Blimey! … Is it really 20 years since the launch of Smooth …
Proud to be part of the amazing team, put together by the great John Myers and our brilliant Programme boss, Steve Collins.
We took the brand from nowhere to everywhere and had so much fun along the way. Happy days!
A radio success story built in the North West before sweeping the nation…. Happy birthday Smooth Radio !
In Smooth FM studio at Exchange Quay in Salford, before Media City was a thing.
I have done many things in radio but this is a first for me ….
Using AI (Artificial Intelligence) my voice has been cloned. All I had to do was record 5 minutes of chat into a microphone.
The audio is then fed into a computer programme, where it can be used to voice scripts.
Thank you to Steve Booth at Sheffield’s Radio Essentials for indulging me. I’ve been reading the local news there all day!
Like Radio Essentials in Sheffield, this could be used in other small scale and community stations, for news and travel updates.
At Boom Radio we used AI to create newly voiced idents by the late Tommy Vance for our new station Boom Rock. With his family’s permission of course.
Max Headroom lives!
I made a short video to reveal my efforts:
For me, the 1978 film ‘FM’ really captured the spirit of music radio and spawned a soundtrack album well worn on my turntable over the years. The theme song ‘FM – No Static At All’ still turns up on radio playlists today.
This DJ fantasy is set in a world of American rock radio. We see studio shelves crammed with classic vinyl albums. Jocks help themselves to play whatever they want. And nobody wears headphones, presumably in case they spoil all that 1970s hair.
The overnight jock puts on his final record as the breakfast guy, who just happens to be his boss, drives through red lights to get to the studio, before The Eagles’ ‘Life In The Fast Lane’ fades out.
It all ends with the jocks barricading themselves in the studio, protesting against management policy, as listeners line the streets in support, chanting Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ .
It’s a bit like Midsummer Night’s Dream set in a radio studio. We’ll be watching FM again to mark World Radio Day….
I was thinking back to some of the Christmas presents my parents gave me as a child.
They didn’t have much money but worked hard for what they had. No such thing as credit cards, apart from the occasional luxury in Kays’ catalogue, paid for on what they called ‘The never, never’.
Mum was a school dinner lady and Dad was a Postman working long hours overtime to make ends meet.
We lived in a council house in Widnes and loved being together, especially at Christmas when we could look forward to some unusual and imaginative toys.
I recently heard that jazz critic and broadcaster Steve Voce passed away last month. His Wednesday night BBC Radio Merseyside programme was essential listening for me as a teenager in the 1970s. So many records I still own and play were inspired by the music he championed.
I once met Steve and his wife, Producer Jenny Collins, when they invited listeners to meet jazz trumpeter and Count Basie alumni Buck Clayton at the Post House pub in Liverpool. In fact Steve bought one of my first ever beers…. When asked what I was drinking I naively replied: “A pint”!
Steve Voce was an excellent broadcaster and writer, a regular contributor to Peter Clayton’s Jazz Notes on Radio 2.
As I write this I am playing a Buck Clayton Jam Session LP which I own because of the infectious enthusiasm for the music Steve Voce always had.
This is me at Lancashire’s Red Rose Radio some time during the 1980s.
You can see sheets of paper everywhere – records cued on turntables, commercials and station idents on cartridges, all stacked up and ready to play.
During a live show we had to log every second of music played, including details of composer, publisher, record label and exact duration. Then you had to put everything back where you found it and start all over again.
All this while talking between the records and answering listeners phone calls. How did we manage in radio’s analogue days? … Eeeee but we were happy.
You try and tell the young jocks of today that, and they won’t believe you…They just don’t know they’re born!
One of Britain’s first million selling singing stars is back in the spotlight thanks to a proud grandson and Boom Light listener.
Paul Henderson Olden from Southampton got in touch with me at Boom Light asking why we overlooked his grandfather’s million selling record ‘Begin The Beguine’ while playing other versions of the Cole Porter standard.
Chick Henderson was featured singer with Britain’s popular Joe Loss Band in the late 1930s and cut the record in July 1939. Released a month later the disc became one of Britain’s best selling records of the decade.
Born in Hartlepool in 1912, Henderson Rowntree adopted the nickname Chick, given to him by his mother.
After singing in a local choir and winning talent contests Chick Henderson was drawn to the bright lights of London, recording and appearing on BBC radio from 1935 with Harry Leader’s Band, before joining the Joe Loss Band for five very successful years.
With his movie star looks and rich voice Chick Henderson became especially popular with female listeners, appearing on magazine covers and postcards.
At a time when vocalists often went unnamed on dance band records under the anonymous term ‘With vocal refrain’ Chick soon became a star attraction with the Joe Loss Band.
While in London in 1939 Chick met and fell in love with a professional cabaret dancer named Pamela Helen Stevenson, performing as part of a dancing double act called Jessica-Bernard at some of the city’s brightest night spots, including The Savoy and the Kit Kat Club. They married in 1941 and had one child, Paul’s mother, Lynda Ann Rowntree.
In 1939 at the start of World War Two, Chick Henderson joined the Royal Navy. Over the next four years he survived two torpedo attacks but was fatally wounded by shrapnel from a flying bomb in Southsea, Portsmouth, June 1944. He was just 31.
Remembered by those who knew him as a modest man who preferred to spend time with family and friends, Chick Henderson’s talent lives on through more than 250 records made in his five year singing career.
So when Chick’s Grandson Paul Henderson Olden, who lives happily with his husband Michael in Southampton, asked me to play his grandfather’s million seller on Boom Light, I was more than delighted to include it on my show. I am also grateful to Paul for kindly sharing his fascinating scrapbook of memories.
Paul is very proud of his grandfather: “Growing up it was my grandmother, Pamela, who ensured that I knew about the man that I, of course, never met. Whenever I hear my grandfather’s voice on the radio it’s always very special and makes me feel incredibly proud. He is still fondly remembered in his home town of Hartlepool, I have had many people contact me saying that their Mum, Dad or Gran were huge fans of Chick, thought that he had a marvellous voice and that his recording of ‘Begin The Beguine’ is the definitive version, sentiments I wholeheartedly agree with”.
Now the voice of Chick Henderson can be heard alongside other great singers such as Al Bowlly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, on Boom Light’s mix of Easy, 50s and Standards.
Funny how records spark off half forgotten memories.
This one takes me back to Romeo & Juliet’s night club, Liverpool, in the late 1970s.
As my mates disco danced around handbags and ate chicken in a basket, I slipped upstairs to discover a more intimate funky room where they were dancing to ‘River People’ by Weather Report.
I had a slow dance with a girl from Wallasey who made her excuses and left. Was it me or the last train home she needed to catch?
I was just happy that someone actually wanted to dance with a shy and awkward guy like me.
Enjoyed Baz Luhrmann’s brilliant Elvis film last night, now available on rental streams.
The story told from the perspective of controlling manager Colonel Tom Parker played by Tom Hanks. Austin Butler is absolutely convincing as Presley.
I always believed Elvis Presley’s star was dimmed by the awful legacy of films he made, along with some of the dismal songs recorded after that first flush of 1950s rock and roll credibility.
The script suggests Elvis wanted to make his mark as an actor and was lined up to play opposite Barbra Streisand in A Star Is Born, a potential career high that Colonel Tom prevented.
It was Parker who prevented Elvis from touring the world. Instead he was tied to a five year Vegas residency, enabling the Colonel to settle his own gambling debts and enjoy endless casino credit.
Meanwhile Elvis Presley became a bloated caricature, dying before his time, disillusioned and burned out.
A long film at 2 hours forty minutes but Baz Luhrmann’s creative vision makes for a dazzling cinematic journey.
Spectacular start to Glastonbury Festival, watching from the home entertainment position. Enjoyed Robert Plant with Alison Krauss on BBC 4, but struggling with the fact it was 15 years since I bought their first album collaboration! Please slow down the passage of time.
Crowded House singing ‘Weather With You’, a highlight too – When did they start looking as old as me?
Billie Eilish headlining Friday night with an amazing musical and visual event.
Looks like a beautiful night there, with Glastonbury Tor framed in a summer sky fit for a Hollywood movie.
And the BBC, with its unrivalled coverage on radio, TV and online, proving it is worth every penny of the licence fee.
Derek Webster's Blog World 