Radio and TV - Memories and Favourites

Just been chatting with a dear friend about an old radio, sorry wireless show that I always enjoyed listening to. Friday Night is Music Night.

The odd thing about my parents was that until about the 80s they (and as a consequence, I) never listened to anything but radio 4 and BBC 1 + 2. To my regret we missed things like News Hudd Lines and were late to the Muppet Show.

I regularly listened to Roy Hudd in "The News Huddlines" and other programmes including Max Quordlepleen, the host at "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", brilliant!

In my early teens, I remember selling my train set to a friend of mum & dad whom worked at Suttons Bakery so that I could buy my first transistor radio. The most listened to program was the top 20 on Radio Luxemburg that was on from 11pm to midnight on a Sunday night. Had many a telling off to both turn it down or falling asleep while leaving it on. Next was the start up of Radio one. Later years (a lot of them) I only listen to the radio when in the car. Turned to Talk Sport after they sacked Ken Bruce. There are a couple of radios in the house, but with the invention of ALEXA, they never get used. I have Round the Horn on cassette tape, but nothing to play them on, and a loft full of 45's, LP's and CD's that are the same. Also somewhere in there are the VHS tapes. The only thing I watch on disc now are from my box set of Only Fools & Horses, Sometimes have a full day watching as many episodes in order that I can cram in !!!

I still buy DVDs but mainly because the series/films I want to watch are spread across different platforms.

Radio Luxemburg was fantastic and really expanded our experience, especially with American music. I remember reading in a bio of Rod Stewart that his career choice was a result of hours listening to Radio Luxemburg, very quietly in the small wee hours. Radio Caroline was a huge influence for rock music fans. I loved the film Pirate Radio, which gave some idea of the disorganized mayhem aboard the boat as they tried to avoid the UK authorities. We were newly married and living in E.Finchley, London we listened to Kenny and Cash early every morning before we went to work. They were so funny and irreverent - very different from the few D.J's we were used to.

We lived in Luxembourg for a couple of years in the late 1970's. Although I spoke a little french most of the locals spoke their local Luxembourgish so I found it difficult to speak to many people. I would pick the children up from school and chat to some if the mums in french but they would often resort to talking to other people in their own language. ( My 5 year older could often translate for me and most of the words I learnt were school things) One of The things that kept me going was that Radio Luxembourg did a local radio station in the afternoon in English so it was lovely to be able to listen to English for a while, I even did a couple of phone in questions and won a bottle of Champagne and a Daryl Hall and John Oats record ! I can't remember many of the names but I know Barrie Alldis would be on and Steve Wright who I believe is still going. Stuart Henry was also on but you could hear the deterioration in his voice as he struggled with MS.