Radio 2 – Hello Curns

Wogan

A pair of vintage BBC “Wogan” mugs.

When I was a child, I recall that every morning we sat in the kitchen eating breakfast cereal. My mum had BBC Radio 2 on in the background, and Terry Wogan was the host.

In the late 1970s, Radio 2 was a very different-sounding station from the one it is today. This was during Wogan’s first period on the breakfast show, which ran from 1972 to 1984, and his Floral Dance era.

In 1985, Michael Grade overhauled BBC One’s early-evening schedule. EastEnders was introduced on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while Terry’s chat show, Wogan, aired on the other three weekdays. It became a staple of our early-evening television viewing. At about 15, I was probably waiting for the pop act that often appeared on the show. I recall not knowing who many of the other guests were.

These Wogan-branded mugs have been sitting in my cupboard for years. I must have acquired them during a childhood trip to London in the mid-1980s. There used to be a BBC shop near Broadcasting House on Regent Street, and I may have bought them there. Visiting it would certainly have been on my wish list.

It would have been the heyday of the chat show, and I imagine there was plenty of *EastEnders* merchandise around too. This is what I opted for.

I doubt the mugs are valuable collector’s items, but I don’t really want to use them because they are not replaceable. They remain in the cupboard, preserving a small part of the radio and television I grew up with.

Another Radio Era Ends

I haven’t written about radio for quite a while, unless you count my comments – on Matt Degan’s excellent site – about Commercial Radio blaming its woes on the BBC, and I don’t think that counts.

As I look back, I see I wrote about The End of a Radio Era in December 2002 when Jimmy Young left Radio 2. And I find myself wanting to use that same title today as Sir Terry Wogan leaves his top-rated breakfast show. Throughout my childhood, I was aware of Jimmy Young, but as a family, we actually listened to Terry Wogan.

The news people say it’s 27 years; of course, we know that the number represents years, actually, talking on the breakfast show. There were years off for good behaviour (when he did that television thing), meaning that it’s really four decades that Terry’s been an integral part of our lives.

Many people have written elsewhere about what a remarkable broadcaster Terry Wogan is, and I wouldn’t say anything different. It’s a special talent to be able to talk, cross-generationally, to such a large audience and yet make it seem like you’re sharing in a small, intimate, and thoroughly entertaining dinner (breakfast) party. And that, to me, is what separates great radio broadcasters from average and poor ones: people who can really ‘do’ radio make you feel like you’re part of the conversation. The rest shout at you.

I do believe today marks a bigger transition than the end of a much-loved breakfast show. Radio 2 has been able to point to Wake Up To Wogan as a shining example of what sets it apart: no commercial broadcaster would have done that show, and I find it unlikely any would have let it run so long (though for that audience?). But as of today, Radio 2 can not point to Sir Terry as a difference that helps validate its existence.

I hope Chris Evans is given a chance (the BBC will, but I wonder about the rest of the media). He, too, is different, and I find it frustrating to read the many views that assume he is still a 30-year-old Radio 1 breakfast host, not the consummate, radio-loving professional broadcaster he clearly is. But Wogan came from a different era. It wasn’t his physical age that helped secure Radio 2’s difference; it was that he started his career in a different broadcasting era, when broadcasters felt like your friends. And he became part of our breakfast routine before we, as a nation, took to shooting down our celebrities as quickly as we do today, and before the radio industry replaced presenters after a bad ratings quarter or two. I hope the new host will be different enough to let the BBC keep pointing to Radio 2 as something you can’t hear elsewhere. I think it’s going to be a challenge: not because Chris isn’t unique, but because the broadcasting landscape has changed, and Chris has played his part in today’s tabloid celebrity fascination. Will we be able to separate his history from his present?

But I don’t want to end up pondering Radio 2’s future. I find myself looking back on the words I wrote about Jimmy Young and realising that many of them apply to Terry Wogan. It was an interactive show from early on. Letters about the Poison Dwarf and the M1 cones may have been replaced by emails, but the audience has always been integral to much of the content. As a style, it is decades old, but it still appears to work. Making you feel part of the show is important. Making you feel like a friend is, surely, a gift.

Perhaps something about Radio 2 in the 1970s remains underappreciated because the flares distracted us. A generation of broadcasters deeply integrated audience participation into their shows long before anybody knew what they were doing. While all radio uses input from listeners, very few shows are built around it. I wonder if radio should look backwards to understand its value because, in the rush to work out what a digital future means for it, I sometimes think it’s losing sight of how powerful a medium it really is. Surely, if Sir Terry and his 8 million TOGs are to leave a legacy, it should be to remind us of the power of the audience contribution when making unmissable radio.

Thank you for being a friend. Indeed.

Update: 22 December
Celebrity broadcasters pay tribute to Sir Terry Wogan | Terry Wogan signs off from Radio 2 breakfast with a crack in the voice

End of a radio era

For almost thirty years, the JY Prog has been a ratings winner. Lunchtime ratings of five million are no small feat. And today, as he bid the Radio 2 airwaves farewell, I listened.

Broadcast radio is a big passion of mine, and there is an event that happened today that can not pass without comment. Sir Jimmy Young presented his last show on BBC Radio 2 this morning, bringing to an end twenty-nine (or so) years on the air. There is much discussion as to the reasons behind his departure (here and here), but I don’t want to go into them. It also doesn’t really matter that I have rarely listened to his show. I am usually in the office, where we don’t listen to the radio (except today, as I am on my own), or, if I am elsewhere, I prefer other stations. I do, however, think there are a couple of things worth commenting on.

Firstly, for almost thirty years, the JY Prog has been a ratings winner. Lunchtime ratings of five million should not be sniffed at. Jimmy Young has managed to stay at the top of his profession longer than many. In this celebrity-obsessed, five-minute-fame world, Jimmy Young’s achievement deserves recognition (his Knighthood at the start of the year is a testament to his appeal). Where presenters rarely last three years, JY lasted almost three decades.

Secondly, in my view, Jimmy Young’s show has been a great contribution to broadcasting and has always been an interactive experience. There has always been audience involvement and comment long before talk shows, shock-jocks, email and message boards were around (or even thought of). It’s something we shouldn’t forget, and I believe it has contributed greatly to broadcasting.

Thirdly, his style may not be to everyone’s taste, but Jimmy Young has been able to interview some of the top politicians of the day and get them to answer questions without the need to resort to aggressive interview tactics. He was able to ask the questions many people would like to ask Prime Ministers directly. In an era when politicians (and politics) have been reduced to sound bites, this is also an achievement worth noting.

Finally, the way in which he has left the network has been sad. It was leaked 18 months ago that Radio 2 were talking to others about taking over the show? In itself, that is not unreasonable for the network controller. For it to become a public affair (with questions in the House of Commons) is quite the opposite.

As BBC News has said, it’s a sad end to a remarkable career. Just don’t mention his recording career!