‘NOW THE NEWS FROM YOUR REGION’
I wonder how many people remember the VHF regional radio news bulletins that used to go out at 6.55 and 7.55 am every weekday from Pebble Mill during the 70s.They were read mainly by John Hogarth and also by Christopher Stagg, David Stevens, Terry Coates and Guy Thomas, if my memory serves me right- and it’s been 30 years!.They were written by a reluctant team of BBC journalists, including me, who got in before 6am and cobbled together a read of overnight stories(left by the late sub the previous evening) to give our limited, but growing, VHF audience the latest news from the West and East Midlands, together with a brief weather roundup. Sometimes a tape insert was included, from the likes of reporters Barney Bamford, Geoffrey Green and Kay Alexander. I seem to remember Sue Beardsmore may have been involved on the technical side.Then along came breakfast optouts, the continuing expansion of local radio, a separate East Midlands region based at Nottingham and waveband changes and the bulletin became superfluous and disappeared without any fanfare. David and Guy went on to television news and continuity but the others disappeared. How many are still with us?
Maurice Blisson
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hi.Very interesting but I’m sure my good friend and ex colleague the late Barry Lankester was among that worthy team of Midlands newsreaders. He went on to help the start of BBC Local Radio in the Midlands and it was my great plaeasure to work with him there for many years. he died a few months ago after a long illness but is lovingly remembered ,if for nothing else as ‘the voice of the Archers’.
Pete Simpkin
this post is very usefull thx!
I too was part of the VHF newsreading team in 1978/9 as part of my duties for the Midlands Presentation Dept. which was also responsible for the Midland TV news summaries.