Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
A huddle of WM presenters are joined by Dr Who’s Tardis.
Included are: second from the left, Pat de Whalley, next to Julie Mayer with Tony Wadsworth on the right. The photo also includes Pat’s sons, Andy and James.
This photo was taken outside the Radio WM studios on the ground floor of the Mailbox, when Julie and Tony showed Pat and family around the new studios.
Photo from Tony Wadsworth, no reproduction without permission.
Tony Wadsworth was the producer for Caribbean cook, Rustie Lee’s show on Radio WM. The show went out on Sunday afternoons. Rustie is pictured here with Shelia Harrod.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Lynn Cullimore: ‘Who could forget Rustie! I remember going into the studio and being invited to have some of the lovely food she had made. I was not even a member of the production, just someone who happened to walk in.’
Malcolm Hickman: ‘She also had a restaurant in Hurst Street. 4 of us went one night and spent a fortune on Caribbean cocktails, but had a fabulous night out.’
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
Today it is the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, the beginning of the end of WWII.
I remember the 50th Anniversary of D-Day in 1994. I was an assistant producer on Good Morning with Anne and Nick. The D-Day Anniversary was an important topic for Good Morning, and one that we wanted to cover with a live outside broadcast from Normandy. I think that we were going to borrow an existing BBC Events OB unit which was going to be covering some of the events later in the day. They initially said that that was going to be fine, and then decided a day or two before D-Day that they would be too busy to help us out, so we had to organise our own OB!
My job was to be the producer back in Birmingham, in case anything went wrong. We had a whole parallel script made up of links and short films, to go to, if the OB link went down. I think that Will Hanrahan was one of the standby presenters, and I can’t remember who else joined him on the sofa. I was ever so slightly terrified, as I had never produced a live show in the gallery before – but all was well, and the OB signal behaved itself, and I just sat in Gallery C, and followed the dummy running order and script I’d spent days perfecting, alongside the live OB.
Vanessa Jackson
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:
Sharon Fisher: ‘I remember! My first OB. Vidal Sassoon was being interviewed and I was busy doing specially printed red white and blue viewer response cards.’
Caroline Feldon: ‘My first OB was for Radio 3 at the Cheltenham Festival. A week or so of fab concerts at the Town Hall and Pittville Pump Room with legends such as Mark Decker, Tony Wass, Steve Portnoi and anyone remember Alan Ward?’
Paul Hunt: ‘Tom Horsfield and I were there in 1994 by Southsea castle looking out across the Solent with Tony Wadsworth and Julie Mayer to do a live OB for WM. We had a very early start to do our rig – once done we had some time to take in the immense scale of what we part of and what we were remembering. Tom then took some photos of the flotilla of ships including the Canberra, the QE2 and the George Washington aircraft carrier. The OB went without a hitch. As we de-rigged we discovered that Tom’s camera had been stolen from the OB van – which put a sad end to such a memorable event.’
Katie Wright: ‘I think you’re thinking of the Dunkirk anniversary Vanessa Jackson. We were on board HMS Alacrity, escorting the little ships across from Dover to Calais…. Phil Thickett was with me.. And Helena Taylor. My father was on the beaches and it was a real honour to remember him and all the others and the many who risked their own lives to rescue them. We had to get Alacrity to sail at a strange angle to keep ‘line of sight’ to our vehicle on the white cliffs, which would explain why you were on standby throughout. ‘
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
Presenter cards for Radio WM husband and wife duo, Tony Wadsworth and Julie Mayer, dating from the 1990s.
Tony and Julie presented the Breakfast show, and Drive. Tony was appointed Radio WM Programme Organiser in 1991, and joined the management team. The couple also presented the regional Late Show, which was shared by the nine midlands BBC Local Radio stations.
Thanks to Tony Wadsworth for sharing the cards.
