday morning. He also had a stint on the Breakfast Show. Of
course, Dave has had a long career in radio and in the UK was first heard on the
pirate ship Radio London. In 1973 he joined Capital Radio and presented the
midday show for seven years. After leaving West in February 1983 he rejoined
Capital and presented weekend breakfast. In the late 80s Dave could be heard on
Invicta Radio in Kent, and later on Capital Gold. Recently he has been
presenting on BBC Radio Kent (replacing the infamous Barry Bethell).
Read more about Dave in the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame
Bryan came to Radio West after having worked as a researcher on Dave Cash's "Cash Country" programme on Capital Radio. He presented the afternoon show from West's first day until February 1983, when he moved to the late show. Of course, he also presented a specialist country music programme. Bryan's trademarks were his dark-brown voice and his vintage car. Since leaving Radio West when West reduced its hours in October 1983, Bryan remained active in radio, presenting country music programmes on Country 1035 in London and on various satellite services, including Country Music Radio and Radio Caroline.
I don't have a good picture of Bryan, so here's his name jingle
Tom joined Radio West from Coventry's Mercia Sound in mid-1984 to replace Roger Day on the breakfast show. He had previously worked at Leicester's ill-fated Centre Radio as presenter of the weekday evening "Street Level".
Described (to me) by MD John Bradford as "a very tight presenter", Tom proved to have an enormous sense of fun as well and was a very worthy successor to Roger. He also presented on Saturday mornings and introduced us to the quiz "Saturday SuperSquares", later re-invented on Radio Broadland. Callers would pick squares after identifying pieces of music (usually with the help of outrageous clues offered by Tom) and the squares might contain prizes, questions or raspberries. Tom's fun style had no place on the new news-oriented breakfast show offered by GWR, so he left the company, and sadly the radio industry, in August 1985. He went into the video production business, and now runs a residential centre for children in West Wales. A great loss to the world of radio.
Tom comes out of the news one bright Saturday morning in 1984 (Real Audio)
It's hot, beefy Clapton, with Peter Allen as backing music (Real Audio)
Great prizes on offer in this last ever edition of Saturday Supersquares, 3 August 1985 (Real Audio)
Chris was one of several presenters who joined
Radio West from the Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service. Chris presented
Weekend Gold at various times during the station's last two years. He later
presented on Orchard FM and on Weston-Super-Mare's
107.7 WFM, and spent a spell producing the networked Jezza's Confessions show on
stations such as BRMB. After a spell at Ivel FM, Chris has come back to radio in
Bristol as part of the launch team for Original 106.5, which launched on Sunday
20 May 2007.
Chris' page on the Original 106.5 web site
The
picture, like the one below left taken from the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame web site,
shows Roger in 1966. He was about to join the pirate ship Radio Caroline South
from Swinging Radio England, and he remained on Caroline after the Marine etc.
Broadcasting Offences Bill became law in August 1967. He presented the breakfast
show up until the impounding of the ships in March 1968.
In 1970 Roger returned to watery wireless on Radio Northsea International, the ship which changed its name to Radio Caroline in a controversial attempt to affect the outcome of the British general election in favour of the Conservatives (boo!) who were promising free radio.
By 1974 Roger was back on land and was the first
presenter to be heard on Piccadilly Radio in Manchester. He remained at
Piccadilly until 1979 when he moved to BRMB in Birmingham, presenting programmes
such as "Solid Gold Saturday". He joined Radio West in early 1983 and presented
first mid-mornings, then breakfast until leaving the station in 1984 to join the
management at Invicta Sound in Kent. While at West Roger was "Head of Music and
Presentation", introducing a playlist and doing a great deal to tighten up the
station sound. He is one of the best presenters in the country and has presented
peak-time shows on Invicta (where as programme controller he met with enormous
ratings success after the initial Wiltshire Radio-like format had been dumped in
1985), Pirate FM, Piccadilly Gold, Radio Mercury, Jazz FM and County Sound
Radio. For some time, he presented the weekday drive show on Birmingham's Saga
105.7 FM (now Smooth Radio). He now presents a weekday evening show on BBC local radio
stations in the South and a Sunday afternoon show on BBC Radio Kent. A busy man!
Roger recently
celebrated 40 years in broadcasting.
Roger signs off from his Saturday morning show, early 1983 (Real Audio)
Mark was a member of Radio West's original news team. Since leaving Radio West, Mark was heard on Severn Sound in Gloucestershire.
Along with John Hayes and Dave Glass, Ray was a recruit from Radio 210 in Reading, and presented the late night soul and community programme Late Night West until February 1983, when a programme reshuffle saw him lose his slot. A few months later, Ray reappeared hosting a weeknight hour-long soul show, and shortly afterwards he took over the Friday evening show from Johnnie Walker. Sadly Ray made a final departure when the station reduced its hours in late 1983.
Thanks to Paul Easton for letting me know that Ray has worked in concert promotion since leaving radio.
Steve was a member of Radio West's original news team and became Head of News after Mike Stewart's promotion. Since leaving commercial radio he held senior management positions in BBC local radio stations. He now appears to be involved with an Internet TV company, Coull TV.
Richard was a member of Radio West's news team,
and is well remembered (by me at least!) for reading the news on Tom Clapton's
breakfast show. After Radio West became GWR he remained with the company and
co-presented Bristol's new breakfast show with Steve Orchard. He later joined
the BBC and, among other things, became one of the presenters of Radio One's
Newsbeat. He can now be heard on BBC Radio Wales, where he presents a weekday
lunchtime phone-in, and on Five Live, where he co-presents The Weekend
News.
Richard Evans on Five Live's web site
Nino was Radio West's original weekday breakfast
host, although this did not last long - he soon moved to the weekends and
developed "Nino's Gang", a children's show appealing to the pre-teens. As West's
programme schedule changed over time, Nino's Gang moved to Sunday afternoons and
later became mixed with a local chart in the "Charty Party", perhaps the worst
ever show name in British radio. In September 1984 Nino began presenting the
weekday evening "Music Magazine" as West went back into the night. Nino left
West just before it closed to pursue a career in children's TV, firstly in the
ITV children's magazine programme "Splash!". He later presented a modern version
of the seminal ITV quiz show "Mr and Mrs", but retained his contact with radio,
presenting on Galaxy 101 and on a national satellite service, Night
Tracks. Until 2003 Nino worked for Wave 105, the regional station for the South
coast. He then went to the USA, working for radio station KLLC (Radio Alice 97.3)
in San Francisco. Returning to the UK, Nino now presents weekday breakfast and
Saturday afternoons on Exeter FM, the new (February 2008) local radio station
for...Exeter!
And he's good at Maths, and sums! Nino introduces Kid Jensen for the first Network Chart, September 1984 (Real Audio)
Nino's page on the Exeter FM web site
Yes, the Keith Floyd! Keith was West's cookery expert. During the 1983 experiment with the "speech block", Keith also presented a half-hour phone-in, in which he vented his spleen on Australians, Americans, and anybody else who happened not to fit in with his view of the world. I don't know whether the IBA intervened, but both the phone-in, and Keith's cookery slot, disappeared fairly swiftly thereafter. It didn't seem to affect his career very much....
Keith Floyd needs no introduction - but here's what his agent thinks!
John first appeared on Radio West sometime in 1984 and presented a number of shows, including "Heading for the Weekend" on Friday night, the Sunday breakfast show and, perhaps for the longest, the Saturday afternoon Sport and Music show from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. After the merger he found himself presenting a two-hour show from midnight on Saturday. He then moved to a three-hour Saturday evening show on GWR AM only, then to Saturday Breakfast on the GWR Bristol and Bath transmitters. After that he did fill-ins on GWR, Brunel Radio and Classic Gold, as well as his own Sunday afternoon show on Classic Gold for 2 years, and presented Overnight Express on the GWR AM and FM network when Andy Westgate was in charge (see below).
John then took a break from radio for 4 years, joining Bristol's 107.3 The Eagle in 2000 to present a Saturday morning show. Until recently he could be heard on Star 107.3 in Bristol presenting on Sundays. Thanks to John for getting in touch and bringing us up to date with his career so far.
Here's John with Jonathan Pearce closing the Saturday afternoon sport show (Real Audio)
Andy was, with Chris Bull, the voice of rock on Radio West and, among other shows over the years, presented Saturday Night's Alright from 9 p.m. - a mix of rock, reggae and love songs. After Nino Firetto left Andy was drafted in to present the evening show for the last few weeks. When GWR started Andy continued to present the Rock and Reggae show on GWR, also at 9 p.m. on Saturday. He also presented overnights for a while. Andy was, and is, a well known local DJ and in recent years he has been involved with a number of groups wishing to broadcast in the Bristol area (such as Radio Caroline). Eventually he came back to Bristol radio presenting a Monday night rock show on 107.3 The Eagle, but soon after that station became Star, Andy followed Chris Bull across the bridge: he can now be found on Pontypridd's GTFM 107.9 (now inaudible on FM outside the Pontypridd area because of a change in frequency, but you can still listen on-line).
Andy's page on the GTFM web site
For many the voice of Radio West, Trevor's
broadcasting career started on the Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service, and
took him to Radio West at the end of 1981 where he assisted John Hayes on the
mid-morning show that later became his own. After almost two years of presenting
various weekend shows, most notably Weekend Gold, and a short stint on
breakfast, Trevor moved into his mid-morning slot in late 1983 and immediately
established a good rapport with his audience with his relaxed and companionable
style.
When Radio West became GWR, Trevor's show remained
relatively untouched, although it lost an hour so that the Johnnie Walker show
could begin at 11 a.m. Later in the life of GWR the show was further reduced to
8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., although it regained its original length when Johnnie
Walker left to join Radio One and his show was taken over by Mark Seaman. When
GWR split its frequencies, Trevor became the Bristol breakfast presenter on
Brunel Radio, and as that station gradually evolved into Brunel Classic Gold,
Trevor remained as breakfast presenter until just before the introduction of
Mike Read's networked breakfast show in the late 90s. In conjunction with some
other famous local broadcasters such as Adrian Jay, Trevor launched a bid for a
new licence for Bristol in 1999 with "Cabot FM" and ran a very professional RSL
under that name, but the licence was awarded to what is now Star 107.2 (or
Staradio, or whatever it's called this week).
In 1999 Trevor joined BBC Radio Bristol and now presents a networked weekday Evening Show from 7 p.m. and the Sunday breakfast show.
A typical minute from Trevor's mid-morning show, mid-1984 (Real Audio)
Trevor Fry at BBC Radio Bristol
Mike did some shifts on Radio West towards the
end, appearing on Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes. He has worked as a lecturer at
Stroud College, and after several successful RSLs under the name Easy FM, became
launch Managing Director of Stroud's FM 107 The Falcon (until recently Star 107,
but now defunct).
David was a member of Radio West's original news team and regularly
presented programmes such as "West at One" and "West Tonight". In 1985 David
left to join the BBC and is now a regular presenter of BBC Bristol's regional TV
news programme (the picture on the right shows him presenting a typical feature), but I
prefer to remember him as the willing (?) participant in Dave Glass's feature,
"David Garmston Says".
Read more about David on this BBC Points West page
Tooki was West's record librarian and presenter of the Sunday late show, "A Little Touch of Tooki in the Night". Soft adult music would play, while Tooki took phone-calls and read out dedications, most often (it seemed) to inmates of Horfield Prison. Although most entertaining (for me at least) the show was panned in Venue magazine's review of the station's output in late 1982, and soon afterwards it was dropped. Tooki then began presenting a Thursday night arts roundup in West Tonight Extra, but disappeared from the schedules completely when the hours were reduced in late 1983. She remained with the company, however, and later became the presenter of the Sunday night folk show in 1985.
Does anybody else remember Dave Glass "sitting in it" for Tooki when she was on holiday, and producing some wonderful promos with a voice like Arthur Mullard's representing Tooki?
Can you hear her? Tooki plays some Shakatak and goes into the 11 p.m. news with Greg Bance
A member of West's original news team. In late
1982 or early 1983, Margaret was accused in the Bristol Evening Post of having
an affair with Dave Cash. An apology was hastily printed. Margaret has had a
long and successful career in journalism and was until recently the BBC's Home Affairs
Correspondent. She is now a freelance writer, journalist and analyst.
Dave came to Radio West from Radio 210 in Reading
where he had presented a Sunday afternoon show. He took on the drive-time
programme and made it a most entertaining show, with plenty of features such as
"Rumour of the Day" (Blackmail are letters sent from a burned down post office),
Boobs (mistakes from the world of radio), "David Garmston Says", Gary Owens'
Special Reports and many more, plus a wonderful mixture of good quality music.
Even the travel news was fun, as Inspector Martin Snell of the Avon and Somerset
Constabulary might find himself talking over a piece of opera music, or find
Dave broadcasting from the Council House moat. In late 1982 a new feature, Loveline, in which three single
men and three single women would ring up in order to be matched up live on air,
incurred the wrath of the IBA and was quickly removed.
Dave had many fans in the area but, because his show was new to Bristol, some people erroneously believed that his material was copied from Radio One's Steve Wright. An article in Broadcast magazine accused Dave of this, panning his show while praising the opposition (Pete Lawrence on BBC Radio Bristol, famous for saying "Well, f*** me and blow me" on air after confusing Scott Joplin with Larry Adler). Dave's brave response to the article was to ring Steve Wright live on air. It was a pity that the author of the article had not checked his facts and appeared not to know any of Dave's history as a producer - if anything, the copying went the other way round, as ideas occurring on Dave's Sunday afternoon show on 210 would frequently re-appear on Steve's breakfast show in the week. (Allegedly.)
In October 1983, John Bradford sacked Dave Glass. I believe that Dave was informed of the decision during the last half-hour of his drive-time show. With cuts looming and a more middle-of-the-road sound desired for the station, there was to be no place for him. Since then Dave acted as National Programme Controller for the children's hospital radio service Radio Lollipop, and later set up his own production company, Dave Glass Productions. Based in Redhill, Surrey, the company supplies a vast range of audio clips, ideas and characters to presenters throughout the country. Although this way we can still hear Dave's work, it is a great shame and an indictment of the British broadcasting industry that, although he has broadcast on occasion since leaving Radio West (on, for example, the cable service Eclipse FM, and, allegedly, as "Captain Whammo" on Radio Jackie) there is no regular place for him on the air.
Dave Glass reads the programme schedule for a Thursday evening, Feb 1983 (Real Audio)
Dave's "Boobs" slot features Royal-watcher Dickie Arbiter, Feb 1983 (Real Audio)
And now it's time for the Dave Glass Rumour of the Day, Feb 1983 (Real Audio)
Time for the travel news from Police Traffic Control, with some unorthodox backing music (Real Audio)
Dave Glass
Productions (The picture is copyright DG)
John joined the station from Radio 210 where (I
think) he had been weekday breakfast presenter. After two years presenting
mid-mornings, breakfast and (briefly) afternoons, John left to join Essex Radio
where he presented the mid-morning slot. In 1990 he joined the then-new BBC
Essex and presented their breakfast show for some years. He now presents weekday
drivetime.
Chris was Side Show Bob to Nino Firetto's Crusty the Clown on Nino's Gang and the Charty Party. A talented presenter in his own right, he eventually hit the GWR airwaves as the presenter of the Sunday afternoon "Sunday Shambles" (On the show that's wild and wacky, You can win something cheap and tacky) and did the Bath Breakfast Show for a while after the 103FM transmitter opened. From there he was poached to present drive-time on the new Power FM when Ocean Sound split four ways in 1988. I have no recent news of his whereabouts.
Tony presented various weekend slots on Radio West during its first two years. He also (I believe) produced West's first jingle package.
Peter was the voice of religion on Radio West for its first couple of years.
A member of Radio West's original news team. I have also heard Steve read the news on Radio Victory in Portsmouth. Now Richard Evans tells me (18 October 2001) that "Steve Kyte later went on to be a producer at LBC and later joined Five Live where he is now Managing Editor ... my boss in fact!!!"
Dave presented several weekend shows, including the People's Chart, Party Time on a Saturday night, and the Sunday afternoon UK Top 30, during Radio West's first year. He also could frequently be heard covering for absent colleagues during weekday daytime shows. Dave left Radio West in late 1982 and took on the mid-morning show on Radio Orwell in Ipswich (I remember Dave Glass giving out Orwell's Freephone number so that listeners could hear Dave Luck if they wanted!). Later Dave joined 2CR in Bournemouth, where he presented for a long time before moving to Gemini Radio in Exeter. He now has the pleasure of waking up very early risers in the Exeter and Torbay areas, presenting the 3 a.m. show on Gemini FM. (Thanks to Chris Edgecombe for this information!)
Dave very keen to tell us that it's seven minutes past ten, on Party Time in the very early weeks
Dave's page on the Gemini FM site
Tim was the
station's Chief Engineer and joined from CBC in Cardiff where he had done some
presentation work. In early 1983, on Monday evenings at 7:30 p.m. as part of the
"speech block", West introduced the programme "Datarama", presented by Tim and
"The General" (Martin Schimmer, later Chief Engineer at Invicta) which was aimed at the growing army of home
computer users. Every week, geeks like myself would tape the Sinclair Spectrum
programmes transmitted over the air as audio files (although the picture shows a
BBC micro, of course!) and then attempt to load them into their computers: the
first one was a rather nice Radio West logo. These audio files were also
transmitted overnight. Datarama was a ground-breaking programme and was
mentioned in the IBA Annual Reports. It moved to a weekend slot when the station
cut its hours in October 1983 but returned to a weekday evening slot before West
closed down. Sadly the programme was not taken on by GWR, due to "failure to
attract a sponsor" (Simon Cooper, September 1985) and we were treated to
"Freezeframe", a programme about photography (also unsponsored)
instead!
One of the office staff, Lorna presented Sunday Gold for a while during 1984. The programme initially ran 5-7 p.m. then 7-8 p.m. after the Network Chart started. Eventually this programme made way for "Tooki's Folk".
The presenter of "Brass Eye" and "The Day Today", Chris started his broadcasting career on Radio West, although web sites differ on exactly where - one says he began on "Student Link", which formed the first hour of Ray Edwards' late-night show, and another that he began with Johnnie Walker on Modern World. Never mind - he was there!
A member of Radio West's original news team, Lynne read the first and last local news bulletins on the station. She also read (very nervously) the very first news bulletin on CBC in Cardiff, on 11 April 1980. Another side of Lynne was heard when she presented the weeknight Rock Show during Radio West's first year.
Here's Lynne introducing West Tonight
Frequently heard on Weekend Gold during the final couple of years of the station, Chris joined Radio West from the Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service, and is a lecturer in broadcasting at a local college.
Denise joined West's news team from Radio Wyvern, and stayed for a couple of years.
Yes, Jonathan Pearce was on Radio West! He started at Radio Bristol, but by 1984 he was co-presenting the Saturday afternoon sport and music programme with John Ford, and was Head of Sport at the age of 23. I think he continued with GWR, but then I lost track of him until he popped up on London's Capital Gold in charge of their soccer coverage. Now, of course, legendary.
In December 2001 it was announced that Jonathan would be joining other ex-Radio West journalists on BBC Radio Five Live, and in 2002 he could be heard as part of the BBC's World Cup commentary team.
As proof, here's Jonathan with John Ford closing the Saturday afternoon sport show (Real Audio)
This "ArseWEB" page contains some of Jonathan's "wit and wisdom"
Having
started his broadcasting career on Plymouth Sound, Paul made his debut on Radio West on the Sunday
Late Show, taking over from Trevor Fry in the summer of 1983. When West's hours
were cut back in October, Paul moved to a Sunday afternoon Top Thirty, which had
a rather odd format - the records were played from No.1 to No.30, rather than
the more usual countdown! He later took over the afternoon show from John Hayes
and, when West's hours were extended again, this became "Afternoon-Drive" which
ran from 3 p.m. (later 2 p.m.) to 5:30 p.m. Although a very young member of the
Radio West team, Paul was, and is, a professional sounding broadcaster and has
an excellent voice for radio.
When West became GWR Paul kept his 2 o'clock start time - unfortunately it was 2 a.m. rather than 2 p.m.! Fortunately this sad state of affairs did not last long. When Mark Baddeley left in 1986, Paul took over the GWR evening show from 7-10, and soon found his way back to drive-time, first from 3:30-5:30 and later from his old start time of 2 p.m. By this stage most of the networked output of GWR was being presented by ex-Radio West presenters. But fame beckoned and Paul left the West Country, first to join Chiltern Radio 97.6 in Dunstable as weekday breakfast presenter. Then after a few years he joined London's Capital FM as an overnight presenter, later taking on weekend breakfast where he remained for several years until becoming the launch presenter for the Capital Group's DAB service Life. Paul now works for London's No.1 commercial station, Magic 105.4, presenting weekday afternoons and a Sunday show.
When I was presenting on student radio station W963 at Warwick University, Paul was kind enough to record a whole series of voiceovers for me and for the station. I like to think that I started him off in the voiceover business as since then his voice has been heard on Sky TV, on various TV commercials and in sweepers on radio stations such as Choice FM, Radio Caroline and of course Trevor Fry's RSL Cabot FM.
Here's a useful voiceover from Paul!
Reverend Andy Radford co-presented Gospel Scene on
Radio West, initially with Trevor Fry, later with Sandra Sykes. After Radio West
closed Andy joined Severn Sound where he later became the presenter of a
weeknight news programme at 6 p.m. In the late 80s he was awarded the title of
Independent Radio Personality of the Year. Andy now has a position at Lambeth
Palace. Sadly most of today's ILR stations would only laugh at the thought of
employing somebody like Andy, who came over extremely well as a
presenter.
Sadly, Andy (the Right Reverend Andrew Radford, Bishop of Taunton) died on May 21, 2006, at the age of 62. Read his obituary here
Pete
joined Radio West when going freelance after a long career on Manchester's
Piccadilly Radio. After a very short stint on the afternoon show after Johnnie
Walker left, Pete eventually replaced Dave Glass on Radio West's drive-time show
in October 1983. He left the station the following year and (I think) joined Red
Rose Radio in Preston. When I last heard of Pete, he was working on Jazz FM in
the North-West, but that station is now defunct.
Paul presented Radio West's classical music programme, initially with Chris Yates (who fairly clearly knew nothing about classical music, even at what speed the records should be played!). Once Chris left the station Paul presented on his own, and rapidly developed the programme into one of the best in local radio. At one time he ran a very informative series of features called "Understanding Classical Music" on Trevor Fry's mid-morning show. Despite his programme being nominated for a Sony award, Paul's show had no part in the new GWR schedule: the reason given by Ralph Bernard was that "Commercial radio doesn't do classical music very well". Paul picked up on this comment in his last programme! Ralph Bernard, of course, is now MD of Classic FM. I have found references to Paul on the web as a writer of sleeve notes for classical music CDs, so he is obviously still active in the field which he loves.
A much-loved
HTV West continuity announcer, Annie presented a Sunday afternoon request show
on Radio West through 1983. See her here announcing on Tyne Tees Television.
Sadly, Annie committed suicide in 1992 at the age of 32.
Mark joined Radio West in early 1984 from Metro
Radio in Newcastle, where he had been mid-morning presenter, to present the
drivetime show. At that time, or shortly afterwards, Programme Controller Mike
Stewart left the station to help set up the new Radio Broadland, and Mark
succeeded him with the slightly altered title of Programme Organiser. When Radio
West extended its hours in September 1984, Mark's new programme schedule had a
very similar feel to the Metro Radio of the time, with a new lunchtime show,
news at 5:30 p.m. and a late night phone in. Mark moved to present the new
lunchtime show, which initially ran from 1:15 p.m. to 3 p.m., but was later
retimed to run from midday to 2 p.m. When
Radio West closed in September 1985, Mark, as "the boss", made the final
announcements.
On GWR, Mark found his regular weekday show reduced to the one hour "Telephone Exchange" at 2 p.m. but he soon found a better place in the schedules, initially replacing Bob Harrison on the Late Show, and then replacing Johnnie Walker when Johnnie left to join Radio One. The first hour of Mark's new 11 a.m. show was called "Ad-Lib" and was aimed mainly at women. The "news hour" then followed until 1 p.m. when the lunchtime news was summarised in "Report at One". Yes, this was GWR!!
Although I think Mark did appear for a short time on Brunel Radio, he left the company sometime in the very late 80s and was one of the launch presenters for BBC Wiltshire Sound. I also think I heard him on Plymouth Sound in about 1992, but he was definitely the launch programme controller for Premier Christian Radio in London, and was named as the launch PC for 107.7 WFM, although he never took up the position. He currently presents the weekday afternoon show on what is now called "BBC Radio Swindon and BBC Radio Wiltshire".
Mark's BBC Swindon and BBC Wiltshire page
Bill appeared frequently on Radio West in its later years and eventually became the host of "All Time Greats", a film music programme on a Thursday evening at 9 p.m. The programme ended when Radio West came to an end in September 1985, but Bill carried on working for GWR in Bristol and was eventually given a Sunday afternoon film music programme from 2 p.m - 3 p.m. When Brunel Radio started Bill presented the late show for several years and at the same time presented a four hour film and show music programme on Saturday from 6 p.m. - 10 p.m. which also incorporated reviews and interviews.
In Bill's own words: "I was eventually kicked upstairs where I produced major OB's and then got shoved onto overnights. The parting of the ways came in early 1995 where I took up print journalism with the Bristol Journal as entertainments reporter. I have since 1998 been the film reviewer for BBC Radio Bristol which I do between working full time for my cousin in his various media companies. The Guild of Regional Film Writers presented me with the Ainsworth Broadcaster of the Year award in June for an interview I did with director Ron Howard. Occasionally I write film related articles for the BBC Bristol on line site."
Many thanks, Bill, for getting in touch and for this information.
A reporter/newsreader for BRMB Radio and Head of News at Beacon Radio, Mike was tempted to Bristol as Radio West's first Head of News & Sport in 1981, and built up excellent local news coverage with a large team of reporters. In 1983 he became Programme Controller in place of Dave Cash. Mike has a liking for soul music and presented or co-presented many programmes on West (and on Radio Broadland) dealing with the genre. In 1984 Mike left Bristol for Norwich, to become Radio Broadland's first programme controller. A number of features familiar to Radio West listeners, such as Saturday SuperSquares, subsequently also appeared on Broadland, and that station met with a massive success, proving to me what Radio West could have achieved with a better start. Mike stayed with the company after it became part of the GWR empire, and became MD at Broadland's sister stations, SGR fm at Ipswich & SGR Colchester. He left GWR in late 2002 and has since been involved in groups applying for new licences.
Mark was an excellent presenter who began on
weekend breakfast, and soon took over the weekday Breakfast Show from Nino
Firetto in late 1981. In late 1982 the show changed its format, introducing
frantic news updates every few minutes, and Mark returned to the weekend, where
he remained for quite some time. His relaxed Sunday breakfast show (with a
co-presenter whose name I cannot now remember) was a lovely way to wake up! He
also ran a Treasure Hunt feature in one of his weekend shows. There were plans
to make this a programme in itself, but I believe that Mark and the station
management reached a parting of the ways sometime in 1984. Although Trevor Fry
believes that Mark ran a tropical fish shop in Bristol for a while, I have no
definite news of him since.
Sandra Jesseman, who became Sandra Sykes after marrying Granville (who recently interviewed me for a job at a Bristol school - it's a small world) was a co-presenter of the Gospel Scene programme with Andy Radford. She transferred to GWR, presenting Bristol Sunday breakfast with Trevor Fry, and is now a features producer on BBC Radio Four.
Presenter of Radio West's jazz programme for the first two years, initially on a weeknight at 8 p.m., later on Saturday night at 9 p.m. The programme was dropped with the reduction in hours in late 1983.
Born Peter Dingley, he attended Solihull School (for more details of
their chess teams, see my chess pages!) and joined the short-lived pirate ship
Swinging Radio England in 1966. He soon transferred to Radio Caroline and was
the first DJ to be heard after the passing of the Marine etc. Broadcasting
Offences Act in August 1967. He remained with the Caroline South ship until
March 1968 when the Dutch tender company forced the stations off the air. After
truck-driving for a while he joined the BBC in 1969 and stayed with them until
1976, when he left for the USA and radio station KSAN in San Francisco.
Unfortunately KSAN changed its format after a few years, and Johnnie found
himself without a job, apart from a weekly show he recorded for Radio
Luxembourg. The impending return of Radio Caroline brought him back
to the UK, and he found himself presenting Radio West's evening show Modern
World from October 1982.
Modern World's original format included discussion elements, such as the Nuclear Debate (in which Johnnie memorably told MP Winston Churchill to "shut up") as well as good music, but the station was losing audience and it seemed sensible to use Johnnie during the daytime. He therefore returned to his post-lunchtime Radio One slot, which included RadioMarket (West's Tradio), as well as retaining some of his evening Modern World shows. However, in September 1983 he was tempted away by an enormous salary offer from Ralph Bernard at Wiltshire Radio, where he presented the 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. show.
When the two stations merged, Johnnie's was the first networked show to be heard on GWR, at first (in Bristol at least) on one stereo channel only! His show included a news hour between midday and 1 p.m. which had a "phone-out" format - journalists such as James Cameron could be heard in the background phoning the great and the good: "You'll be speaking to Johnnie Walker". In the last hour, Johnnie's old quiz Pop the Question made a reappearance. All this fun came to an end in January 1987, when Johnnie joined Radio One to present the Saturday afternoon "Stereo Sequence".
Since then, Johnnie has also been heard on the
Superstation, an overnight sustaining service heard on a number of ILR stations;
on BBC GLR; several times more on Radio One; on the GWR Classic Gold network;
and on BBC Radio Two, where he presented the much-missed weekday drive-time show
(the picture is taken from the webcam at the end of his last show). He can now
be heard on Sundays
between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. and regularly sits on on the breakfast show for
Terry Wogan when that gentleman takes one of his frequent breaks.
Read more about Johnnie in The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame
Andy started in radio on BBC Radio Bristol, presenting the early breakfast show, and later moved to Severn Sound in Gloucestershire, first presenting the late show, then "Andy Westgate's Afternoon Affair". He moved to Radio West in September 1984 to present the new Late Show, which contained a phone-in element, at first during the first hour. This was changed to the second hour (11 p.m. - 12 midnight) in an attempt to attract a few more callers! The hour after midnight was called "The Music Speaks for Itself", and it did. After Tom Clapton left Radio West just before the end, Andy took on the breakfast show for the final few weeks. He remained with the company after the merger and presented a drive-time show on GWR's West Wiltshire frequencies (936 kHz, 97.4 FM). I found 936 better in Oxford than the more local 1161 from Swindon, and there was also a separate breakfast show, but the complete opt-out was dropped after only a few weeks due to "poor reception" (one might have expected the management to know the service area, given that these transmitters had been running for three years!). I don't recall exactly what happened to Andy after that, but after Paul Phear moved to drive-time Andy took over the evening show and remained in charge for a number of years, playing good-quality adult music.
In Andy's own words: "When I was taken off the evening show to concentrate on Head of Music duties, after a few months I was appointed Overnight Controller for Overnight Express. This service was broadcast on both AM & FM around the ever growing network. This was prior to Graham Torrington and when they employed him they had nowhere for me to go until I suggested going back to Severn Sound as PC for the re-launch, as I still live in the Stroud area. After 2 and a bit years, like so many others of the management team, I was asked to leave, but was lucky enough to walk back into Swindon first on FM for a few months swing shifts, and when Sandy Martin moved to BBC Wiltshire Sound I got his gig on Gold. I'm also teaching media studies 2 mornings a week at my local college in Stroud....and still make bits for kitcars, just one of my many hobbies."
A reshuffle of presenters took Andy back to Gloucestershire radio, and until the merger of Classic and Capital Golds in August 2007, he presented the local drive-time show on Classic Gold 774. Thanks, Andy, for getting in touch and for your comments, and good luck for the future.
Andy on the Saturday lunchtime Radio West Top Ten, late 1984 or early 1985 (Real Audio)
Safari Supplies, Andy's kitcar company
Famous for "The Oldest Swinger in Town", Fred joined Radio West in 1984 to present an entertaining Sunday lunchtime show, Wedlock's West. At the time he was also presenting a Friday night show on HTV West, "The Good Neighbour Show", with fellow Radio West presenter Gill Capewell.
The picture is taken from Paul Gunnington's Scrumpy and Western site.
A legendary presenter of HTV West local news, Richard succeeded Fred on the Sunday lunchtime show in 1984.
There was more about Richard on the HTV West web site, but, like a lot of media in Bristol, HTV West is no more. But Richard has now returned to radio, presenting the weekday breakfast show on BBC Radio Bristol!
Richard's page on the Radio Bristol web site
West's first Managing Director, and presenter of the classical music show. Chris came to Radio West from Radio 210 in Reading, and left the station in early 1983. I have no news of him since.
Again, I have stolen the pictures above from various other web sites - in general, links are provided to them. I hope their owners (usually the BBC) do not mind! Please view the site in the spirit in which it is intended - a celebration of radio in general, and in particular of the people who worked at what was, for me, a very special station.
Roger (left), Johnnie (right) and, I think, Adrian John in 2005
