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Many moons ago, long before the birth of Baby Spice, I was "spinning discs" at a radio station in a biscuit factory on the outskirts of London. No-one ever believes this, but it is true - go here for the evidence....
http://www.jazzfm.com/people/dj_home.php?action=bio&dj_id=12
I'd seen an ad in the trade press that Radio City were looking for a new presenter (this was 1976) and as I'd been brought up on the outskirts of Liverpool, I thought I might have a hope. In my youthful optimism, I sent a duplicate application on spec to Piccadilly Radio in Manchester, reasoning that if I were lucky enough to be granted interviews, I might be able to do both in one trip...
Oddly enough, Piccadilly rang me - City didn't. What's more, Piccadilly offered me a job, to start immediately - City didn't.
You may think, gentle reader, that the traditional rivalries between the two great cities of the North West, at either end of the East Lancs Road, would extend to their radio stations. Not a bit of it. We had a fair bit of business and social contact with our opposite numbers, and although our
transmission areas overlapped around Warrington, any rivalry was strictly friendly.
On air, however, each station had a policy concerning other stations.
There weren't any. Not as far as we were concerned. That was the golden rule.
From the beginning, life was far tougher for Radio City than it was for us. BBC Radio Merseyside had always (from the 1960s) had a large and loyal audience, which City had to battle to win.
Radio Manchester (now BBC GMR) however, had an audience of three people, two dogs and a budgerigar, all in their eighties. It was a piece of cake, really. Respect to the team at City for doing a fantastic job!
Many years later, long after the AM/FM split, I was job hunting, and cast my net around just about every radio station I knew. And so, at last, I ended up working (for a few months) for the station I'd first wanted to work for some sixteen years earlier. Debbie was taking some time off to be pregnant. Predictably, she gave birth, and took some more time off to be a mum. (Not a bad idea, could catch on...) The audience was, I remember, wonderful. By then, my only connection with Scousetown was that I'd gone to secondary school there, and had an aunt living in Bootle. Despite these somewhat tenuous links, the listeners were, as Liverpudlians famously are, welcoming and friendly.
It was a great, and memorable period of my life, and I also had the dubious pleasure of working with Nigel, your esteemed Webmaster. Not a bad tech-op, a rather better broadcaster in his own right, and an excellent brewmeister. (Tea, of course.) Nigel kept me sane and almost managed to teach me the intricacies of the broadcast delay system (used in case of naughty phone callers.) A major
achievement.
Great to see the site grow, with so many contributions from so many people.
(Who between them, owned so much hair at the time....)
Just occasionally, you may still hear my voice on "194" or whatever it's called these days, as I make most of my income from voicing radio commercials.
Oh, yeah, and I'm Dave Lincoln's "warm-up man" on Sunday mornings at Jazz FM...!
City's tentacles spread far and wide.
And Terry Lennaine is a great bloke; I feel very guilty I haven't kept in touch with him....
I hope that on 21st October 2024, on the occasion of City's 50th birthday, whoever owns it then will hold a reunion bash and invite even scrotes like me who only graced the hallowed turntables for a brief period. This will, quite likely, be held at "The Baby Spice Memorial Theatre."…....on Mars.
And I will buy Terry Lennaine a drink.
Phil Sayer.
Thanks Phil. He's a very nice man, another brainbox like Paul Leckie……far too brainy just to be a DJ.
I enjoyed working with Phil.
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