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MARK
KEEN of MERCIA FM RADIO 106 Talk Sport & Wire FM |
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 IT's
MARK KEEN. . . . . SO
GET
OUT
OF THE WAY !!! |
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 KEENY - "On The Air Everywhere" - MARK KEEN on Mercia FM
I first heard Mark Keen on MERCIA FM in Coventry, where he worked from 1989 to 1995. I found his amusing late night programme from 10pm to 1am, called "The naughty Late Show", a very refreshing listen, nothing 'worthy' just fun, good music, amusing jokes, silly serials such as The Hamster Of Oz, Lady Godiva's Nibbles and Lady Godiva's Chest, and lots of tittle-tattle with listeners on the phones between 11pm and midnight. One of Mark's jingles proclaimed "He's Lean He's Mean He's Mark Keen". Another jingle announced that Mark was "On The Air Everywhere". During the phone in section of the show, Mark would always entice his audience to ring up his show with the phrase ' Stick your finger in the dial and talk to Keeny for a while". And many did - he had a loyal band of regular callers - some were a bit mad but all were very funny and Mark had great banter with them. Mark liked silly names and always referred to the station's boss (I think it was Stuart Linnell at the time) as 'Lord Mercia' - who would make regular appearances on the show, and his many callers had some daft nicknames such as Bob The Sheep - I think he listened to Mercia FM in Birmingham, Chippy The Word Pervert, The Pervy Traffic Warden (female), and Mr Boring. Kingsley, a caller from the area, would also make regular, and sometime incoherent, appearances. For about a year between 1992 and March 1993 his Naughty Late Show was also broadcast to the lucky late night listeners of Leicestershire on LEICESTER SOUND which belonged to the same radio company (Midlands Radio plc) as Mercia FM. At this time 'Lord Mercia' morphed into 'Lord Radio'. After March 1993 Mark was moved to the drivetime programme on Mercia Sound during the week, but still presented the Sunday Late Show, which was carried on both Mercia FM and Leicester Sound. Keeny presented the Sunday Late Show until August 1993 when the station moved him to the Breakfast Show. During this time Midlands Radio, which owned Mercia FM and Leicester Sound (among others) was sold to Capital radio plc, who later sold on Mercia and Leicester to GWR who changed the format of the stations and moved Mark around the schedules. Mark left Mercia in 1995. Mark was (and still is) famous for his bald top, and he wrote a book which included many cartoons called 'The Bald Book'. After finishing work with Mercia FM in 1995, Mark moved to another Coventry based station, KIX 96, but here he presented the breakfast show for two years, after which the midlands lost his talents for a while as he moved to Wigan to launch a new station called WISH FM. Mark was only in Wigan for four or five months though, as in September he moved back to the East Midlands to present the late show from 10pm to midnight on a new regional commercial station in that area called RADIO 106. Many of Mark's MERCIA FM callers rang in - RADIO 106 could be heard over a wide area including Coventry and much of the northern part of Warwickshire - Bob The Sheep was back along with new names such as Matt The Brummie, Yorkie Man, Mrs Muppett, Crazy Lady and Chocolate Girl. The phone-in seemed to be as popular as ever and the running time was eventually extended to 1am. (Although Mark's phone ins were great, just like the ones on MERCIA FM, RADIO 106 itself was underperforming and was re-launched as 'CENTURY 106'. Later the station got bought by Capital Radio plc and was relaunched (again) as '106 CENTURY FM'. In 2005 because Capital merged with GWR, who also own radio licences in the East Midlands, the Office Of Fair Trading told the newly merged GWR/Capital company - GCAP - to sell 106 CENTURY FM. The station was bought by Chrysalis who rebranded it as HEART 106 FM. But I digress!!) With the changes at RADIO 106, it was a great pity that Mark had left the station at the end of 1998 - Chistopher Alloyisious Ashley (Chris Ashley) took over the late show and the phone in. Chris Ashley later went on to work mainly for BBC Radio Shropshire on weekday afternoons, and BBC Radio WM at the weekends for several years, until retiring to southern Spain at the end of May 2005 - but I digress again! After leaving RADIO 106 Mark went on to work for RED ROSE RADIO 999, in Preston & Blackpool, where he again presented the late night phone in show. Whe RED ROSE was relaunched by EMAP plc as MAGIC 999 in 2000, Mark was moved to the afternoon/evening show, which was the last time I heard his programmes. He was later given the breakfast show, but in late 2003 was back on the 10pm to 2am late show.
Below is Mark's presenter profile on the reverse of the Mercia FM photo card which is shown at the top of this page:
Mark finished work with MAGIC 999 in January 2005 and has done some work with Hallam FM and Talk Sport in the interim period. In October 2005 Mark was on Talk Sport every Sunday evening from 8pm to 10pm. Simon Parry informed us that in September 2008 Mark was working at Wire FM in Warrington doing weekday mornings and Saturday afternoons 2pm to 6pm. Later - 2009 - Mark went on to work for Central Radio 106.5 in Preston. Central Radio launched just before recession gripped the UK and the station's owners, UTV Radio, decided to close the station on 24th December 2009 due to financial losses. So let's hope Mark and his unique talents always remain "On The Air Everywhere" - somewhere!  Hear Mark Keen on the air on the
Mercia Sound Audio Files page - Here >
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EXTERNAL
LINKS
A Look At MERCIA SOUND by Kevin Sykes Today's MERCIA FM MAGIC 999 HALLAM FM TALK SPORT |
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