History of Radio Stoke

By the time Radio Stoke on Trent got on air at 5pm on Thursday 14th March 1968 we had had plenty of time to prepare - thanks to foot and mouth disease.
The epidemic had closed access to the field where our radio mast was being erected and put our opening back at least a couple of months, in which time we’d rehearsed more than enough.

Rehearsals didn't always go smoothly however. At 6am one early morning we found ourselves without a key outside our studios. Desperate measures were called for and our charismatic Programme Organiser, John Cordeaux smashed through the glass door to make sure the latest rehearsal went ahead.
To this day I don’t know if it was true that he had a key in pocket the whole time and was just making the point that the show had to go on at any cost!

Opening day

Our guest of honour on opening day was John Snagge who’d cut his broadcasting teeth on the short-lived 1920s BBC regional station 6ST and it was his voice that launched a new era of local broadcasting in the Potteries with the memorable and Cordeaux-inspired comment: “This is BBC Radio Stoke on Trent. We must apologise to listeners for the break in transmission which occurred at 12 o'clock midnight, on October 30th 1928. This was due to circumstances beyond our control. Normal transmission has now been resumed”.

There followed an eclectic mix of programming: interviews with the Lord Mayor and John Snagge, the local news or as we called it the “Home News”, the pop show “Take One” and the evening new magazine “Potteries Roundabout” which I studio produced.

I then did a couple of continuity announcements introducing a local choir and the business programme, “Enterprise 68” before my first ever 30 minute feature “6 ST Calling” (over which I had sweated blood) was broadcast.
I then chaired a gentle discussion with John Snagge reminiscing about the station with old friends and colleagues.

End of an historic day

That evening there was a civic reception in Stoke Town Hall for the whole Stoke BBC team but I could not stay there long as I had to head back to the studios to prepare for the breakfast show the following day - and thence back to my freezing flat in Burslem to snatch a few hours sleep, taking care to leave my untrustworthy Morris Minor on a slope in case the starter failed. It didn't.

A couple of self-op 'idents' and news summaries in and out of Radio 2 started the day, but at 7.10 I faded down the signature-tune and announced “Welcome to the Clock On Club”, in rhythm with the jaunty tune, and launched into a self-op show that mixed music, local news, weather what’s on and the family doctor slot.

The station was well and truly on the air and it has not stopped broadcasting since.

Just a beginning...

My memories are that, once it started, we were on a never-ending roller-coaster.

We were jacks of all trades, one day doing a request show, the next being responsible for the news output, the next producing one of the main magazine programmes and somewhere in between finding time to train local talent to put together specialised shows.

In these early days my specialist shows ranged from the incompatible “Farm and Garden” and “Esperanto Club” (the highlight of which was the soap opera “The Esperanto Family Robinson", recorded on an apple and biscuit mike into an old Ferrograph by local Esperantists who spoke the international language with a distinct Potteries twang).

Those early days were as exhilarating as they were exhausting and friendships were forged there which remain to this day.

Here's to forty years more!

OB