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Global Radio axes all regional/local breakfast shows

(February 2019)

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LL
London Lite Founding member

Ah, forgive me, I had London Talkback Radio (the LBC AM station) and London Newstalk (the London News Radio station) mixed up. Bit of a confusing few years on those frequencies...

Yes it must win the award for most names for essentially the same station. FM went:
LBC, Crown FM, LBC Newstalk, London News 97.3, News 97.3, News Direct 97.3, ITN News Direct, LBC 97.3 and now just LBC

MW had fewer: LBC, London Talkback Radio, London Newstalk 1152, Newstalk 1152, LBC 1152, LBC News 1152



I know far too much about LBC.... Confused




Didn't LBC even have sung jingles at one point in the even-later 1990s, or is my mind really playing tricks on me?


No, they use a remixed Jeff Wayne theme from 96-02 which a male voiceover. The same guy who did them for the GWR stations in the 90s.

LBC News 1152 rebranded as LBC London News in 2017.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Jon posted:
Bauer have already purchased the former UTV/Wireless Group (along with Celedor, UKRD, Lincs FM etc) albeit pending an enquiry from the competition authorities.

It was EMAP (Bauer) who acquired Hallam and Viking hence why they are not Heart, Capital or Smooth now.

Apologies you're quite right, it was the Bradford version of GWR's incarnation of Classic Gold that made me think Global were part of the story.
LL
London Lite Founding member
Jon posted:
Bauer have already purchased the former UTV/Wireless Group (along with Celedor, UKRD, Lincs FM etc) albeit pending an enquiry from the competition authorities.

It was EMAP (Bauer) who acquired Hallam and Viking hence why they are not Heart, Capital or Smooth now.

Apologies you're quite right, it was the Bradford version of GWR's incarnation of Classic Gold that made me think Global were part of the story.


From what I recall, GWR never owned the Bradford ILR AM licence, they had Classic Gold under franchise and then took Gold as Pulse Gold if I recall, then took it in-house as Pulse 2.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Yes it was more GWR providing content.

Prior to that there was an emergency service just called "1278&1530 AM" after management in Bradford pulled the plug on the network programming after it started trailing the relaunch as Magic which not only didn't apply in West Yorkshire but was plugging their main competition.
IS
Inspector Sands



Didn't LBC even have sung jingles at one point in the even-later 1990s, or is my mind really playing tricks on me?


No, they use a remixed Jeff Wayne theme from 96-02 which a male voiceover. The same guy who did them for the GWR stations in the 90s.

Yep, here's the (re)launch of LBC 1152 in 1996 with the remixed Jeff Wayne theme

(also includes the outgoing theme and a nice montage of news events from 1973-1996, the new station starts at about 15:30)
NT
Night Thoughts

Yep, here's the (re)launch of LBC 1152 in 1996 with the remixed Jeff Wayne theme

(also includes the outgoing theme and a nice montage of news events from 1973-1996, the new station starts at about 15:30)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-YMirTHMmg


Cor - I remember hearing that go out, and thinking "get on with it!"

"London's got its voice back," eh? Very different days.
LL
London Lite Founding member
Some interesting things about the 1152 period of LBC.

Nick Ferrari joined, presenting 9-12 initially, then moved to Breakfast, he kept his slot when Chrysalis acquired the station and carried on when the station moved to FM.

Anne Diamond and Tommy Boyd presented breakfast at one point, I seem to recall that Anne would leave at 9 and Tommy would do a phone-in slot for the final hour with a freeform format. Simon Bates also presented breakfast as well.

James O'Brien presented the last show on LBC 1152. In those days, he did a news style format, not the opinion led phone-in he crafted on FM later in his career.

With ITN a partner in the station, this allowed them to put on Julia Somerville who presented afternoons. I think this was Charles Golding's slot and she took over when he left.

Steve Allen presented lunchtimes with an arts and culture slot. He was also on 1152 during 9/11 providing coverage of the attacks.

Douglas Cameron read the news during breakfast and mid-mornings. This was the last station he read the news on weekdays. When Chrysalis did the flip, he stayed with 1152 to read news on weekends as part of the rolling news format.
Night Thoughts and Inspector Sands gave kudos
IS
Inspector Sands

Cor - I remember hearing that go out, and thinking "get on with it!"

It's a very GWR style bit of production that. Listening to it you can't help thinking how much is missing from the montage, then you remember that it's 1996 and that's a long time ago now.

Quote:

"London's got its voice back," eh? Very different days.

Notice from the clip of the launch of Newstalk 1152 from a few years earlier that their slogan was 'original talk radio', presumably a dig at the other Talk Radio that had recently launched.


They almost didn't get to use the name LBC again. When Mohammad Al Fayed bought the ailing MW station Viva he came up with the name Liberty Broadcasting Company and there was a bit of a trademark tussle which he lost, and it became Liberty Radio instead. The station and name is still going, albeit online and owned by a religious cult
Night Thoughts and London Lite gave kudos
IS
Inspector Sands

Steve Allen presented lunchtimes with an arts and culture slot. He was also on 1152 during 9/11 providing coverage of the attacks.

Steve Allen and Global recently celebrated his 40 anniversary with the station, brushing over the fact that he was got rid of when the license changed. He was due to go to the new Viva radio and even appeared on heir test transmissions but didn't appear at launch. When he returned to LBC was for just a showbiz panel show thing on Saturdays. He then got some cover slots on MW and ended up back in the schedule full time

Quote:
Douglas Cameron read the news during breakfast and mid-mornings. This was the last station he read the news on weekdays. When Chrysalis did the flip, he stayed with 1152 to read news on weekends as part of the rolling news format.

Largely forgotten now but he was Mr LBC for years. Familiar outside London too as his bulletins in the mornings were on IRN too
Night Thoughts and London Lite gave kudos
LL
London Lite Founding member
One thing I also forgot was that the move to GiN reunited LBC with IRN as ITN had the contract to provide the news service in those days too. I think it was when LBC moved to Hammersmith under Crown Communications that IRN split?

Going back to Douglas Cameron, I seem to remember he did breakfast on London Talkback, but not sure where he went to on London Newstalk during the Reuters era? I know he read the news during breakfast for Brian Hayes initially.
IS
Inspector Sands

Going back to Douglas Cameron, I seem to remember he did breakfast on London Talkback, but not sure where he went to on London Newstalk during the Reuters era? I know he read the news during breakfast for Brian Hayes initially.

Yes, he did breakfast, then Pete Murray, Steve Allen, then Mike Dickin. Good line up that, and it beat the higher profile FM station in the ratings.

I think he did go from having his own show to newsreader, possibly for the whole morning. He was the first voice on the new LBC as heard above
NT
Night Thoughts

Cor - I remember hearing that go out, and thinking "get on with it!"

It's a very GWR style bit of production that. Listening to it you can't help thinking how much is missing from the montage, then you remember that it's 1996 and that's a long time ago now.



Robbie Vincent "We'll be hearing things that have happened over the past 23 years"... on a 23-year-old clip! Shocked Shocked

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