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.
It all began for me in a Lancashire church one Sunday evening 40 years ago on October 10th,1982.
This was my first professional job. I had been given my own show on the brand new commercial radio station for Lancashire, Red Rose Radio.
I hadn’t been to church in a long time, but here I was spending the first of many Sunday evenings at St Paul’s Church in Preston. The old building was beautifully restored and seemed to light up like a beacon across the area it served. No longer a place of worship, now the latest in a growing industry of commercial radio stations opening around the U.K.
Unless you work in radio you can’t imagine the excitement of how it feels to be given your own show. There I was on the schedule, Sunday 8pm till midnight.
I was so proud to see my name on on the same schedule as legendary broadcasters like Keith Macklin, the Programme Controller who gave me my first break, and Dave Lincoln, Head of Music.
Dave Lincoln from Liverpool’s Radio City was part of the line up on Red Rose 301, along with Steve Collins, Alan Beswick, Baz Reilly and Sally Moon.
I remember Dave showing me how the desk worked – the careful business of dropping a stylus on the record and how far back you had to turn the disk so that the turntable had time to pick up speed. I was already a fan of Dave’s presentational style so I couldn’t believe I was now working with him.
Of course I had already learned so much in hospital radio at Radio Whiston near Liverpool.
But this night in October was my first paid, professional gig. I would happily have done it for nothing, the twenty five pound shift fee was just incidental.
Then the responsibility of the whole thing hit me when the taped classical programme scheduled before me came to an end. The realisation I had to keep the new station on air and carry the torch till closedown. Or would it all come crashing down around me ?
Meanwhile, the clock counted down to 8pm when I would open a fader to take the news from LBC London. In those days we had local bulletins with a journalist on duty until midnight. We would take national Independent Radio News from London, which ran for three minutes, followed by a two minute local bulletin from the Red Rose newsroom.
So there I was, about to take control of the airwaves at five past eight. As the news ended I started a jingle into the very first record of the evening. I had a specially taped announcement from my hospital radio friend and colleague John Gillmore.
Some friends had gathered at a party to listen to my big moment. But what they heard after the opening jingle was …….silence … radio static and a few crackles.
In radio, twenty seconds can seem like a long time, which was how long it took before the first record I ever played on professional radio began to spin. It was the new single by The Boystown Gang, a cover of ‘Signed Sealed Delivered’. Shame I didn’t choose the Stevie Wonder original.
The disc’s failure to start on cue was because I set it up too far in advance, and failed to check after knocking the stylus back a groove. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to Dave Lincoln in the first place!
And so Derek Webster was launched as a professional broadcaster, on 301 metres medium wave and 97.3 VHF across the airwaves of Lancashire.
It felt so exciting and I began to enjoy the experience, becoming more confident as the phones started ringing. It seemed everyone loved it, even the security man, now kept from his slumber by phone calls lighting up the switchboard. He must have felt part of it.
It wasn’t all plain sailing of course. One thing I soon discovered in radio is that when you become too confident the unexpected comes along and knocks you off your pedestal.
Among the broadcasting sins committed on my first radio programme are some classics.
I miss timed an hour, playing the Eagles’ ‘Lying Eyes’, a six minute story song starting at three minutes to the hour. These bulletins simply can’t wait and everything stops for the news, so when you fade a song like this, it’s like stopping a film halfway through. One sarcastic listener called up and asked if I could be play the other half of Lying Eyes next week.
Another way to annoy listeners is to mispronounce place names. On a local radio station the listeners expect you to know these things.
After turning Lancashire places like Penwortham into “Pen-worth-ham” and Euxton into “Yoox-ton” ( It should be pronounced: “Exton”), I was visited in the studio by Julian Allitt. He was the News Editor who knew his patch very well and seemed a little annoyed.
Julian had a very deadpan expression with an air of disgust, even when he was being amiable – think John Cleese but not as silly. He walked into the studio, handed me a pronunciation guide and said wearily: “Please stop f…..g up the pronunciation of places, It’s been going on all week and it’s got to stop”.
With that he walked out, leaving me to believe I had really messed up. Perhaps I shouldn’t presume to tell the listeners I would be back again next week.
But when the time came to close down at midnight and say goodnight I felt I had handled it quite well. I finished with a coded message to my friends, which involved shuffling paper just before the overnight test tone came on.
In the weeks to come I would learn that you can’t always rely on the adrenalin that gave such a lift on that first programme. Being a professional broadcaster means giving your best, even when the world appears to be conspiring against you.
Some of the best advice ever given to me was by David Maker, the launch MD of Red Rose Radio, before my first show.
He said, when you are on the radio always put yourself in the mind of the listener. Imagine what they might be doing when you are on air. Try to imagine how they feel and react to that.
David Maker’s advice stayed with me throughout my career, since that very first professional radio programme I presented at Red Rose Radio in the old church at St Paul’s Square, Preston, Lancashire.
Very much enjoying the ITV drama Quiz with Michael Sheen perfectly cast as Chris Tarrant in the story of Who Wants to be a Millionaire’s cheating contestant.
Reminds me of when we did big cash competitions on commercial radio. There were some listeners who moved promiscuously from station to station winning everything they could.
They were the ones who knew just how to sound when we answered the phone looking for caller 1000.
Gasping with excitement, usually a female capable of faking orgasm after winning, they were the ones who usually got through. Never caller 1000 who sounded a bit gloomy and matter of fact about the whole thing.
And so it was, one Sunday morning on Century 105.4 after an exited caller won a stash of cash. As the climactic build up music reached its winning crescendo I asked the contestant to name her favourite station.
Live on the newly launched Century 105.4 with as much excitement as she could possibly muster, she called out Signal Radio !!!
Immediately the direct line started flashing.
It was my boss, John Myers: “Team!!!’ he called out.
Spotted this book in a local antique shop recently. On the cover is Wilfred Pickles, a favourite on BBC radio for over forty years. He was clearly a star turn in 1950 if this ‘Radio Fun’ annual is anything to go by. His long running ‘Have A Go’ programme travelled all over the UK giving ordinary people the chance to show off their talents on national radio.
Among those with affectionate memories of the show, for MIM Productions’ BBC Radio 2 documentary ‘Story Of The Light’, are Johnnie Walker, Paul Hollingdale and Esther Rantzen. Owen Money from BBC Wales called it the X Factor of its day and he was right.
We’ll be featuring a clip from a 1953 edition recorded in Ramsbottom, on which Pickles jokes: “I won’t tell you what other name the town is known by!”.
Radio fun indeed.
The Story Of The Light is on BBC Radio 2 on the 18th September 2017.
For me it all began in a Lancashire church 39 years ago on October 10th,1982.
This was my first professional job. I had been given my own show on the brand new commercial radio station for Lancashire, Red Rose Radio.
I hadn’t been to church in a long time, but here I was spending the first of many Sunday evenings at St Paul’s Church in Preston. The old building had been beautifully restored and seemed to light up like a beacon against the surroundings. No longer a place of worship, now a radio station.
Unless you worked in radio you can’t imagine the excitement of how it feels to be given your own show. There I was on the schedule, Sunday 8pm till midnight. I was so proud to see my name on on the same schedule as one of my broadcasting heroes.
Dave Lincoln from Liverpool’s Radio City, now one of the main presenters on Red Rose 301, trained me in the studio – showing how to put the stylus on the record and how far back you had to turn the disk so that the turntable had time to pick up speed.
Of course I had already learned so much at Whiston Hospital near Liverpool in a state of the art studio as a volunteer at hospital Radio Whiston.
But this night in October was my first paid gig. I would happily have done it for nothing, the twenty five pound shift fee was just incidental.
Then the responsibility of the whole thing hit me when the taped classical programme before me ended. The realisation I had to keep the new station on air and carry the torch till closedown. Or would it all come crashing down around me ?
Meanwhile the clock counted down to 8pm when I would open a fader to allow the news to go out. In those days we had local bulletins with a journalist on duty until midnight, even at weekends. We would take the national Independent Radio News from London, which ran for three minutes followed by a two minute local bulletin from the Red Rose newsroom.
So there I was about to take control of the airwaves at five past eight. As the news ended I started a jingle into the very first record of the evening. I had a specially taped announcement from my hospital radio friend and colleague John Gillmore.
Some friends of mine gathered at a party to listen to my big moment. But what they heard after the opening jingle was …….silence, perhaps radio static and a few crackles.
In radio, twenty seconds can seem like a long time, which was how long it took before the first record I ever played on professional radio began to spin. It was a newly released single by The Boystown Gang, a cover of ‘Signed Sealed Delivered’. Shame I didn’t choose the Stevie Wonder original.
The disc’s reluctance to start was because I cued it up too far in advance and failed to check after knocking the stylus back a groove. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to Dave Lincoln in the first place.
And so Derek Webster was launched as a professional broadcaster on 301 metres medium wave and 97.3 VHF across the airwaves of Lancashire.
It felt so exciting and I began to enjoy the experience, becoming more confident. The phones started ringing. It seemed everyone loved it, even the security man now kept from his slumber by phone calls coming in to the main switchboard. He must have felt part of it.
It wasn’t all plain sailing of course. One thing I soon discovered in radio is that when you become too confident the unexpected comes along and knocks you off your pedestal.
Among the broadcasting sins committed on my first radio programme are some classics.
I mistimed an hour introducing the Eagles’ ‘Lying Eyes’ and started playing the six minute story song three minutes to the hour. These bulletins simply can’t wait and everything stops for the news, so when you fade a song it is like stopping a film halfway through. One sarcastic listener called up and asked if I would kindly play the other half of Lying Eyes.
Another way to annoy listeners is to mispronounce place names. On a local radio station the listeners expect you to know these things.
After turning Lancashire places like Penwortham into “Pen-worth-ham” and Euxton into “Yoox-ton” ( It should be pronounced: “Exton”), I was visited in the studio by Julian Allitt. He was the News Editor who knew his patch very well and seemed a little annoyed.
Julian had a very deadpan expression with an air of disgust, even when he was being amiable – think John Cleese but not as silly. He walked into the studio, handed me a pronunciation guide and said wearily: “Please stop f…..g up the pronunciation of places, It’s been going on all week and it’s got to stop”.
With that he walked out leaving me to believe I had really messed up. Perhaps I shouldn’t presume to tell the listeners that I would be back again next week.
But when the time came to close down at midnight and say goodnight I felt I had handled it all quite well. I finished with a coded message to my friends which involved shuffling some paper just before the overnight test tone came on.
In the weeks to come I would learn that you can’t always rely on the adrenalin that helped lift you off the ground on that first programme. Being a professional broadcaster means giving your best even when the world appears to be conspiring against you.
Some of the best advice ever given to me was by David Maker, the launch MD of Red Rose Radio before my first show on his station.
He said, when you are on the radio always put yourself in the mind set of the listener. Imagine what they might be doing at the time you are on air. Try and imagine how they feel, listening to you on the radio and react to that.
David Maker’s advice has stayed with me throughout my career since my very first professional radio programme at Red Rose Radio, in the old church on St Paul’s Square, Preston, Lancashire.
Derek Webster's Blog World 
