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BRMB
RADIO A Short History By Mike Smith |
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 BRMB RADIO - A LITTLE RADIO HISTORY It's only today, when hear how dire radio has become, that we can fully appreciate how pioneering local stations such as BRMB were back in the 1970's and 80's! Read on to find out why: |
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On this page you will find some history, some memories, tape recordings of great programmes from a wonderful radio station, together with BRMB programme schedules from 1984, 1985, 1988 & 1989. BRMB - 'Because It Takes A Friend To Get You Through The Day' As a bit of a preamble I distinctly remember, as a nine year old lad in 1974, tuning into the test transmissions on 261 meters (1151 kilohertz) medium wave on a little six transistor 'Harmony' AM pocket radio that was made in Hong Kong. For several weeks the IBA's radio transmitters carried test transmissions from the new BRMB radio station and these consisted of music and announcements. I was fascinated by these unusual new sounds and remained tuned in constantly, carrying the little radio around everywhere - even on a visit to the Da Corrado restaurant on the Stratford Road one Sunday lunch time! I remember three of the music tracks played as being the orchestral work Finlandia by Sibelius, Meet Me On The Corner by Lindisfarne and Streets Of London by Ralph McTell - among many others. The IBA (The Independent Broadcasting Authority) was a body formed out of the old ITA (Independent Television Authority) with the passing of the Sound Broadcasting Act of 1972 which gave it additional responsibility for the introduction of commercial radio into the UK. The organisation that won the franchise from the IBA to run the Independent Local Radio service for Birmingham was "Birmingham Broadcasting Ltd" who would use the on air name of BRMB RADIO. BRMB was the fourth of the IBA's ILR stations to go on the air, after LBC and Capital Radio in London and Radio Clyde in Glasgow. BRMB had moved into part of a building in Aston in Birmingham that had previously been occupied by the ATV television studios in the 1960's. The building was re-named RADIO HOUSE and the postal address was: BRMB
RADIO
Radio House P.O. Box 555 Birmingham B6 4BX Switchboard Tel: 021 359 4481/9 On Air Telephone: 021 359 4011  Ed Doolan on BRMB Radio (Photograph circa 1976) BRMB launched at breakfast time on 19th February 1974 - right in the middle of 'The Three Day Week' - a period of industrial unrest, strikes and power cuts - which also put the BRMB transmitter off the air for a short time on its first day of broadcasting! The very first voice heard on the new station was news man Brian Sheppard, while the former ATV television announcer Kevin Morrison [a James Mason (actor) sound-alike] was BRMB's first breakfast show presenter. The now iconic broadcaster Ed Doolan joined BRMB from German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle to present the afternoon show with the emphasis on information, features and interviews. The output of BRMB had a heavy emphasis on a 'community radio' style of broadcasting whereby the station communicated with its audience and got involved in Midlands life, rather than simply talking at and playing music to the listeners. Like most Independent Local Radio (ILR) stations, BRMB's output contained a good deal of music, but that was not the be all and and all of its output - interaction, news, sport and information was a very important constituent of its wide ranging programmes. John Russell was BRMB's first Programme Director. You can read John Russell's inside story HERE > A short time after BRMB launched, George Fergusson took over the breakfast show from Kevin Morrison who left the station to go on to work in other media fields. In 1976 the legendary Les Ross joined BRMB to present the breakfast show. Les had worked for BBC Radio Birmingham (now BBC WM) before BRMB launched and BRMB's management failed to hire him for the launch of BRMB. Les left BBC local radio and the city of Birmingham in 1975 to work for Radio Tees, another commercial ILR station in Stockton on Tees. BRMB saw fit to tempt Les back down from Teeside in 1976 and he stayed with BRMB (and sister station XTRA AM) until 27th September 2002. Dave Jamieson was one of the early presenters at BRMB, well known for presenting the late show at the time, and Dave has kindly added the following to to our account: "I was there from 1975, joining just before the first birthday from BBC Radio Leicester. My colleague there, Adrian Juste, had already made the move to BRMB, and I followed 6 months later. I started as the swing guy (i.e. sitting in for anyone who was on holiday), plus did the Sunday afternoon Top 40 show (a marathon 4 and a half hour thing), and the Saturday late night show. (Incidentally, I did a lot of announcing work at ATV as well, during my time at BRMB - all day time shifts, out of vision, and I always seemed to get landed with the schools programmes!!) Brian Savin moved to the late night show on weekdays, which I took over from him. It was 11 pm to 2 am, and I loved it. If you remember Six of the Best on Mercia Sound, this is where it was "born". I ran it on Friday nights there for ages. My sixth programme at that time was the classical music show (can you imagine BRMB having one of these now?!) on Sunday evenings. Mike Owen joined BRMB during my time there in the 70s as a school-teacher on a training attachment ... and never left! I left BRMB to return to Scotland (I'm from Edinburgh) and joined the BBC, but didn't relish reading the shipping forecast for Scottish inshore waters much ... so accepted an offer from Radio Clyde, and stayed there 18 months until Mercia came along. I had met Ian Rufus on a BBC training course (during my days at Radio Leicester) so rang him and said "Gimme a job"! I returned to Birmingham in the mid 80s, after [leaving] Radio Tees to join Central TV where I spent 8 very happy years. During that time, I got in touch with Mike Owen who was Programme Controller [at BRMB], and said I'd like to do a weekend show. So he gave me Sundays 8 to 10.30 am as an oldies show, which suited me great! Then when the split came, it seemed logical to move the show onto Xtra-AM. But the best bit was that Les Ross, a good friend, and a great broadcaster, followed me every Sunday morning, so we always had half an hour while the music was playing to chat and put the world to rights. I remember one Sunday where we had been chatting (off air) - and I paused and said, "Do you realise that for the past ten minutes, the two of us - supposed to be "trendy, pop radio deejays" - have been discussing the best place in Birmingham to buy soft furnishings?" A sign of middle age setting in ..." [Thanks Dave!]  BRMB Carnival Girls in 1974
[Courtesy Mike Henfield] I've been clearing out the spare bedroom
and I came across this photo I took of the BRMB girls who took part in
the Birmingham Carnival (my guess is that this is summer 1974). Second
right is Sue Barker, who ran all our community involvement work - she's
referred to in John Russell's excellent history
of BRMB on the website. The girl on the extreme left was our first
receptionist. Unfortunately inclreasing decrepitude prevents me from
remembering names.
Best wishes, Mike Henfield.
In the 1970's and 1980's BRMB wasn't simply the music 'juke-box' that commercial radio is today; the station broadcast a very wide range of programmes from general music and entertainment shows, to phone-ins, comprehensive sports and in depth news coverage, specialist programmes for the local communities along with classical music output. BRMB also broadcast documentary and feature programmes that even the BBC would have been proud of. In the early days there was a lot of talk about the name of the station as many listeners wondered what the initials BRMB stood for. In actual fact the initials did not stand for any particular words but were simply extracted from the name of the company that ran the station - Birmingham Broadcasting Ltd - to form BiRminghaM Broadcasting Ltd John Russell, BRMB's first Programme Director, was responsible for forming the winning formula that made the station such a programming and financial success. After six highly successful years, John left the station in 1980 to be replaced by Bob Hopton, who arrived at BRMB from Radio Tees to take on the job, now described as Programme Controller. This position was later filled by Mike Owen in 1984, while Phil Riley took over as programme controller around 1990. (Interestingly after BRMB spent a long period in the wilderness from 1993 through the 2000's after being subsumed in the Capital Radio group, then GCap and Global - Phil Riley returned to the helm in 2009. More of which later.). Some of the original engineers at BRMB were Quentin Howard and Phil Dawson who worked alongside the Chief Engineer Dave Wood. They organised the installation of all the equipment at the new station and were responsible for the smooth running of the complex technical facilities. Quentin Howard went on to work with GWR in Wiltshire and then the national radio station Classic FM in 1992 and more latterly the national DAB digital radio multiplex provider Digital One. John Henry (of the "Ross and Henry Show" with Les Ross on BBC Radio Birmingham circa 1972-3) joined BRMB from Radio Birmingham in 1974 and was in charge of commercial production (the adverts). John stayed with BRMB for six months before joining Radio City in Liverpool. Station Executives listed in 1981 were: Directors. A J Parkinson (Chairman); David Pinnell (Managing Director); G N Battman; M A Brown; Reg Davies (Sales); J F Howard; J C Mason; E Swainson. Executives. David Bagley (Publicity and Promotions Manager); Bob Hopton (Programme Controller); Brian Sheppard (News Editor); Tony Trethewey (Company Secretary); David Wood (Chief Engineer). Ian Rufus, who made Mercia Sound such a great success in Coventry and Warwickshire from 1980, joined BRMB as Managing Director in 1986.  Phil Riley - BRMB Programme Controller from 1990  |
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BRMB RADIO - PROGRAMMES & PERSONALITIES |
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Just Some Of The Names Heard On BRMB in the first two decades of broadcasting: Kevin Morrison; George Ferguson; Les Ross; Norma Scott; Alan Leighton, Alan Nin; Brian Savin; Peter Windows; John Hedges; Tony Butler; Ed Doolan; John Howard; Stuart White; Robin Valk; Mike Hollis; Roger Day; Adrian Juste; Rev. John Austen; Nicky Steele; Dave Jamieson ; Michael Hartley; Brendan Kearney; Nick Meanwell; John Slater; Nick Hennegan; Steve Dennis; Phil Holden; Mark Keen; Andy Hollins; George Gavin; Tom Ross; Ian Hardy; Graham Torrington; Stephen Rhodes; Simon Davies; Deborah Kinch; Phil Gayle; Howard Hughes; Suman Kang; Tony Huq; Paul Brown; Terry Griffiths; Stuart Ellis. More about BRMB's presenters HERE > You can listen to some Audio Recordings of BRMB's excellent presenters on the BRMB AUDIO PAGE and more on the AIRWAVES PAGE
Keith Hayes appointed BRMB's first news team; Brian Sheppard, Mike Henfield, Rob Golding, Colin Palmer and Sue Todd were some of the first journalists on the news team. Brian Sheppard became BRMB's News Editor, and days after his appointment he found himself commanding the team covering the Birmingham pub bombings in 1974* [*Thanks to Frazer Sheppard for this information]. Mike Henfield later went on to work for Mercia Sound in Coventry in 1980 as 'Merry Mike Henfield'. Sue Todd was married to John Russell, the Programme Director. When she left BRMB she moved into Public Relations in Birmingham before starting and heading up her own company in Hampshire. She subsequently went on to be a Board Member of NYNEX Cable TV and Ocean Sound ( Part of the then Capital Radio Group) She was the first woman to Chair the Hampshire Branch of the Institute of Directors. John and Sue moved out of the UK to live in Cyprus. (Thank you to John Russell for this information.) You can read John Russell's history of the early years at BRMB here >  Other journalists/newsreaders and
reporters in the BRMB
Newsroom
in 1975 - 1977 were John Rogers, Maureen Carter (now a crime novelist),
Sue Foster, David Ike, Trevor Reid, Mike Stewart
(later Beacon Radio News Editor), Bob Mills, Ian
Webster,
Rob
Golding,
Sue
Plimmer, Colin
Palmer,
John
Taynton
and
Roger
Walker.
Colin Palmer eventually moved on to launch Viking Radio in Humberside and then eventually back to Birmingham to work for the BBC, and subsequently [in 2006] to Saga 105.7 FM along with Rob Golding. Thanks to John Rogers of BRMB News between 1975 and 1977 for additional information. John also notes: "I have good memories of the professionalism and supportive environment in the BRMB Newsroom under Brian Shepherd and Mike Henfield." Another name and voice of the BRMB news team that I remember well is the unforgettable Merrill Harris. Merrill Harris would often be heard reading the news on BRMB during the Saturday afternoon sports programme with the equally unforgettable Tony Butler. Allan Porter adds: "Hullo Mike, Many thanks for an excellent history of BRMB. I read news at the station for the whole of 1978. One of the antipodeans who was roped in at the time and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Brian Sheppard was boss and Mike Henfield another great guy and Rob Golding, Col Palmer, along with all the others. I was in UK fresh from Hong Kong where I was a DJ with Radio Hong Kong (English Service) and prior to that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and commercial stations in Australia. My time in Hong Kong co-coincided with the great martial arts movies coming out of the studios. Bruce Lee was king and Enter the Dragon the top movie of that era. He died in 1973/4 and his death brought an end to that genre of movies that found favour among so many movie goers. I did voice overs for many of the movies along with a handful of others who worked for the studios. The Hong Kong experience was only eclipsed by the great environment in BRMB which I thoroughly enjoyed. Station staff were invited to go on a shoot with the Territorials. I always thought I could hit a target pretty well. But Brian Sheppard got the prize. I still have - and take great care of - a BRMB shirt. A collectors item? I returned to Australia for family reasons and missed the station and the work enormously. I took another U-turn in my career and set up a very successful business operation tutoring the captains of industry and others on how to give their best when they are invited to face the reporter's microphone. Thanks again for a great web of information and my best wishes to all of those, then and now, at the station. My next visit to the UK I would love to catch up with them. Allan Porter, Avalon NSW, Australia" Mike Henfield adds: "Dear Mike, I've just been taking a trip down memory lane via your excellent website on BRMB. I joined the station as chief reporter in 1973 before it went on air and stayed for six very happy years. I spotted Terry Griffiths' name amid all the nostalgia. Terry had the distinction of being one of the few radio presenters ever to knock himself unconscious while on air. He was doing an evening show at the time and he thought he'd have just enough time to get to the loo and back while a record was on. While in the toilet, he realised the track was coming to an end - so he rushed back down the corridor and into the studio, colliding with one of the massive speakers we had suspended from the studio ceiling. Downstairs in the presenters' room they realised that somethign was amiss - by this time all that was coming out of the speaker was dead air. They found Terry unconscious on the floor. He was rushed to Dudley Road Hospital, where the first person he saw when he came round was his wife who was a nurse in the casualty department. Terry soon recovered and was back at the mic in a day or two - but not before the station had gained a fair amount of useful publicity from the incident. Those early days at BRMB were some of the happiest in my career (I have just retired after teaching journalism and radio production at Salford University for the past decade). BRMB was a great station - with probably the best newsroom outside London. It was a sad day when we didn't get a scoop from Colin Palmer, Dickie Myers or Ian Webster. Very best wishes to you - and thanks for the fine website. Keep that flame burning and, as we used to say on the air, say hello to anyone else who remembers me... Cheers, Mike Henfield Mike Henfield (BRMB 1973-1980)" February 2010
SIX OF THE BEST By Quentin Howard "After much searching, I found a rare gem to stir memories of Friday nights on BRMB - the theme music for Six of the Best, as used by Dave Jamieson and later (by me) on Wiltshire Radio. The instrumental is "Image", a classic '60s Hammond organ piece by Alan Haven. Dave used "Image" as a bed under the six questions read out at the start and end of the quiz. SOTB was on BRMB from 1976 to about 1978 when Dave left his Friday night slot. At one point, BRMB printed a mini-booklet for fans, "Sixty Six of the Best" featuring a selection of the trickiest questions. I guess that's a measure of how, in those days, radio features could became instant legends. In 1982 I took Six of the Best to Wiltshire Radio/GWR, and used 'Image' again for the music bed. It had become so inextricably linked to Dave's SOTB, it would have been wrong to use anything else, and in any case, it's a fabulous piece of 'radio' theme music! When I took the quiz to Classic FM ten years later I'd lost the only tape cartridge copy. For anyone who doesn't remember SOTB, it consisted of 5 difficult questions involving hidden anagrams, cryptic clues and red herrings about news events or local history/landmarks. The sixth question on BRMB was a mystery voice (as it was on Wiltshrie Radio, however on Classic FM Q6 was "The Last Chord" - a single chord of a classical piece to be identified). Q6 allowed anyone to have go, including Sandra from Sutton (in her phone box*). SOTB was a difficult quiz to set. Dave, as I remember, would spend several hours making up anagrams and cryptic clues, and the Classic FM version took a full day set and check. In Dave's version of SOTB, he would read out all five cryptic questions, followed by Q6, the mystery voice, then open the phone lines. Listeners would ring up, in dribs and drabs to begin with, offering bits of answers to perhaps one or two questions. Gradually, in a sort of collective effort by listeners, the clues and answers would begin to unravel. However, callers were not told if their individual answer(s) were right or wrong, so it was left to subsequent callers to decide what was correct and try to assemble a perfect set of answers. Only when a caller attempted all six questions would he or she be told how many they had scored right but never which ones. Listeners then scrambled to assemble the correct set of answers (a bit like that plastic peg game, Mastermind). As the presenter, you could help or hinder depending how well the quiz was going and how devious you wished to be. Callers came on-air in batches of 3 or 4, followed by a disc, then 3 or 4 more callers and another disc until the whole thing had been successfully solved. It could take anything from 30-50 minutes to solve SOTB, but it was the basis for a decent piece of original radio entertainment. Stuart White (also BRMB) did a version on his Sunday lunchtime programme at Severn Sound and the last time it was on air on Classic FM was 1998." The "Image" theme music is one of the sounds that defined BRMB's early years. Listen to the Six Of The Best theme "Image" Grateful thanks to Quentin Howard for the story of Six Of The Best. Dave Jamieson also presented the Six Of The Best quiz during his time at Mercia Sound in Coventry.
Razzamatazz was a great fun programme that was broadcast on BRMB every Saturday morning. See some of BRMB's schedules > Of RAZAMATAZZ, Rashida Subedar comments: "I worked on air at BRMB from 1986-1990 when Phil Riley took over from Mike Owen and decided there was no room for fluff on air and therefore promptly fired me! I worked on Razzamatazz initially with Brendan Kearney and then remained on air with Nick Hennegan and we did Saturday morning Breakfast every week for over 4 years. It was fantastic and shaped me in every way. Celebrity interviews included (remember they were big at the time) T'Pau, Mica Paris, Simply Red, Nick Kamen, Brother Beyond, Deacon Blue and Ben Elton. I even had my hair done by John Frieda after the show when he came in for an interview. I was 14 when I first joined and was 'paid' with freebies - but I was a presenter and was just thankful to be there and didn't know any better. Yasemen Hussain was also part of Nick's girly "posse". Our show was fun loving and was consistently one of the most popular shows on air beating Romantica and Les's breakfast show at one point. I still love radio but I'm more a listener than anything else at the moment, living in London and raising five beautiful boys. The old building on Aston Road North still fills me with joy and gives me butterflies in my stomach. I'm still in touch with John Slater, who is now in stage management, Nick Hennegan, who is working for The Arrow and Ian Hardy, who now lives and works in New York. Phil Gayle (brother of the author Mike Gayle and now works on London Today) did overnights for a while in the late 1980's and Howard Hughes was Chris Tarrant's man for a long long time, and went on to either Smooth or LBC, I think. The site is looking fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time to do it. It feels like an important part of my life has now been validated!" Thank you. Rashida x " 
In 1988 BRMB joined forces with Mercia Sound in Coventry and later with Radio Trent in Nottingham and Derby and Leicester Sound to form a group called Midlands Radio PLC In 1988 BRMB experimented with some split frequency broadcasting whereby normal programmes would continue on 96.4 FM while golden oldies with Robin Valk or sport was carried on 1152 kilohertz (261 meters) medium wave. This experiment led the the setting up of a full time AM only radio station in April 1989 called XTRA AM. XTRA AM concentrated on playing 'Classic Hits' from the 1950's 60's 70's and 80's and the best of current chart music. The enduringly popular, and household name, Les Ross moved to XTRA to do breakfasts and the revered BRMB Sports programming was also moved from BRMB FM over to XTRA AM.  BRMB - MUSIC POWER  BRMB RADIO became BRMB FM - MUSIC POWER and re-focussed its output on current chart music and employed the services of new DJ's including Simon Davies and Deborah Kinch who presented the all new BRMB FM Breakfast Show. Graham Torrington remained on BRMB FM for a while and Brendan Kearney, who had left BRMB a few years earlier, returned to the station in 1990 and, as well as his daily breakfast show, did a double-header with Andy Hollins on Saturdays called "Hollins and Kearney". The format ended in tears though after they had a big bust up on air one morning! You can hear the audio recording of this on-air bust up on our BRMB Audio page. Phil Holden stayed with BRMB FM for a few more years until around 1992. Midlands Radio PLC sold out to Capital Radio in 1993. Capital Radio kept BRMB FM and the 1152 part of XTRA AM but did not want the rest and in 1994 sold Radio Trent, Leicester Sound and Mercia Sound to GWR. It was around this time that Tony Butler, who had been sacked by BRMB in 1984, re-joined the company to present the breakfast show on Xtra-am. GWR also bought Beacon Radio around this period. Strangely, with the government's de-regulation of the radio industry with a new broadcasting act in 2004 which allows radio groups to own far more radio stations, GWR was bought up by Capital Radio PLC to form a merged group called GCAP. More about the developments in ownership, further de-regulation and loss of local programming here.  
John Slater decided to leave BRMB in 1991. You can hear some audio clips of John Slater in the BRMB AUDIO section below. John Slater presented one of the very best serious music programmes on any radio station in Britain and so when he announced his departure it really was a huge shock. The news was announced by the Birmingham Evening Mail in this way:
After a year presenting The Hollins And Kearney Show, the duo split up in this way:
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FOND MEMORIES OF BRMB FROM QUENTIN HOWARD |
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grateful thanks to Quentin Howard who sent these memories of BRMB to me
in March 2008: "Mike, Here's some more stuff for your page on BRMB. I joined as an engineer in 1976, by accident. As a 2nd year engineering student in Rugby I'd been on an anorak visit to see Dave Wood, the Chief Engineer, to gen up on something. Dave lee, one of the BRMB engineers interrupted our meeting to ask how Dave intended to cover the shifts whilst one of their other engineers was recovering from an operation for 3 months. Dave hadn't thought about it and as I was a sandwich student (I had to find engineering employment until academic studies resumed the following January) I piped up and offered to cover until Christmas. Very cheeky, of course, but Dave hired me on the spot for £36 a week and I so started on 18th October, the same day as Mike Hollis and not long after Les Ross started doing breakfast on the station. My time at BRMB was undoubtedly the happiest and most inspiring of my radio career. I would spend hours in the studio, being Les Ross' audience, sitting in on Dave Jamieson's late night show, and learning my trade from the finest bunch of engineers you could imagine. I returned in January to do tech-op shifts, driving the studio for the evening phone in programme with Sue Barker, or the late Sunday evening lonely hearts show hosted by Alan Nin. One Spring Saturday in 1977 I was in the control room watching Terry Griffiths tech-op Tony Butler's sport show. 5 hours of the most hectic and intense operations anyone could imagine. The TO had to drive the desk, load and fire commercials, handle 6 live OBs from each of the local matches, plus phoned -in reports, play the music, including Tony's famous theme tune which he'd want played whenever he got his "prayer mat" out to encourage Villa to score, and finally the two hour live phone in from 5 to 7pm. Just before half time Terry asked me to "watch the controls" whilst he went to the toilet, and didn't come back until 7pm. It was a baptism of fire but from that day on until I left BRMB in 1979 I was Tony's tech op. The sports show was a legend, and I remember one day the BBC came to visit. Radio 2 (which at that time did their major Saturday afternoon sports show) dispatched half a dozen of their producers and SMs to see how this Birmingham "legend" was broadcast. They were utterly gob smacked to see that the show consisted of Tony in the studio, George doing the racing results, Dave Wood's secretary was the runner between newsroom and studio with ripped off telex results , and then there was me operating the studio, dealing with the OB's, match round ups and filtering (i.e. producer) for all the punter's phone calls. That was it. The BBC probably had an army of hundreds doing the same thing (without the commercials, of course) and kept asking me how on earth we did it. The famous delay system was 4 seconds, not 7. This was physically the longest tape loop we could create using rollers and guides on the Technics reel to reel that served as the delay system. Dave Wood's view was that if you couldn't bleep out a "f**k" in 4 seconds then you didn't deserve to be a tech-op. The "bleep" was a four second jingle which simply blotted out the offending bit. If the phone in was going a bit slow then Tony and I would discuss my pressing the sensor button to make people think someone had sworn. That always got the lines lighting up! In fact, there were only 4 phone in lines - 021 359 4011 - so the tech op had to work quickly to get the callers lined up, on-air, and off again quickly to free up the lines for new callers. You could always spot a dodgy punter, as soon as you took their call. It was a sixth sense. Occasionally a dodgy one would get on air and many a time Tony would just give you the eye through the glass and you both knew to be ready with the bleep button. The famous Jasper Carrot sketch about Tony's programme is all true, and the incidents he refers to including sports reporter 'Harry Trethewey' at the Wolves saying live on air that the interviewee he'd lined up after the match "has just fu**ed off, Tone". I was the tech op and Harry Trethewey (real name Tony Trethewey - he was BRMB's chief accountant) was that reporter. Many a fine time was had at BRMB, including Dave Jamieson's memorable last late show. I had gone round the entire staff recording their brief farewell messages for Dave and recorded them over his show's theme tune cartridge which Dave was to play coming out of the 10pm news. How we laughed! Or the times we struggle back from The Avenue (the local pub) with a somewhat worse for wear presenter and prop him up in his seat with hand on the fader ready to start his programme. In my 3 years at BRMB I learned my trade and am indebted to Dave Wood for teaching me everything I needed to know to become a manager which stood me in good stead when at the tender age of 23 I went off to be Chief Engineer at Severn Sound. The early years of BRMB were magic beyond compare - we were all pioneers and fearless. That spirit doesn't exist in radio today. Shame. Regards Quentin" March 2008 . |
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BRMB RADIO - THE AUDIO FILES  |
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VISIT
THE NEW BRMB AUDIO PAGE - HERE |
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BRMB RADIO - THE PROGRAMME SCHEDULES |
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In 1995 the building that BRMB and sister station XTRA AM occupied, 'Radio House', was completely refurbished. However in August 1998 BRMB's management moved the radio station out of it's old building in Aston brand new studios in Brindley Place, part of the Birminghams's entertainment quarter, with Radio House being put up for sale. The move cost a reported two million pounds and provided the station with new studios and offices located above a new "Radio Cafe" concept introduced by the station's owners Capital Radio. BRMB and sister station Capital Gold moved into the first floor of the new building where there were three studios together with a commercial production suite. The Radio Cafe was intended to be a venue for bands vising the station while also serving meals and drinks to members of the public. Station Director Julie Fair said: "We're all very excited about the move. We've been in Aston for around 25 years and our present building has become a bit drab. Brindleyplace is as central as we could get and it seems to be where everything is happening. We will be much more accessible for people to visit us and we feel we will be more in touch with the public." Other commercial radio stations, Heart, and Choice (now Galaxy) together with Central Television (ITV) were also located nearby in the Broad Street area. While BRMB remained on the first floor the Radio Cafe idea turned out to be a marketing flop and was abandoned. The space is now inhabited by another cafe business.
Today BRMB today is not the 'all things to all people' type of radio station that it used to be - an entertaining, communicating, community based radio station - and Birmingham, its population and the radio industry as a whole is much the worse off for that. Throughout the 1970's, 1980's and into the early 1990's BRMB Radio provided some truly unique and wonderful local radio programming which, today, is very greatly missed. The unique culture and locallness of BRMB, a radio station steeped in its community is gone - possibly forever which is extremely sad. James Young comments: "It is only now when you look at what is called commercial radio with the homogeneous pap programmed by computers and distributed from a central source to so-called 'local' stations you realise how pioneering it all was in the 1970s." Currently BRMB FM continues to be a popular music station in Birmingham - so a hearty congratulations to one and all for all past achievements. Well done everyone involved with "261 BRMB Radio" - particularly from the 1970's, 1980's and early 1990's ! |
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| Grateful
thanks to: Dave Jamieson who provided many interesting details of his, and other fellow presenters', career details at BRMB and other radio stations. Simon Davies who provided extra details about his time and the programmes at BRMB Al Cale who sent us some interesting audio clips - unfortunately we were not been able to include this additional audio here as we are short of space for any more large audio files. Sorry, though it is much appreciated. Rashida Subedar for taking the trouble to supply additional information regarding the Razzamatazz show. John Slater for additional material. John Rogers for additional newsroom names. Terry Griffiths for additional comments. John Howard for additional background. Frazer Sheppard for additional material Ian Edwards for additional information. Allan Porter for addition information about the BRMB newsroom. Quentin Howard for Six Of The Best and other information. John Russell for The Inside Story of BRMB Radio. Thanks also to all those involved at BRMB for the fine entertaiment that you have all provided. |
| 2008 - GCAP bought by the Global Radio conglomerate and puts BRMB & other stations up for sale |
Since the GWR and Capital Radio plc merger, to form GCAP, in 2004, the Labour government and its equally useless regulator Ofcom, have continually reduced local programming commitments and relaxed ownership rules.
The Labour government's Digital Report and other industry reports are likely to weaken any remaining thread-bear commitments to quality and locally produced programming still further. Already, by 2009, many so-called local commercial radio stations provide only the bear minimum of four hours per day of local programmes.
Stations such as BRMB and Beacon may only have a locally produced breakfast and drive-time programme with all other output networked in from London or elsewhere. Many stations resort to a technological trick called 'voice-tracking' (VT). In this case the station merely inserts pre-recorded presenter announcements between music tracks and commercials from an automated computer play-out system. Some small stations might sound local to a casual listener because of some local adverts, but in many cases it most probably isn't actually the case.
In April 2008 GCAP itself was bought for £375 million by Global Radio - owners of the equally banal Heart FM and Galaxy brands and other stations such as LBC in London. This formed a massive radio conglomerate including Capital 95.8 in London, the XFM brands, Choice FM, Classic FM, the Gold network and the so-called "Hit Music Network" consisting of BRMB, Beacon, Mercia, Wyvern, Chiltern, Horizon, Southern FM, Invicta FM, Mercury, Essex FM, Fox FM etc.
However the deal was somewhat too large for the Competition Commission and OFT to allow, so they required Global Radio to dispose of a number of stations. To this end in August 2008 Global put BRMB in Birmingham up for sale along with Beacon Radio in Wolverhampton and Shropshire (97.2 & 103.1), Mercia FM in Coventry (97.0 & 102.9), Wyvern FM in Hereford & Worcester (97.6, 96.7 & 102.8), Heart 106 in the East Midlands along with the associated medium wave, AM licenses in Birmingham (1152), Coventry (1359), Shrewsbury (1017) and Wolverhampton (990).
Among bidders for these stations were a consortium headed by former BRMB Programme Controller Mike Owen, another group led by former BRMB and Chrysalis Radio executive Phil Riley and another from the German radio and publishing group Bauer - owner of former EMAP owned stations in the north of the UK.
2009
In mid May 2009 Phil Riley's group, backed by Lloyds TSB venture capital emerged as the winning buyer of the Midlands stations. The original price asked by Global for these stations was thought to be in the region of £40 million.
From the beginning of 2009 Global Radio started a mass re-branding of the so-called 'Hit Music' network with the non-descript "HEART" brand. Famous heritage stations names - so well known since the inception of ILR - started to be killed off: Plymouth Sound, GWR, Hereward, Orchard FM, FOX FM, 2-TEN, Ocean FM, Southern FM, 2CR, Invicta, Chiltern, Horizon, SGR, Gemini FM, Lantern FM, Q103, Coast, Champion, Marcher Sound - all fell under Global Radio's axe to be replaced by the banal Heart network. Power FM in Southampton was replaced by the Galaxy brand.
The further government relaxation of local programming requirements may allow all these essentially local licenses to transmit what will effectively be a full-time nationally networked Heart programme, with the only local content being locally inserted advertising and minimal local news.
Too much competition, too little and ineffectual regulation as well as massive pressure from the commercial radio lobby has helped allow the widespread loss of local radio. The sad thing is that it has been allowed to happen by the people - but then this might be as much a reflection on society. Unlike twenty or thirty years ago, people are far less interested in their own community and local (or even national) news - much of what is desired is pointless celebrity gossip and other fluff and pap concerning talentless "Reality TV" names, over paid footballers and other valueless nonsense. (I am getting jaded and I digress.)
What happens to BRMB and the other Midlands stations remains to be seen. Let's hope Phil Riley can show a better commitment to local radio in the Midlands than Capital, GCAP and Global before it!
Good Luck BRMB!
From The Coventry Evening Telegraph. September 21 2009 THE boss of the new company which owns Coventry and Warwickshire station Mercia FM has spoken of his plans to put the local back in local radio. Phil Riley, chief executive of Orion Media, which purchased six Midlands stations from Global Radio, believes in closer links with management and the stations themselves. He has already pushed through a restructuring programme, transforming the group from an outpost of the ex-owner’s empire into a self-contained Birmingham-based company. Mr Riley said: “We will be more focused on playing the right music for our core audience, more focused on local content and more focused on events and personality.” The private equity-backed takeover also included the purchase of BRMB in Birmingham, Beacon FM in Wolverhampton, Radio Wyvern in Worcester, Gold in Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton, and Heart 106. |
| Comments |
A comment from reader, James Young:
Mike,
What a fabulous website on the history of BRMB and so many memories. I started at Lanchester Polytechnic in Sept 1974 and BRMB was the station of choice. It is only now when you look at what is called commercial radio with the homogeneous pap programmed by computers and distributed from a central source to so-called 'local' stations you realise how pioneering it all was in the 70s.
Your website concentrated quite rightly on how strong BRMB was in the community and I'm sure John Russell used to do a Sunday classical music programme. No space for that now in the schedules.
My 3rd year was a year in industry, so 76/77 found me living in Shrewsbury listening to Beacon 303. Pioneering in many different ways with a very N American approach from ND Jay White. Rock show host KKJ and Mike Baker's American Billboard Chart Show - the fastest show on two turntables. My 4th year was back in Coventry where I subsequently worked for a couple of years. A choice now from BRMB and Mercia Sound with the talented Gordon Astley on breakfast.
You have amassed so much information on BRMB - its greatest stars undoubtedly Les Ross (absolutely the best at breakfast anywhere) Ed Doolan and Tony Butler. I remember the classic 2 way with Tony Trethewey. I also heard that the bleep loop was used more often in Tony's programme than it ever was in general election campaigns with the need to maintain political neutrality. I ended up working in Engineering at Pebble Mill in the 80s (another great time and place) and knew Tony Butler when he was in the newsroom on earlys for Breakfast. A totally fascinating person to talk to.
Sadly the iconic Pebble Mill is no more; apparently the old ATV/Central studios on Bridge St are slated to come down as well, as that area is re-developed but, a quick look at Google Earth and a check in the postcode directory shows Radio House is still there, but now B6 4DA has replaced B6 4BX. I wonder why?
Thanks again for a wonderful website
James Young
Ian Edwards adds:
Hi, I've just stumbled across your site and have whiled away an hour reading through some of your pages on ILR. I was an engineer at Radio Luxembourg (1973-1976) Beacon Radio (1976-1980) and BRMB/Capital (1980-2005) and so have lived through, but forgotten, much of it. You have gathered more archive material than the radio stations themselves which is commendable, how have you done it!
I have quite a library of original audio around the house, and some home video clips from BRMB days (mid 80's) if I ever get round to it I'll have a sort through and see if there is anything I can contribute to your collection. It's also good to see that you still seem to be maintaining the site - keep up the good work, I'll be back as there is a lot I haven't looked at yet.
Regards, Ian Edwards
^Top Of Page
We
hope
that
this
page
has
brought
back
some
great
memories
of
some really wonderful programmes that would
have been heard on the Second City's only Independent Radio station in
the 1970's and 1980's - BRMB : 261 meters (1152
kilohertz) medium
wave and 94.8 VHF / FM stereo
PRESENTERS | BRMB SCHEDULES | BRMB AUDIO | PHIL HOLDEN | LES ROSS
BRMB PRESENTERS | JOHN RUSSELL's INSIDE STORY | Radio Acocks Green - 261 and a bit
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