Mercia Sound

Surprised there's not been a thread, seeing that BBC C&W has one Mercia Sound History Website Brings back some memories

Oh yes, happy happy days of radio! Can't see Jeff Harris mentioned, who was my all time favourite, or Bernie Keith. Ted Elliott was hilarious - he did the Sunday morning show. Bernie Keith was on the Breakfast show and my sister and I were often writing in with funny comments, which he always read out. I was known as Jeff's No 1 Fan, and used to suggest at least half the music he played on his wonderful Lazy Sunday show and often sent him "funnies" to read out. When Jim Lee left to join what was BBC CWR they had their huge recording studios in The Quadrant and he very kindly gave me a guided tour. It was great meeting many of the newsreaders and presenters. Clive Skelhon of Mercia Sound, not mentioned on the previous link either, lived just up the road from me when I lived in Lythalls Lane. I once phoned Jeff to ask him what a particular song was that he had played, and the next morning he got Clive to post the vinyl 45rpm record through my door!

Hi all "If you wake up feeling ghastly, tune to Gordon Astley" was a jingle that I remember, followed by having to check our body parts. Two of everything on the outside & one of everything down the middle. He would then tap-dance at breakneck speed to what ever dance music record was being played. Them wert-days.

We had some good times with the people from Mercia Sound in the Hen & Chicks in the mid 80s.

I remember that too, Philip. It actually went something like: "Gordon, Gordon, will drive away your boredom. If you wake up feeling ghastly, tune to Gordon Astley." He was a bit full on for me as I was never a mornings person. I did listen to Dave Jamieson while I was out in the car working though. He had previously done the night shift at BRMB and seemed to have a better selection of music. I do remember Mercia Sound starting up around 1980, the first record they played was 'This is it' by Dan Hartman. Their studio was at Hertford Place where they took over a disused club, the old West End WMC. I'm not sure why it closed as it always seemed to be fairly lively, and they used to have quiz nights and host various football functions. Putting a radio station in there was a bit of a strange fit, as I recall. There were a few of us in Trading Standards who sometimes got roped in to answer the questions in their consumer phone-ins. It was all a bit rough and ready but seemed to go down well enough. I also used to enter their phone-in sports quizzes and had a few decent prizes from them, including tickets for Test matches at Edgbaston a couple of times.

Probably 'cos they appointed Stuart Linnell MBE, BA(Hons), HonMA as Managing Director.

I think Gordon Astley was my favourite DJ as I loved his sense of humour. He eventually moved on to TV and was in the final series of TISWAS, unfortunately I don't think his sense of humour worked that well on television and TISWAS was on its last legs anyway. All these stations ran on a very tight budget and I remember being interviewed in a crowded corridor for a project I was involved in at work. There was only time for one take and when I heard it on the radio you could hardly hear anything I said (not a bad thing some may say) In the weeks before they started transmitting officially they ran an endless tape of about four songs which I seem to remember included The Sorcerer's Apprentice and an extremely long live version of Popcorn

My husband and I once went to one of Mercia Sound's gigs, can't remember where it was held. Anyway, we decided we would go in fancy dress as it was a Christmas do. I was to go as Hiawatha and hubby as some sort of cowboy. My sister decided to borrow a nun's costume. We picked her up to take her to the gig but neglected to tell her that in the end we had changed our minds about the fancy dress, so the poor soul was about the only person wearing a fancy dress nun's outfit! She never forgave us for that!