Radio Days

-OVER RADIO:

-'Good morning and welcome

'to Radio Ulster's consumer programme, On Your Behalf.'

I love radio.

It's my lifeline, my oxygen, as I often tell them.

I'd be dead if it wasn't for radio.

'Live from the BBC, the biggest radio show in the country.'

-DOG BARKS AND GROWLS

-'Nolan is on air.'

It's my lifeblood too, because when I get up in the morning,

I like to know what's going on in this province

and what's affecting people's lives

and that's why it's very important that we do have Radio Ulster.

-CHUCKLING:

-'He's some boy, isn't he?'

'That's our William.'

There's days when I have been feeling depressed and down

and when I turn Hugo on...

..he just makes my day.

Sparky?

-'It's nice to be back again...'

-Sparky?

Oh, I love the radio, it's part of my life.

Sparky?

As soon as I come down in the morning, the radio is on.

It was still on when you came today there.

'Thank you, Stephen. Good morning!'

I suppose you could say Radio Ulster's an old friend.

-JINGLE:

-# Radio Ul-ster! #

BELL RINGS

'This is BBC Radio Ulster

'on 224 metres medium wave.

'A new year, a new radio service.'

-CAROL-STYLE SINGING:

-# These are just a few of the programmes... #

BBC Radio Ulster has been transmitting into the homes

of Northern Ireland for 40 years.

Evolving from BBC Radio 4's home service,

its first broadcast was at midnight on 1st January 1975

and, of course, it's been part of our lives ever since.

The first presenter's voice ever heard on Radio Ulster

was John Bennett.

'Well, the first foot, they say, has to be tall,

'he's got to be dark and he's got to be handsome

'and I'm afraid I only hit one of those three counts

'and there's just no way I'm going to tell you which one.

'Nevertheless, let me welcome you to Radio Ulster and First Foot.'

Yeah, that's it.

Straight away today, the first request is from Mrs Ruth Craven,

so I hope you're having a very happy birthday, Ruth,

and for you, I've got a record which was number one till very recently,

The Rubettes with Sugar Baby Love.

Walter Love has also been part of the station's story

from the very beginning.

It's very strange in a way, broadcasting,

because very often, you're sitting in a room on your own,

in a sense talking to yourself,

but you're not talking to yourself,

you're talking to an awful lot of people

and yet, of course, the basis of radio very often is one to one.

..letters, but poems and stories and drawings.

'You'd be talking to somebody driving in a car

'or making a cup of tea in the kitchen.'

Older people who live on their own

and the radio is a very, very important element of their lives

and they develop a very strong relationship with the people

whose voices they listen to.

'It's half past six. Good morning and welcome to...'

Feeding time for the fish.

The legion of loyal fans has played a big part

of the station's success story.

JINGLE PLAYS

I'd be up maybe half five in the morning

and as soon as I get up, I put the radio on.

'We're taking your calls on...'

If I'm in the car, I have Radio Ulster on all the time, so I do,

so when I'm not listening till it in the home,

if I'm going out shopping, no matter where I'm going,

I get Radio Ulster all day.

"Dear Wendy, how are you?

"I'm glad you didn't have to read any bad news today..."

Wendy Austin joined the Radio Ulster family in 1976.

I love it, I love radio.

There's something very personal about radio.

If I'm at home,

I have the radio on all the time, it drives my husband nuts,

but it's like having a friend in the house

and I think that that's what Radio Ulster is to the people who listen.

It's like having a friend there.

"My mum caught Sarah drawing a jumper on a picture of a lady

"with no clothes on in our TV room."

'So if all they do is shout at the radio the odd time

when we annoy them, or laugh when we maybe make them laugh,

that's something I get a great deal of pleasure out of.

My T-shirt, I think somebody bought me it.

It was either for a Christmas or birthday present, I'm not sure.

People are so kind and so good, they give me so many gifts.

Not being able to read books, papers, magazines

or any suchlike,

Radio Ulster keeps me up to date.

'This is Talkback...'

'Radio Ulster has such a close,

'intimate relationship with its audience.

'If you think about how some of the callers talk to people like me,'

that is a sign of how close the relationship is.

They shout at you and they insult you and they befriend you

and they laugh with you and they cry with you

as if they've been living with you.

You'd never find me defacing a fellow's picture in that way.

I know for a fact...

'BBC Radio Ulster to me is not a radio station as such.

'It's a sort of a whole community spirit.'

I always maintain that we're just a big community radio.

MUSIC: Good Golly, Miss Molly by Little Richard

'It has become part of my sort of daytime routine.

'There are still elements in it that I find worthwhile

'and that I will respond to.

'In the daytime when you're up and about, you're doing things,

'you can carry on with what you're doing

'and listen to the radio.'

It's company...

..for want of a better word.

Radio Ulster, for me,

is company during the daytime.

I admire Gerry Kelly for many reasons.

Any man who let Finbar Furey into his house amongst his family

must be admired.

'A very great part of its success

'is that it's lots of different things to lots of different people.'

It's a like a good magazine.

You'll find elements of everything

that you might want to know about

and you can cherry-pick -

excuse the pun - if you want.

People do have their favourite, of course they do.

'Hugo Duncan on BBC Radio Ulster.'

-JINGLE:

-# Skiddly-aye-aye-aye-aye... #

'We're also starting our first ever co-presenters.

'I've got the fine lady before me here

'and, Jean Champion, how are you doing?'

'Doing all right, Hugo.'

-'That oul smile of yours is still working?'

-'Still working.'

I phone in every day.

Very rarely do I miss it,

unless I'm away baby-sitting

or just something has happened, you know?

I've been on the phone this 20 years.

'I must say, that was a breath of fresh air!'

Different ones will say to me, "You were on Uncle Hugo today"

and I say, "Aye, mentioned me today", so I do that.

So a lot of places I go, people hear me giving my name -

say I was at the doctor's and the name comes up -

they say, "Oh, you're Jean Champion.

"We know you from Uncle Hugo's programme."

Everybody knows Hugo, no matter where you go.

Many of the BBC's household names began in Radio Ulster.

'15 seconds, studio eight.'

Gloria Hunniford was the first person

to do a magazine programme on radio here,

a programme called A Taste Of Honey.

In Belfast, this is Gloria Hunniford.

Gloria was supreme in that.

It was really the start of her major career.

Well, this is Walter Love...

Walter Love has enjoyed 40 years

as one of Radio Ulster's most loved presenters.

'Anybody can come in and make an impact

'over two months and disappear again'

and Walter Love has survived and prospered

for many, many decades.

40 years on air?

That is an incredible achievement.

Many will fondly remember Barry Cowan, who sadly died in 2004.

..Enoch Powell, a long-time defender of...

'He was great fun, he was really mischievous.

'Like a wee elf, sometimes.'

Very focused.

Never didn't ask the right question.

This is Talkback.

And the late David Dunseith steered Talkback through many dark days.

Between now and one o'clock, battling over peace -

why Unionists are accused of Mickey Mouse politics.

'I remember on the first day,

'he came in and sat in the seat that Seamus normally sat in.'

I can remember thinking,

"It'll be interesting if he does that on the day when Seamus is here,

"because that's the seat that he likes!"

There are those people who think Hugo is a class act.

-Well...

-These days, we can listen to Radio Ulster in a variety of ways

at whatever time suits.

'Good morning, housewives - and ladies.'

COCKEREL CROWS

But this wasn't always the case.

Well, I was in London from 1973 to '88.

God's in his heaven, Elizabeth's on the throne

and the dole will open in two hours, so get up, get at it.

The way we used to get it was in cassettes sent from home.

If friends came round for a drink on a Saturday or whatever,

instead of putting on music for entertainment,

you'd play a Gerry Anderson show.

The late Mr Gerry Anderson was much more than an entertainer.

Now, he could get stuff sorted for his fans.

My Harry's dead 25 years.

7th April 1992.

Do you know how I remember? He died at the beginning of the tax year.

He did everything right.

He was dead a couple of years

and I moved over to his side of the bed

and the springs started coming up through

and it was starting to get dilapidated-looking.

My arm's just not long enough.

'Then everything went metric.

'So my bed was a six foot by four foot'

and I couldn't get a mattress anywhere,

couldn't get a mattress anywhere.

I says to myself, "I'll try and phone in, cos Gerry's good

"at getting things,"

and I told him what happened to the bed,

that the springs were coming up

and I'd had it for 50 years. He says, "50 years?!

"Sure, they only last about 10 or 12 years."

I says, "Aye, but mine never got any abuse."

I says, "My husband was on the night shift and I was on the day shift."

And Gerry, he says, "Ohhhh...

"No hanky-panky?"

"No."

He says, "We'll have to see if we can get you one.

"Maybe there's someone out there can maybe get a six by four,

"the old-fashioned."

Must be springs in it somewhere.

But Harry never got the use of it.

He would have liked it too, because it's nice and soft

and comfortable, you can feel it - no springs will come up in it.

Mm-hm. But there we are now.

'She twisted her ankle, one night up by Shankill

'And said, "Holy Jaysus, I'll never get home."'

That's Crawford Howard.

-COUNTRY MUSIC PLAYS

-And here's the intro -

this is the intro that Anderson had at the time with the rooster.

The thing about it was that came across and my mate was saying to me

was that it felt that this was more of a people's...

..show, that there was more interest in getting the people involved,

contributing their experiences, their stories,

their idea of entertainment,

rather than being something that was coming from the top down,

that this is what the broadcasting people thought was good for you, OK?

It was more led - that's the word I'm looking for -

it was more people-led.

-ALL SING:

-# Cos I'm not made of wood

# And I don't have a wooden heart. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Some of the antics he came out with, you could roar your leg off.

He was so funny.

He didn't care what he said.

I care about the people in Northern Ireland.

Look at these people around you.

Look at these people, these are ordinary people.

-Well, except her.

-LAUGHTER

-'Morning, Gerry.'

-'Good morning, Stephen.'

'I heard that you were talking to Gloria Hunniford.'

Gerry and I got into quite a lot of trouble for our handovers.

But they also became legendary.

-'I'm getting sick of you.'

-'I bet you...'

'I'm getting sick of you picking at me.'

'I bet you said to her...'

'I'm getting sick of you trying to bring me down.'

I was in awe of him.

'Should I move to England? Would you ask her that?'

I was the boy and he's the master.

There is no-one who has ever or who will ever work in Radio Ulster

who is as talented as Gerry Anderson was.

Thank you. Would you be scared now

if you discovered there was life in other planets?

-Yeah, cos...

-Why would that be?

Cos they could come down and invade Earth.

Maybe they'd want to suck the blood out of our bodies.

-Would that be good?

-Yeah!

-It'd be great!

'I think he was absolutely unique.

'He was unique in that what he could do,'

he...

could find the best in people.

Gerry is missed, so he is.

But Sean's doing a great job, so he is, there now.

You have a letter there complaining about a winner.

'I like Sean, so I do, but him and Gerry were a great team

'when they were on air together.

'You'll never be able to replace Gerry Anderson, so you won't.'

Have you any plans for the New Year that you haven't announced yet?

HOURLY PIPS

'This is Noel Thompson with a special programme

'on what is surely the blackest day

'in Northern Ireland's long history of tragedy.

'26 people have been killed in the terrorist bomb attack in Omagh,

'one an 18-month-old baby.

'15 of those killed are women.'

One of the most difficult times that I ever broadcast

was on the Saturday night programme on Radio Ulster,

because it was actually the night of the Omagh bombing

and we went in initially to play music,

but the whole mind-set of Northern Ireland at that time,

it was full of sorrow and grief because of what happened

and it was just a very difficult time

and for an hour and a half,

I think all we did was cry for that hour and a half.

'We have had 17 patients altogether transferred

'from the hospital, both by air and ambulance...'

Radio Ulster was like a kind of hub that week

for people's feelings and views.

'But all I can say is my initial reaction was, it reminded me

'of a scene from a film, The Killing Fields.

-'People were running...'

-Just their sheer need to come on

and talk about either how they had been affected,

or how people that they knew had been affected,

or just what had happened and what they wanted to say about it

was...

It was absolutely amazing. Very humbling, actually.

'I was coming from the airport, I've been on my holidays.

-SIREN BLEEPS IN BACKGROUND

-'Went to the car, put on the radio,

'couldn't believe it when I heard that Omagh had been blown up

'and there were injuries,

'so literally, I just drove straight to Omagh...'

When you think of all the years

where there was nothing happening at Stormont

and Talkback and the phone-in programmes like Talkback

were like a kind of assembly.

There weren't that many other outlets

for people to get their views across,

so they rang in and told you what they thought.

JINGLE PLAYS

'Live from the BBC, the biggest radio show in the country,

'Nolan.'

Ho-ho! Stephen.

Sometimes, I could wring his neck.

'Norman in Bangor - morning, Norman.'

'Morning, Stephen. Stephen, I fully back the litter wardens.'

It's not always plain sailing whenever I phone in,

because there's some of them gang up on me.

'Jan in Ballygowan - morning, Jan.'

'Morning, Stephen. I never heard the like in all my life

'and I think Norman has went spare there this morning as well.'

Jan, she says she didn't like me.

I said, "Well, I didn't like you either." But sure,

that's what it's about, isn't it?

'Norman wants to take you on, Jan. Go ahead, Norman.'

-'Jan...'

-'I'm not worried about Norman...'

The Northern Irish public still continue to phone in

and vent their frustrations live on air to people like me.

'I'm not particularly worried what comes out of your mouth, Norman.

-'I hear you every day.'

-'Will you listen to what I'm saying?'

Maybe I'll grow on her, so I will.

Maybe she'll grow on me.

THEY ARGUE OVER ONE ANOTHER

'Don't you talk to me about anything now.

'Don't you dare talk to me about anything! I wouldn't listen to you.'

Sometimes I could feel like getting them by the throat.

You know that, sometimes when they say something or other

that I just didn't like.

ARGUING CONTINUES

But it's not all bitching, barking and back-biting.

Remember that it isn't all just about comical shouting and roaring.

There are many, many tears on this station.

People trust us on this station when they've lost loved ones,

when they're lonely, when they're suicidal,

when they need help

and it's an incredible privilege,

it seriously is a privilege,

for someone to pick up the phone and say,

"I'm trusting you with this part of my life."

The thing I like about Stephen - he's not always barging

and shouting at politicians and this and that.

There's an awful kind side to him, so there is,

going out to help people,

people that have just been robbed, one thing or another -

he's very good and he always seems to get to the bottom of the thing,

so he's just like Linda McAuley, so he is.

The stories, the listeners and this station runs through my blood.

I would be a much lesser person without it.

Good morning, how are you doing? Welcome along to...

The mother says he's just a big baby.

And I would believe that.

He's just a big baby.

I mean...

Well, I shouldn't say this here,

but what woman would take him, sure?

He can't... He can't...

do his own clothes or anything like that there.

I wouldn't like to take him on.

My wife would say, "You can't get you off that radio.

"You're more interested in that radio."

The nagging wife, as usual!

I just laugh it off, so I do.

Yo!

HUGO DUNCAN JINGLE PLAYS

-'BBC Radio Ulster, with Hugo Duncan.'

-Are you ready, folks?

I'm first on the go

for Hugo at half one.

Hello and welcome to...

Hugo? Oh, he's a geg. Aye, I listen to him all right.

Sometimes I feel like going round, slapping him!

On stage, Little Miss Dynamite!

Irene Bates - take her away, girl!

Hugo is a force of nature

and he's lost none of his passion.

SWING MUSIC PLAYS

The last day I was up in Fruithill, in the bowling club,

we had a man of 100 years of age

singing for us.

# Show me the way to go home... #

100! Listen!

# I'm tired and I want to go to bed... #

I talk to him on the radio - "Who loves ya, baby?"

"Uncle Hugo!"

# And it went through my head... #

Slow down!

Me Uncle Hugo - the wee man from Strabane.

"Ye will, ye will, ye will!"

'At that particular time,

'the BBC was getting a bit of stick in the New Year

'about BBC dumbing down,'

and probably they were hitting on me,

because I came in here, I wasn't BBC material,

I had no qualifications whatsoever

and I had no diction of any sort.

-MUSIC PLAYS

-Everybody singing, here we go!

# Enjoy yourself

# It's later than you think... #

He's brilliant, he's a great entertainer.

-And he's always so...

-Happy.

..happy and...

..always has time for everybody.

# So enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself

# It's later than you think... #

# Si, si, my signora

# Well, I thought he... #

Way!

# I think I gotta you! #

Whoo-woo-hoo-hee!

My husband, he died - we were in Cyprus

on holidays and he died there

in the airport in Cyprus, Paphos.

He died there and I never liked Christmas from then.

That's 20-odd years ago now, like.

-Do you like my...?

-Oooh!

But then Hugo brightened my life a wee bit

and I started listening to him, you know?

Then I started telling him about all my love stories and all,

then he's like, "I'll get you a boy!"

I don't want a boy, I want a man!

-Are you for me?

-I am!

I am!

'Down through the years, I built so many friendships' from people

I didn't even know before I started

and people I'd never met. I remember one man in particular, Rab Duncan,

who lived over in Pickering, Ontario.

He e-mailed in every day to the programme

and he took leukaemia

and he started to talk to us right through his illness

and he talked to us the day before he died

to Joe and myself and he just,

"My fingers are so sore and I can't go any further."

Joe and I never met the man in our lives, but we started crying.

He just was...

He was part of us, he was part of the family

and that's the way the programme is.

We've got so many people here in Northern Ireland that tune in

and they live on their own

and they're out there on their own and....

we like to think they're part of the family.

I'm on every day of the week with Hugo

and if I'm not on,

he'll say, "Joe, did Bertie ring in today?"

"Oh, yes." "Oh, that's all right," and everything.

He'll say, "I hope you're all right."

He always enquires about me every day.

My dog sends a Christmas card to his dog.

DOG SNORTS

It's a wee Lhasa and mine is a shih tzu,

then Hugo got a shih tzu as well,

but I think his daughter has it now, Suzanne has it.

They have a wee, er...

King Charles spaniel as well.

It's called Max.

So you're 70?

Yes, I'll be 70 in October...

'All I am is a mouthpiece in the centre.'

I'm the mouth at the microphone.

COUNTRY MUSIC PLAYS

'If I had my way, he'd be Sir Hugo Duncan.'

He's such a great guy.

A great man.

'Online, on digital and on FM and medium wave.'

'This is BBC Radio Ulster.'

'Ralph McLean on BBC Radio Ulster...'

'Saturdays with Gerry Kelly...'

'Sunday Sequence on BBC Radio Ulster...'

BBC Radio Ulster has been responsible for many iconic brands.

'Talkback with William Crawley on BBC Radio Ulster...'

Good Morning Ulster, Nolan, Evening Extra,

Gardeners' Corner, On Your Behalf,

Across The Line - now, it's been on air for 30 years.

That's my cue.

Well, as David Frost would say, hello, good evening and welcome.

You're listening to The Bottom Line.

I'm Mike Edgar, your host for the next hour and 15 minutes.

When I was first getting into music, when I was about 14 or 15,

I just idolised Mike Edgar and was THE regular listener.

And on tonight's show, Alison McClintock looks at the plight

of young homeless people in Northern Ireland...

Every night, eight to ten, you would tape Mike's show

if you weren't able to listen

and you'd listen to it on the bus the next day.

Hi, my name is Rigsy,

co-presenter of Across The Line on BBC Radio Ulster.

'It would have been an unforgivable sin'

for me to miss a moment of that show for about three years.

It's a great way to start the second hour of any radio show.

And this is Across The Line.

-'Good morning, Alan.'

-'Good morning, Stephen, how are you?'

And Radio Ulster continues to look to the future.

They're giving new talent a chance.

My dad used to own a butcher's shop in Randalstown years and years ago

and I remember some of my earliest memories

as listening to Radio Ulster, he had it on constantly

and if you touched the radio, he would have been raging

and if I'm completely honest, I didn't like it.

I used to try and turn it over every time my dad looked away

and put on music and he said to me, "One day you'll appreciate

"how good Radio Ulster is and you'll come to enjoy it too."

'Good morning and welcome to Radio Ulster's consumer programme,

'On Your Behalf.'

JINGLE PLAYS

Linda McAuley has been fighting the public's corner for 25 years

with On Your Behalf.

'So why are so many people unwilling to make the effort

'to put their plastic milk container into the right bin?

'People like Norman from Bangor...'

So she rung me up and asked me, would I like to do a show with her

on recycling?

She came down to my home.

My wife recycles, I know Stephen doesn't recycle.

We followed his milk carton

all the way through the recycling process till it got turned

into something that was useful.

They're like wee chips, wee plastic chips in the machine.

But when it's all processed

and it goes through all the washing and all,

it comes out the other end in plastic pipes

that the farmers use for drainage and all.

We went at one point to a farm

and we talked to a lady who was a dairy farmer

and I said, "I'm Linda McAuley, On Your Behalf, and this is Norman,

"who's a regular listener to Radio Ulster," and she says,

"Ooh, are you Norman from Bangor?"

He's known. Everybody knows Norman from Bangor.

Well, it shows the power of Radio Ulster

that I'm able to get through.

I remember my son, when he was living in Enniskillen,

and he worked down there for Marks & Spencer's,

and a fella used to deliver to it,

he says to my son,

"Is that your dad that's on the radio?"

William says, "Aye."

He says, "You know, he's the best person on that radio."

He says, "He should make..."

"He should make jumpers with 'Norman of Bangor' on them,

"so he should," he says to my son!

-JINGLE:

-# Radio Ul-ster! #

For the last 40 years,

the super-fans of Radio Ulster have been loyal...

Sparky?

..through the good times and the bad.

I tell you the truth - sometimes, when the programme's on there,

I tell Sparky to shut his mouth or I'll drown him!

I'll say to him, "If you don't shut your mouth,

"I'll put you in a bucket of water."

Is that right, Sparky?

Sparky?

I always says to my boys, "When the Lord goes to take me home,

"I want music in this house."

Music.

And I says, "Radio Ulster's got the music on."

I told Stephen Nolan,

once I'm not able to listen to BBC Radio Ulster,

the black limousine will be pulling up at the door.

I was really down on it, you know, and...

..I said, "Should I turn the radio on the day

"or should I not bother my head?"

I turned it on and then Hugo came on and...

He just lightens you up.

He brings you up again.

You're down, you're halfway down

and then you're up with Hugo whenever he starts.

My daughter died when she was 34 with cancer.

That was the lowest part of my life,

trying to get through that.

And the radio did help me, so it did.

I was able to put the radio on and listen to it

and take my mind away from...

what happened to my daughter.

Life throws you a few difficulties.

I lost my wife nearly five years ago

and being on my own now,

it's great to have radio,

it's great to have a focus, something to go in and do.

I enjoy it, I enjoy being at the microphone

and I enjoy the contact with the listeners and that keeps me going.