Episode 11 – May-September 2007

Hope you’ve had a good Christmas,
and my present to you, an extra long episode
of WRUTSL, reflecting a rather tricky period
on a personal level from mid to late 2007.

Well, in the months just before I was sectioned,
I thought it was the best period of my life,
and over-optimistic radio listening habits
were partly to blame.

After being given recovery meds, I realised
that things were not all rosy, and my manic state
meant I had to spend one more year at university,
having been taken ill for the first semester
in late ’07.

Which wasn’t a bad thing in hindsight,
but when you’re on a massive low,
it’s hard to see any positives.

This is also the only episode this series where
we’ll be heading North so enjoy it for what it’s worth.

Anyway, let’s begin our festive flow through
the radio of almost ten years ago.
(Goodness it’s shot by…)

Starting off in Sheffield and Hallam FM’s
“School Years” introduced with the
Natasha Bedingfield inspired ID from the
Reelworld custom that had been airing
for a couple of years.

Swiftly followed by a clever sounding sweeper
involving one of the JAM “Metroline” resings
from over a decade earlier.

The use of old jingles prompted a chat on
Jinglemad, which in turn lead to the discussion
of a short lived jingle package for Hallam FM
in mid 1999 by Jonathan Colling’s Octagon Music,
as heard below.

Yep, just the right amount of EQ and modulation
on those vocals.

Replacing a TM Century package, the brief was
to fit in better with the music played, but the
presenters hated it, and even Colling himself
thought the melody logo sounded like a football chant.

Still, at least the then programme controller
Anthony Gay learned from it, as he’s now
running Reelworld Europe in Salford.

Reelworld back in ’07 had recently resung the
Hallam package for Essex FM, their first proper
jingle package since the days of ALFA’s
“Power Positive” custom, which in turn
happens to be my most-searched-for
holy grail jingle package.

Which is interesting as the man behind that,
former Essex Radio PD Paul Chantler, made
a surprise visit back to Essex FM, (now in
Chelmsford) in August that year, to surprise
Martin Day and his “Random iPod” for a BBC 2
“Lakesiders” reunion series, transmitted almost
exactly a year after it was filmed.

And filmed exactly a week before I was sectioned.

I wouldn’t like to think “The Boss” was
part-responsible for my over-optimistic
radio thoughts around this time, but we’ll
go onto that later in the blog when he tipped
me off to a happy place in Hull…

You could suggest that Martin’s “Random iPod”
was the first of the many “lets play random old songs
because it’s Friday!” strands now commonplace
on radio, predating Moyles’ Golden Hour, the Nixtape,
and not forgetting Steve Wright’s “Serious Jockin”.

Not matter how hard we try to do so.

At 2.35, a Saturday afternoon with Sam (Impey)
at Mix 107 in South Bucks, a presenter whose
love of radio started after being driven to school
in a 2-Ten FM Black Thunder.

Mix 107 the station, started off on AM,
literally called ElevenSeventy AM.

Attempting to borrow a cue from 210, let’s say
they ended up the same way as the Reading station’s
present state on 210 meters.

You have to love The Local Radio Company’s
“Big Fun Weekend” branding exercise, which
sounds like something Chris Moyles would have
made a spoof trailer for in his drivetime days
at Radio 1, devoting a whole weekend to the hits
of Mark, Jason and Phil.

Wait, they had more than one?

I’ve broken my own rule in this episodes of
not including my own on-air mentions though
there’s a good reason in this case.

Sam happened to be another element of my
“happy summer” as she was a radio student
in the year below me, and in the last week of
broadcasting before Summer, I asked if she wanted
to help co-host my summer soul special, as she
was stuck in a day-job during the rest of the week.

At the time I thought it was the best radio I had ever made.

Though as you’ll hear above, it’s probably
no surprise as to why I later got sectioned…

I was longing for the “magic” to return, confident
it would rekindle again back at uni in September
but it wasn’t to be.

The fortunes of Mix 107 fared even worse,
with Sam losing her show to networked TLRC
programming the following year, (defeating the
purpose of the company name) and the station
shutting down altogether on July 1st 2009.

The rather swift exit can be heard here, and
OFCOM weren’t in a rush to push the off switch,
were they?

It meant Jazz FM had to find new studios, as on
being sold from GMG, they broadcast from
Mix 107’s High-Wycombe building.

Though that’s something we’ll cover
in greater detail in episode 12.

Save for a brief return in front of the mic
at Folkestone’s Academy FM in 2011, Sam’s
now switched to working behind the scenes
at the rather swish sounding Monocle 24
online radio station.

Wednesday the 18th of July 2007 saw BBC staff
get a massive bollocking from Director General
Mark Thompson over their competition cover ups,
which from midnight that night saw all of them
suspended, pending a “strategic review”.

Shows ranging from Jo Whiley on Radio 1,
Liz Kershaw on 6 Music, and as revealed later on,
even Tony Blackburn’s show on BBC London had
been caught out deceiving listeners, by faking
winners, and running supposedly live competitions
in pre-recorded shows.

And this was just the radio side of the deception.

My first immediate thoughts were
“well Steve Wright’s fucked then…”,
and 8 years on “The Big Quiz” still hasn’t
made a return to the airwaves.

If anyone was being punished it was the
viewers/listeners, subjected to poor substitutes
and compromises such as “Celebrity Popmaster”
as mentioned in the last blog.

With regards to Radio 1, it came at very bad timing,
midway into the 2007 “Six Weeks Of Summer”
promotion, which carried on as normal but with
the DJs themselves undertaking the tasks as mentioned
at 7.12, over the impressive “Fresh Prince” inspired bed,
from a set of six (one per destination) from Music 4.

(You’ve got to also love the Radio 1 sonic logo
played by ice cream chimes)

Even worse timing when taking into account
this, from that very morning’s “Carpark Catchphrase”.

Famous last words and so on.

Luckily for Moyles, him and the team would be
heading off on their two week summer holiday
that Friday, where on return they would be
introducing a few new features, much needed
what with the inadvertent suspension of Roy Walker.

One of them trailed at 9.35 over the rather cute
sounding theme tune to the CBeebies series
“Charlie And Lola”, being another feature
seemingly “borrowed” from the channel,
“Birthday Corner”.

As you’ll hear later on, the theme for
Birthday Corner itself was just as cute.

It’s rather amusing, knowing that later in
the year, one of the team would star in a show
on CBeebies himself, with newsreader Dom
playing the voice of traffic reporter “Zorst”
on the Saturday morning series “Space Pirates”.

Which had an even better theme tune, as penned
and sung by Busted keyboard player Chris Banks,
and released as a Christmas single championed
by Moyles, but to little chart success.

Though it did spawn a rather impressive remix
from Chris Banks himself, showing off the endless
possibilities of Pro Tools in action.

Dom’s own feature bows out after
just over three years, the final “One Road Travel”
at 11.35.

Shortly followed by the rarely used (moreso after
the Golden Hour started) “Back in two weeks!”
show closer, and it must be said that Jo Whiley’s
“Helloooo!” at 13.49 although not as regular an occurrence,
was far less painful than Fearne Cotton’s “Mooorniiiing!“.

One of many reasons I went off the show
around 2010, not to mention Tina Daheley
screaming “It’s McFlyDaaaaayyyy!”.

I happened to be at Yalding House myself on that
very wet July Friday, observing behind the scenes
of Newsbeat where the mood was still upbeat and
the team, especially Georgina Bowman and
studio manager Derek Knight were really delightful.

Dominic Byrne was nice too, but sadly the
then editor Rod McKenzie was missing in action
that morning.

I’d no idea I’d be working with one of their
former staff Micky Curling 6 years later,
though it’s worrying, knowing that I may be
a worse radio anorak than he is.

If you’re reading this Micky, we’ll be heading
to one of your old radio haunts in Reading shortly.

Before that, a brief stopover North once again,
and BBC Radio York’s Friday night Soul Show
hosted by Jamie Wilkinson at 13.58.

Deprived of such a show on BBC Radio Kent,
this was an enjoyable listen, of which I was tipped
off by a mate at uni who was a producer at
Radio York, nowadays producing Jo Whiley
on BBC Radio 2.

The jingles are by Maximum Production who at the time
also produced IDs for BBC Radio Lincolnshire,
and BBC Radio Gloucestershire amongst others.

2007 also saw the evolution (in loose terms)
of GCap’s “OneNetwork” with new station logos
that bore the slogan “Haven’t You Heard?”
and what was quite an oddity for many ex GWR
stations, a sung jingle package produced by
Music 4 that began airing from the 1st of August.

Both those subject areas are talked about
in detail in this blog, though there is audio in this
episode of the jingles being used on Reading’s
2-Ten FM at 17.15, which fitted well into the name,
despite the logo sounding identical to that
of Real Radio.

Though in fairness to Sandy, the logo did
also appear years earlier, on the Vibe custom
package for Bradford’s “The Pulse”.

The news and traffic intros oddly enough weren’t
adapted to fit each station, with all of them
keeping the same three note logo.

The package itself was co-written by Dave Bethell,
who also became the OneNetwork male imaging
voice, replacing Dave Kelly after 7 years.

Though the voice of Flynn on CBBC’s “50/50”
did occasionally re-appear on some stations.

Hosting breakfast during this period were
Foxy and Tom, AKA John Fox and Tom Rhys,
poached from Viking FM the year before after
a four year stint at breakfast in Hull where they
took over from “Hirsty’s Morning Glory”.

They even brought along their “Chas And Dave”
inspired jingles also produced by Music 4, which
remained until the OneNetwork package went to air.

It’s a good thing they didn’t join GCap two years
earlier when Neil Fox was still present, as he
supposedly had a thing about people within the
Capital Group sharing his surname, with Mark Fox
at Invicta FM having to change his on-air name
to the even more ironic Mark Anthony.

In November that year Tom parted company,
and eventually newsreader Guiliano Casadei
became Foxy’s right hand man, with the duo
nowadays heard on breakfast at Birmingham’s
Free Radio.

On-air promotions for the “Fugitive” competition
can be heard at 20.42, a much reprised competition
throughout the decade even heard on EMAP
and UKRD stations at one time.

At 23.40, a station that became a trigger in the
ongoing build of my over-optimism, the newly
launched KCFM for Hull and East Yorkshire
broadcasting on 99.8, and online, going on air
fittingly enough on Yorkshire Day,
the 1st of August 2007.

The station named after Kingston Communications,
one of the backers and telecom providers
to the Hull area.

I was told about the station via Paul Chantler,
a shareholder who knew too well that I loved jingles,
and in the same way as his station in Southend did
7 summers earlier, they were an entrance to
a radio station that felt equally amazing to
listen to, and feel involved with.

Despite being as far away as possible from the broadcast area.

They’d followed the lead from Viking Radio
23 years earlier by launching with a really strong
ID package, though rather than nip down
to nearby Selby, they went to Dallas and the
TM Studios (or JonesTM as they were in 2007)
purchasing a resing of “KVIL Signature”
written a couple of years earlier for
the station in Dallas, Texas.

Viking FM at the same time were airing
a custom package also from TM,that
later ended up near my neck of the woods
resung on KMFM, and fitting in well.

Back on subject and the KCFM jingles were
a very good set of IDs filled with transitions,
solos, real instruments, fantastic chord progressions,
and a warmth throughout.

Not to mention the inclusion of jock cuts.
(And shouts!)

KCFM made prominent use of sung jingles on air,
even to segue two songs together, especially as
there were no sweepers or voiced IDs.

I initially thought that Chantler had an influence
on the jingles though as pointed out by TM’s then
head honcho Chris Stevens it was Station Manager
Tim Jibson, and Head Of Presentation Al Dupres
who chose the jingles and wrote the lyrics,
which apparently took four months to do so!

Dupres even using the opportunity to have
a couple  of the cuts sung with his name personally!

As well as the KVIL package, there’s also a nice
custom news intro that can be heard at 27.43.

Having heard the KVIL news intro on the demo,
it’s understandable as to why they went for
their own one.

An almost similar situation to the one demoed
for BBC Radio 2 from LA, nine years earlier.

The one that went on air, being a prime example of
a great news intro.

Though when I did get sectioned, I was woken up
by subconsciously hearing the KCFM news intro
in my sleep, even though I didn’t have
any internet access.

That aside, it may be my favourite TM Century
jingle package resung for a UK station, apart from
of course Invicta FM’s “Steamroller” IDs.

As mentioned a few times in this blog, the jingles
are just part of what adds up to a really good
radio station, and KCFM seemed to have it all on launch.

What some viewed as maybe too ambitious
and too big judging by how the station fared over
the years to come.

These included a 24 hour local news service,
(which itself was scaled down by December ’07),
and sports commentaries of Hull City football,
and Hull FC Super League rugby matches from the
KC Stadium as well as Hull Kingston Rovers over
at the KC Lightstream Stadium.

That and a very wide selection of music
throughout the day containing lesser
heard surprises from all decades.

At the time it became pretty much my
go-to station, choosing to listen to little else,
which at the time felt very out of character.

The first of the presenters heard is Steve Jordan,
poached from Magic 1161 to host breakfast,
and the Thursday night 80s show
which we’ll hear later on.

A sort of old-school sounding breakfast show
with sound effects a-plenty (28.08), which
when listening post-meds, isn’t too comfortable
a listen.

Prior to sectioning however, it sounded like
the best radio ever.

Steve at 25.00 presides over an interview with
Jon Culshaw, a veteran of Viking FM along with
many other KC presenters, who comes across
ever warm, even if the impressions lacked wit.

At the time, “Dead Ringers” had finished
it’s television run in a not untimely manner.

It was funny to start with on the radio, but it
soon became a case of too many sketches
stating the obvious, as ridiculed brilliantly
by Richard Herring in his “Menage A Un” stand-up.

Not to mention a reliance on “If in doubt,
throw in some random song lyrics“.

Traits still prevailing in the revived series
on BBC Radio 4.

As well as Culshaw, the then England football
manager and utter twazzock (“wally with the brolly”
is far too kind) Steve McClaren was one of the special
guests on launch, officially opening
the station’s studios.

He was probably stopping off in Hull, before
getting a ferry to Holland in order to brush up
on his Dutch accent.

At 31.07, we hear from mid-morning presenter
Clare Westwood formerly of Stray FM and TFM.

She reminded me of former CBBC presenter
Kirsten O’Brien, and it was nice to hear a
female presenter on mid-mornings
with the warmth that Jo Whiley and
Edith Bowman could only dream of.

Although the audio was recorded on a Friday,
Clare would soon be hosting a shorter show
on that day of the week, owing to a syndicated show
from Dave Lee Travis.

Thankfully, his slot was taken over by
Tony Blackburn the following January.

Around the same time, Clare was moved
from the rather lengthy 10am-2pm slot to
a 1-4pM afternoon show before departing
the station altogether one year to the day
it launched, in August 2008.

I’ve still got the rather nice e-mail
she sent me, on the day of her departure.

Other presenters on launch included
“Crown Jules” with the Rock Show and
newcomer Rosie Madison, now co-hosting
The Danny Mylo Show on Pulse 1 in Bradford.

A trail for Al Dupres’s show can be heard at 33.29,
where to start with the station used the promo
theme from the jingle package a bit too literally,
as it’s also heard to trail both Steve Jordan’s show
at 46.19 and future KCFM programme
controller Shaun Tilley’s Sunday evening
retro chart show at 44.17.

They didn’t even attach the end tag to them,
though it was used as a stand-alone jingle.

They did start airing more individual sounding
trails within a few months, with a very funky
sounding one for Claire’s All-Request Lunch,
which itself can be heard taking place at 38.54.

After overnight and sports presenter
Matthew Rudd says goodbye on his nightly
mid-evening sports phone-in at, Steve Jordan’s
back at 48.58 with his first “Night At The 80s”.

I bet Rudd at the time was thinking
“it should have been my show”…

(Do give his “Forgotten 80s” show a listen
on Absolute 80s on Sundays if you get the chance.)

This show was one of the most popular
on KCFM, with lots of e-mail and phone requests,
for lesser heard 80s tunes.

I got a few on myself, including on the first
show Level 42, though we’ve already had one
on-air mention this episode.

One caller heard at 51.26, asks for a spinning of Journey,
which had quite a following in Hull, years before
its resurgence at the end of the decade.

The heightened excitement of listening to KCFM
as a standalone station did become too big a cause
of what lead to me going really bonkers
later on that August.

After coming out of hospital I started listening
more moderately and in my comedown state
I realised that maybe it wasn’t all that exciting
in rainy autumnal conditions.

Which may have been a real reflection of
what Hull was like.

I seem to remember them playing Mika’s
“Happy Ending” a fair number of times,
which added to the unsettled feeling.

It was to get worse in 2009, as in June that year,
the station was bought out by the Lincs FM group
in a rich twist of irony, as they’d failed to win
the Hull license with their own bid “White Rose Radio”.

Although the name didn’t transfer, many
hallmarks of the group did over the course
of a year with Steve Jordan being the
first casualty, departing breakfast (and the
80s show) after two years in August 2009.

The music policy was tightened, live sports
coverage and specialist shows were ditched,
and by 2010 the superb TM jingles were replaced
by a package from S2 Blue, not the same one
as their sister stations, but retaining
the same melody logo.

All traces of individuality were removed,
in spite of Lincs FM’s policy of no networked
programmes, a trait that someday
they’ll finally have to admit defeat.

Especially as they’re a shadow of the entertaining
stations they once were, when Duncan Newmarch
and Maria Richmond were on there.

No wonder they’re now at the BBC.

8 years on, only one presenter from the original
line-up remains at KCFM, proof overall that
good things never stand still in radio.

But would they still be good if they did?

Just look at Chris Moyles.

Whilst everything was happy in Hull back in
August ’07, further down South, Capital Gold
and Classic Gold were to merge together as “Gold”
following Gcap’s purchase of the former GWR
AM stations from Unique.

The on-air changeover was presided with
not too much fanfare, at 7pm on Friday
the 2nd of August.

The launch itself with Greg Edwards is heard at 56.20,
and to start with little change on-air was made
to the Gold brand, even retaining the Music 4
Capital Gold news intro.

Greg lasted for about another year, before
being dropped in Autumn ’08 eventually
reappearing on Jazz FM for a short period
in 2010 standing in for Robbie Vincent on
Sunday mornings whilst he was ill.

Nowadays Greg can be found on DAB station Mi-Soul.

The biggest changes to the network were
at breakfast, with the local breakfast shows
on the former Capital Gold stations dropped
in favour of local voice-tracked afternoon shows ,
which themselves were eventually dropped by 2010.

This was in favour of a networked breakfast show
from Kid Jensen and Erika North, the female half
retained from Classic Gold whilst Tony Blackburn
was given his marching orders.

Blackburn still had his Saturday lunchtime
soul show on BBC London but also managed to
find a new radio home, and within my reach
which we’ll hear shortly.

Then again, as shown in this clip of Tone
at that year’s Sony’s it could have been far worse.

The knowing jokes towards his former station
of residence may explain why he didn’t transfer
over to Gold.

As for Gambo’s little quip, I’m guessing “Sexyback”
was the song he would be singing this year
if anyone’s speeches dragged on.

Chris Moyles is back from holiday at 57.13, with a
new set of jingles, introduced to coincide with
a new set of features.

I wasn’t a big fan of the “Morning Rock” IDs used
from August ’07 to December ’08, as they sounded
rather pub-rock, and lacked the anticipatory
builds from the last set as heard at 8.56.

Though maybe that was the intention, as the
bigger suits at Radio 1 had an influence on the
musical direction of the IDs, possibly wanting
a more raw, rocky, and less showbiz feel
to the new jingles.

The first show back from holiday was a rather
unusual set up, with Comedy Dave on a live
link up from home, as his soon to be second
wife Jayne had given birth to little Nicole,
with more jingles specially made
for the occasion at 1:03:43.

Nicely timed too, for the arrival at 58.40 of
“Birthday Corner”, of which the jingle shares
musical similarities to the old Aquafresh
ad from the late 80s (as resurrected 20 years later)
and a certain window advertisement that we’ll
be hearing later on…

This item was supposedly introduced as
a response to “market research” that the show
wasn’t appealing enough to young mothers
with toddlers, so the rather cute (if not tongue
in cheek) feel to it, hopefully pleased all.

It was rather odd that in the post-phone in
competition suspension, Moyles now encouraged
listeners to send in birthday cards that wouldn’t
even be seen, let alone not getting read out on air.

The feature was dropped in early 2008,
though made a one off return in the run up
to the final show, five years later.

Though regarding it’s resemblance to CBeebies,
it would be a taster of what was to come when
sectioned, as watching the channel was my
one way other than radio, of staying calm.

Along with CBBC which just four days before
I was let out, changed their idents, and saw
the departure of another crush from that era,
Gemma Hunt, who herself is now on
“Swashbuckling” on CBeebies.

If you’ve never seen it, imagine a pirate
themed “Fun House” for pre-school children
with Melanie and Martina replaced by
pirate pantomime vilains “Cook”,
“Line” and “Sinker”.

Funny how along with “Space Pirates“, two of
CBeebies best ever shows are of a nautical theme.

Which I suppose is ironic, considering the
time period of this episode is almost 40 years
to the day when the Marine Offences Act
went into place.

Also heard at 1.01.22, another new item of which
the jingle was better than the feature itself,
“Who Knows Dom”.

The short-lived replacement for
“One Road Travel” later resurfaced as
“Just Ask Dom” when the show moved
to it’s 6:30am start time in October.

At 1.07.05 Tony Blackburn’s back, with a new show
at KMFM on Sunday afternoons between
4 and 7pm, pre-recced but not voice-tracked.

KM were quick to promote Blackburn for
all his worth, as shown below in this
backpage article from the Extra newspaper.

Preceding him is Spencer James with the
weekend request slot “The KMFM Takeover”
later borrowing a cue from Corinne Bailey-Rae
and renamed “Put My Record On!”.

The nature of the preceding show and Blackburn’s
being pre-recorded means it’s entirely fine that
The Style Council’s “Long Hot Summer” got played
twice within 20 minutes that afternoon.

Not so good if you’re one of those types who
loved Paul Weller in The Jam and as a solo
artist, but not the sophisto-pop in between.

Tony’s show took over from the “A List” chart
which was abandoned altogether by the end
of 2007, partly due to the loss of Bailey’s as
sponsor, and Global Radio who had just brought
the Chrysalis network having their own
programming ideas.

Listening to the first show that weekend felt
even better, with the weather holding a rare
spell of bright sunshine for that summer,
not least with high temperature tunes
to match, where as well as the Style Council,
there was also that of Bobby Goldsboro’s
ever-saucy “Summer The First Time”.

A tune that caused amusing embarrassment
on my part a few years later when interviewing
Bluey from Incognito.

Having previously hosted a breakfast show
sponsored by Danish Bacon, Blackburn’s vegetarian
principles wouldn’t have been hurt by the Britelite
Windows ad at 01.10.10, and the return of the Wurzels,
with the infamous 3 Little Pigs song, now adapted
for the Kent-based window outlet.

Another West Country accented ad can be
heard at 01.16.42, and to hear them again only
heightened my daze of believing radio of
a golden age was back.

I would use the term “radio like it used to be”
but we all know that’s a ridiculous concept altogether.

Mainly because radio didn’t used to
be voice tracked all the time…

The new show was sponsored by P&O Ferries,
which still remains the case 8 years on, as
Tony still hosts Sunday afternoons on KMFM,
though the show’s format has changed to
one of number ones from over the last 30 years.

In 2007, Blackburn’s Sunday show was more of
a freewheeling affair, “opening up his record box”
and repeatedly going on in his usual manner
over how “we don’t play all the same songs
like all the other stations!”.

He’s also heard speaking over his music bed,
still used to this day on his BBC London and
various shows, “Soul Brothers” from the Bruton
music library, as penned by Jean Pierre-Fabien.

In an interview with the Radio Magazine in 2008,
Blackburn spoke about his frustration of radio
stations repeatedly playing the one ABBA song,
“Dancing Queen”.

As he didn’t play that song to death every week,
oh no, he played “Knowing Me Knowing You”
every week, as heard at 01.11.24.

A classic case of “Pot Kettle Blackburn”.

Seriously though, as with KCFM, listening to
the show after coming out of sectioning, didn’t
feel as exciting as when it started that August,
and it did get repetitive.

But a presenter who’s still a good listen now
and again, especially when hosting Pick Of
The Pops, where it’s safe to say that Fluff’s
famous theme tune has now become Tony’s
very own.

He won’t be escaping easily from this episode.

KMFM in ’07 as a whole was getting better,
with specialist music shows at weekends
such as Richard Walters Rock Show on Fridays,
and Chris Finn’s chillout show on Saturday nights.

There was also the arrival of new jingles in October
from TM Studios, resung from “PLJ ’07”.

The original custom was a good package,
taking a heritage melody logo dating back over
45 years, and making it relevant to present day
music, with the IDs themselves written
by Barry Young.

In addition to the PLJ cuts, were a couple of
more traditional sounding IDs for Tony Blackburn,
resung from a package penned by jingle veteran
Bruce Upchurch called “Miami’s Coast”.

The same man behind the KVIL package
as used by KCFM.

Station PD Rik Scott (who also c0-produced the rather
crazy sweepers with vintage Blackburn JAM acapellas
in this selection) can be heard showing off
the jingles below.

The new jingles showed signs of a better sounding station,
if a bit rocky for the format, first airing not long after
arriving in Maidstone.

Having taken over what used to be CTR 106.5
that September, KMFM was indeed everywhere.

A year later the jingles switched to a more
consistent sounding resing of Viking FM ’06
as written by Dave Bethell, who penned a few
additional cuts for KMFM during his short stint
as a presenter in 2009.

And credit to both Rik and Rob, two people who
to this day are of a rare breed in radio, with an
understanding of really good on-air identification.

Not least as Rik has been voicing the intro jingles
for this very series.

Back in ’07 Kirstyn Read can be heard at 01.17.13,
in her long running Sunday evening show.

She shortly moved to the Friday night 80s Show
as well as co-hosting KMFM Ashford’s Breakfast
show with John “Webbo” Webster.

At 1.18.18, a brief illustration of what radio genuinely
sounded like whilst I was recovering in hospital
from hypomania.

James Waters (ex SGR Colchester in the 90s) making
a farewell speech from Sheppey community radio
station BR-FM , a station that he helped launch
less than a year earlier.

Accompanied by the theme tune to a TV show,
that many radio presenters can only dream
of replicating.

I’m no one to talk, as the key cause of me
going bonkers, was trying to find the sound effect
adapted for the gunge tank, from the BBC Sound
Effects Library.

I’ve managed to find it in the clear since, and at one time it used to be
the alarm clock on my smartphone.

A bit too effective maybe?

That said, there are many other audio rarities
from radio which were also part of the cause,
that I am still yet to find…

I later ended up working alongside Waters
for a few years at my current station CSR FM
in Canterbury, where it’s fair to say it was
rather raucous, and at times a little too hard
to handle.

Something both of us have realised in hindsight.

Though from the Sheppey station just over
five years later, this on-air resignation
is even worse, with another Edmonds influence
at the beginning, as also heard in episode 2.

The only tears I’m getting when listening to it
are those of hysterics.

As of typing, Waters has relocated back not too
far from Sheppey, on Sittingbourne
community station SFM.

One month later and it’s 40th birthday
celebrations galore at BBC Radio 1 and 2.

Starting off at 1.19.19 with JK and Joel, followed by
a few trails for Radio 2’s special day, this should have
been something I was supposed to get excited about,
but in my post-med comedown, listening felt like
a chore in itself.

Tony Blackburn joins Moyles live in the studio at 1.22.00,
where for the first half hour they attempted to
recreate the first show by playing all the records
in exactly the same order, but settled down
shortly afterwards into general anoraking.

And with no better person, than Tony’s first producer
and eventual controller of Radio 1, Johnny Beerling,
(1.30.10) the man who wrote the lyrics to many
of Radio 1’s Dallas sung jingles including
the infamous “Glasgow Square” from the 1984 package,
resung from “The Best Show” originally written
for Denver’s KIMN.

It’s weird with Tony in the studio, as they
introduced the “Best Sound” jingles on-air
a week after he departed Radio 1.

Just two days after the broadcast, I met Blackburn
in person, at a book signing at Bluewater, in spite
of the side effects of my illness rendering me
unable to stay still for more than 10 seconds.

Screw you Risperdol.

This photo says it all, though we have met
a few times since.

Moyles wasn’t happy on joining Radio 1
ten years earlier, at the lack of on-air
celebrations for the station’s 30th birthday,
but having adapted a more mainstream
approach than in 1997, they were more than
happy to include a few remixed jingles
in their 40th anniversary imaging.

It was also around the same time that Moyles
resurrected “The Golden Hour” having done so
two years previously out of pure indulgence
on a canal boat outside broadcast.

From mid-October onwards the item, and it’s
many vintage Radio 1 jingles became a Friday
fixture of his breakfast show, as well as the
show as a whole given an extra half-hour,
starting at 6:30am.

The day I was let out of hospital happened
to be the same day that the schedule changes
for Autumn ’07 were announced at Radio 1,
with the surprise departure of JK and Joel
after three years at the station.

They would be replaced on early breakfast
by newcomer Greg James fresh from student
radio at just 21 years old, who won best male
at 2005’s Student Radio Awards.

Taking over from them on the chart
were Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates,
or more realistically, Reggie Yates,
and Fearne, sometimes…

They were possibly brought in as the warm up
for Radio 1’s contribution to what ended up
being the BBC’s stillborn strand aimed
at teenagers “BBC Switch” which featured
the questionable choice of Kelly Osborne
as the new host of the Sunday Surgery.

Switch was eventually dropped altogether in 2010
amid the cuts in the BBC’s “Delivering Quality First”
plan, though the departure of Switch prompted
no mass protests outside of Broadcasting House
to save it.

Further changes at weekends from October ’07
included Vernon Kay reduced to one show on
Saturday mornings, and Dick And Dom
taking over the Sunday morning “lie-in” slot
where they always seemed to be playing “Gipsy Woman”
by Crystal Waters.

The duo from Da Bungalow were to radio presenting
what JK and Joel were to children’s television presenting.

Not as good at it, as they were (and still are)
in their main professions.

JK and Joel can be heard in snippets from their
final show at 1.33.04, which I can remember listening to,
and desperately trying to stay still in my
recovering manic state.

Although the whole day had been video-streamed
from breakfast the live stream was stopped after
4pm which even the pair themselves questioned on-air.

Whilst Moyles had been blessed with Tony Blackburn
in the studio, and Zoe Ball and Sara Cox hosted a
double-header before them, JK and Joel had to make do
with pre-recorded interviews of Bruno Brookes
and Mark Goodier reminiscing on their respective
memories of hosting the chart in a special edition
of “The Retro”.

It wasn’t as entertainingly nostalgic as it
could have been, though maybe the bosses
wanted the duo’s departure not to be too indulgent,
as Moyles had done more than his fair share
of wallowing in Radio 1’s past.

JK and Joel later mentioned in an interview
in the Guardian that their departure came
as a result of over-ambition, as due to their
hectic TV filming schedule, they wanted out
from earlies, with sights set on Edith Bowman’s
afternoon slot.

In an ideal world, it would have been a return
to the whimsy provided by the Dundee woman
and Colin Murray, but it wasn’t to be,
with Edith and her movie babble languishing
for two more years.

The chart itself that week saw the usual array
of odd entries, including Phil Collins’
“In The Air Tonight” after its performance
by the drumming gorilla in the Cadbury’s ad,
and Jonny Trunk and Wiseby’s “The Lady’s Bras”.

A 30 second song championed by Scott Mills,
based melodically around the library track “The Gonk”.

Do give the album “Dirty Fan Male” a listen
if you get a chance.

The duo’s final moments, were rather poignant
especially with the farewell link done dry, and Joel’s final words
paying homage to Bruno Brookes, (and possibly former
on-air rival Simon Hirst during his stint on Hit 40 UK).

It felt like a moment where a public figure had
died, and sort of put a downer on the birthday celebrations,
that day, despite being followed by Annie Nightingale,
and Annie Mac immediately after.

JK and Joel would return to the radio in 2008 when
the ever delightful David Lloyd snapped them up at
Virgin Radio where they spent just over half a year
on weekend mid-mornings.

As for the chart as a whole, Radio 1 not only
ushered in new presenters, but a new imaging
package for the show, made by IQ Beats in Seattle,
lasting for over four years on air.

So that rounds off a rather bonkers selection
of radio, from what was a bonkers period in life.

The final episode and blog in this series
(and possibly forever) will be up before 2015 is out,
and it’s going to be more than a little honest.