BBC RADIO TEESSIDE

 

BBC Radio Teesside started life on New Year's Eve, 1970. This little painting was brought into reception by a listener which, eventually, found it's way into one of my scrapbooks.

Advertisements for the new radio station appeared in all local newspapers.

You can see here a series of articles which appeared in the Radio Times. If you click on each photograph, you can view the page in a larger size. The first photograph - a Radio Times article dated August 27th, 1970 with Radio Teesside Station Manager, Allan Shaw talking about Middlesbrough being 'his kind of town'. The second - a Radio Times feature, December 17/24th 1970 just before BBC Radio Teesside officially went on the air and, the third photo here, the programme schedule for the first day's broadcasting - December 31st, 1970 from 6.00pm until 1.00am and then closing down until 7.00am on New Year's Day, 1971 when Graeme Aldous presented the early morning news.

The faces behind the voices - "It might not be the most beautiful picture of the year," so the story said, "but you can't take photographs of voices - and it's voices not faces that count. "These are some of the broadcasters, engineers, technical assistants and secretaries who work together as a team to bring you the sound of BBC Radio Cleveland." The photograph, taken on the roof of the Cleveland Centre in Middlesbrough, in 1974, when BBC Radio Teesside changed its name to BBC Radio Cleveland. Some of the faces on this photograph are, in the back row, Keith Moxom, Ian Hindmarsh, Ernie Brown, Ken Boar, Stan Laundon, George Lambelle, Eric Sumner, Ian Judson, Margaret Heseltine or Jackie French and Tony Baynes. In the front is Jim Brady, Parkin Raine, Peter Hedley, Mike Hollingworth, Barbara Littler, Sandy Marshall, Ruth France, Trisha Wharton, Vanessa Gittings, John Watson and Graeme Aldous. Station Manager Allan Shaw is in the front. In 2007 BBC Radio Cleveland changed its name to BBC Tees! Photograph © Evening Gazette, Middlesbrough.

Nellie - BBC Radio Teesside's first cleaner. We all believe that Nellie deserves a special place on this site. She kept us all going in the mornings and was a wonderful, kind, caring lady. I was very fond of her.

BBC Staff at ICI Wilton: Iain Hindmarsh, Colin O'Keeffe, Jenny Colley, Juliette Greathead, Jim Latham, Dave Williams, Derek Hobson, Graeme Aldous and Joy Mason.

Graeme Aldous was with BBC Radio Teesside from the very beginning and produced and presented various programmes over the years including "Polished Brass." Graeme has retired from radio and lives on the North York Moors.

The Radio Teesside Girls -secretaries, receptionists and broadcasters - Linda Tutin, Barbara Littler, Juliette Greathead, Sabina Taylor, Noreen Moss and a name required please.

Ann Davies was kind enough to send us this old BBC Radio Cleveland magazine from December, 1978.

A publicity leaflet when BBC Radio Cleveland switched wavelengths from 194 to 1548 on the medium wave band. Phil White is with Colin Bunyan and Caroline Salt.

From the Ernie Brown collection - the front cover of a BBC Radio Cleveland Magazine, from the summer of 1987, with presenters Phil White, Stan Laundon, Ann Davis, Colin Bunyan and Keith Proud. The photograph was taken at Wynyard Hall just outside of Billingham. Not sure who the chauffeur is or who the Rolls Royce belongs to either!

A publicity photograph taken at Teesside International Airport underneath Concorde. We had to get special permission to get so close to the aircraft and walk out onto the runway. The picture shows Karen Partridge, Stewart McFarlane, Phil White, Stan Laundon, Ann Davies, Colin Bunyan, Keith Proud and Caroline Salt.

This photograph, by Ernie Brown, dates back to August 1979 and was taken at a BBC Radio Cleveland Sports Day, which was sponsored by a well-known cigarette manufacturer. It shows Barbara Jones, Keith Morton, Stan Laundon, Frank Birks, Barbara Everitt, Mark Waddington, Marion Birks, Nick Clarke and Chris Hodder.

This is another from the archives and I have no idea of the year in question. It could well have been taken at a Redcar Steel Gala or Teesside Show. It was titled 'Football Crazy' and shows, in football strips, Dave Picken, Stan Laundon, Mark Page and Jim Wilson. The referee is Pat Partridge.

George Lambelle with Middlesbrough Big Band - the leader, Derek Bridge, is in the centre right behind George and third from the left is a trumpet player called John. We don't recall his second name, but he went on to play with the Three Degrees Band.

Colin Bunyan, Stan Laundon and Stewart McFarlane handing out publicity stickers at Hartlepool Show, August 1980. Photograph by Ernie Brown.

Actor Peter Adamson, who played the part of Len Fairclough in "Coronation Street," on a visit to the BBC studios. This must be about 1980 because of the Candy Team Tyrrell F1 shirt I am wearing.

Mike Hollingworth presenting an outside broadcast for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, in Hartlepool Marina. Some years later - in the 1990's - listeners to the radio station raised enough money, through donations, to buy an inshore lifeboat for the Hartlepool station - called, coincidentally, BBC Radio Cleveland.

At an outside broadcast in the Cleveland Centre in Middlesbrough. Station Engineer, Ken Boar, is on the extreme left with Graeme Aldous, in the background, giving a salute of appreciation to my music - I hope!

BBC Radio Cleveland broadcasters Tony Baynes and Stan Laundon at a function organised by Sedgefield District Council.

This page is dedicated to the memory of Dave Eastwood, Ian Judson, Eric Sumner and John Watson.