We hope eventually to add many more of these items from the BBC local archive... so keep coming back to check...
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'Stan Matthews Funeral Day'
A 30-min documentary on BBC Radio Stoke (from 2000).
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
Recording of Stan Matthews' funeral service
A recording broadcast on BBC Radio Stoke (from 2000)
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'Madeley Pop Festival'
A 30-min radio report on BBC Radio Stoke in 1970s
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
Gawain and The Green Knight
BBC Radio Stoke broadcast this half-hour documentary about the mysterious Anglo-Saxon saga/poem 'Gawain & The Green Knight' in 1994.
The epic poem was written, it's said, by an anonymous monk from Leek, and features in its lines descriptions of the landscape of the Staffordshire Peak - including "Lud's Church". Produced and presented by Mark Stewart.
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
Pottersville
BBC Radio Stoke commissioned this half-hour drama-documentary programme about the great Potteries Emigration Scheme of the 1840s which was organised by the Potters' Union's William Evans. It was broadcast in 1995, with members of the Stoke Repertory Theatre company playing the parts, and with original music . Written, presented and produced by Lyndee Prickitt.
To hear this feature, click on the link on the right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
'Don't Go Down on New Year's Day'
In 1993, BBC Radio Stoke broadcast this half-hour documentary programme about the terrible Sneyd Pit Disaster of January 1st 1942, in which nearly sixty men and boys died. With testimony from survivors. Produced by Mark Stewart.
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
'A Titanic Recital'
This hour long programme of words and music remembers the maiden and fatal voyage of RMS Titanic in 1912. The songs and writings come from the era.
The programme, produced by Sue Booth in 1992, was researched and compiled by Richard Howells, based on an original idea by Ray Johnson, with musical director Bruce Haycock.
To hear the programme click on the link on the right-hand side of this page.
Iris Wright - Cat Woman!
This documentary about Iris Wright, then at the beginnings of her life-long efforts to save abandoned and feral cats in North Staffordshire, was broadcast in 1985. Produced and presented by Mark Stewart.
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
Mining History
In the 1970s, BBC Radio Stoke journalists, including John Getgood, Gordon Astley and Arthur Wood, did a lot of work collecting personal testimony pieces on the coal industry. The Staffordshire Past Track project has saved some of their pieces on its website.
To hear these features, click on the link on the right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
'On The Cut'
Arthur Wood's ten-part documentary series about life and work on the region's canals broadcast in 1985.
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
DJ Bizarro
One of the oddest characters of local radio history was 'DJ Bizarro' who featured on BBC Radio Stoke's 'Input 946' programme in the 1980s. The character was played as someone who researched rock 'n roll history, but whose style was odd in the extreme. You can hear five of his reports in this collection.
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
Education Opportunities
A 30-minute radio discussion on BBC Radio Stoke from 1974
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
Mining in Audley
A 15-minute radio discussion on BBC Radio Stoke from 1974
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
Pottery Jobs
A 30-minute radio programme on BBC Radio Stoke from 1973
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
Trainspotters
In 2007, as part of a special project called ‘Radio Nation’, BBC Stoke's Mick Tucker went to Crewe Station in search of ‘Trainspotters’. Made for a ‘cinema of the ears’ event held in North-West, this artistic piece aims to take the listener on a journey into sound, as well as tapping into the world of the ‘railway enthusiast’.
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
Leek History (four features)
Paul Stanworth, BBC Radio Stoke's Moorlands reporter at the time, produced this series of short features about the history of Leek in 2005.
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
Snippets from the 70s
Thanks very much to Owen Bentley, one of the Radio Stoke 'originals', who let us have his collection of short recordings he made of the output of the station in its early days in the 1970s. The sound is very old-fashioned to present-day ears, and even a little quaint, but it give a flavour of those early days of BBC local radio!
Owen's list included....
6ST Radio - an excerpt from the area's first ever BBC radio station - from way back in October 1928
Education Opportunities (1974 discussion)
Mining in Audley, radio discussion from 1974
Pottery Jobs, a radio programme from 1973
'Potteries Roundabout' programme
Pete Conway - the comedian/compere at Jollees Club tells a dialect joke
A radio story - A 'Petty' (outside toilet) collapses in the Backyard!
Song sung in Esperanto
John Abberley reports on a mixed footie match - the legendary reporter commentates on a match, while playing in it!
Review of the film "Girl on a Motorcyle" - resident film reviewer Ernest Beard condemns the film as "nymphomaniac " in intent
Works Chaplain calls for a strike in a radio discussion in the 1970s
'The Keele Experiment'
This hour-long 1971 documentary from the BBC Radio Stoke archives marked Keele University's 21st year, coming at the same time as the TV documentary 'Dream On The Hill'.
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
'6ST Calling'
This half-hour 1968 documentary from the BBC Radio Stoke archives remembered the 1920s, when the BBC first tried a local radio experiment in Stoke on Trent. The short-lived station only ran for a couple of years.
To hear this feature, click on the link on the top-right hand side of this page. (You will need Real Player installed to hear it.)
To hear these pieces, please click on the relevant link in the top right-hand corner of this page
