Radio trent 301
papadontpreach
Posts: 303 Forum Member
✭
I thought i would start a thread on the Radio station resposible for me getting into the business, for anyone in a 30 mile radious of Nottingham in the Mid 70's will remember this great station, Slick and Professionally run it was the bees knees, so what are your memories and thoughts, it would be great if any staff would share there memories here.
On the station John Peters, Dale Winton, Peter Tait, Steve Mericke, David Lloyd, Colin Bower, Kenny Haige, Lee peck,
Len Groat, Kid Jenson, All based just off Slab Square at Castle Gate.
It was a life time dream for me to work at the station and after a couple of Interviews I got a letter asking me to contact them, Sadly a station in Devon pipped them to the post, and that was that, but for me it will remain the greatest station of its time, most of the crew including the loveable Ron Coles now reside close by at Saga, and any one that remembers the 301 days can still hear the musical influence of those days in Saga's music now.
Sadly Peter Tait passed away a few years ago, he was a real original personality especially off air, and a really nice Guy.
Dale Winton was doing 9-12 and was a massive personality
and had a lot of time for his listeners, I worked with him on the club circuit once and 6 months later he drove passed me
pipped and said hello, I thought how on earth did he remember me, I felt brilliant, he deserves his current fame.
I regret never being part of this station, but it has set me up for life in the Radio industry, so I have to salute the people on and off air from 1975 to 1994 just before GWR got it.
This is not a criticism of the people there after this time and today, I still believe the station is great, but lets not forget the great original sounds like you wanna hear jingle package, the Midnight Line, Chalky White, Guy Morris, Dave Maurice, Franklin Hughes, Tony Lynam........
well over to you what have i missed what can you share?.
On the station John Peters, Dale Winton, Peter Tait, Steve Mericke, David Lloyd, Colin Bower, Kenny Haige, Lee peck,
Len Groat, Kid Jenson, All based just off Slab Square at Castle Gate.
It was a life time dream for me to work at the station and after a couple of Interviews I got a letter asking me to contact them, Sadly a station in Devon pipped them to the post, and that was that, but for me it will remain the greatest station of its time, most of the crew including the loveable Ron Coles now reside close by at Saga, and any one that remembers the 301 days can still hear the musical influence of those days in Saga's music now.
Sadly Peter Tait passed away a few years ago, he was a real original personality especially off air, and a really nice Guy.
Dale Winton was doing 9-12 and was a massive personality
and had a lot of time for his listeners, I worked with him on the club circuit once and 6 months later he drove passed me
pipped and said hello, I thought how on earth did he remember me, I felt brilliant, he deserves his current fame.
I regret never being part of this station, but it has set me up for life in the Radio industry, so I have to salute the people on and off air from 1975 to 1994 just before GWR got it.
This is not a criticism of the people there after this time and today, I still believe the station is great, but lets not forget the great original sounds like you wanna hear jingle package, the Midnight Line, Chalky White, Guy Morris, Dave Maurice, Franklin Hughes, Tony Lynam........
well over to you what have i missed what can you share?.
0
Comments
Still got my 'I'm in Rob's Nightlife Gang' badge somewhere!
Wasn't there also ....'The Sun Shines Brighter on Radio Trent'
Now wheres that blue Trent T-shirt of mine with the music notes on it....might be a bad fit these days.
It was great, and some of that transferred onto Leicester Sound when it started after the collapse of Centre Radio.
Steve Merrike, Guy Morris, David Lloyd, Andy marriott, tony Lynam, Dale Winton, yes, I remember them all and others.
As i said on other threads, all from the days' when local radio had personality, and presenters' sounded individual and different, and yes great Jingles too! :rolleyes:
Great sound, great presenters, great music... I'll never forget the day things changed forever in the spring of 1994 :mad:
Does anyone remember Andy Miller and then Rob Wagstaff doing the Nightlife programme "The Penthouse Suite" springs to mind. (7.00 pm to 9.00 pm) circa 1986-1988, and then Talkback with presenters like John "Saga" Shaw, Anne-Marie "Classic FM" Minhall, Steve Merrike and others.
I have got one side of a TDK C90 tape that had the 11.00 pm Talkback hour (well 45 minutes actually), but it was recorded just before Christmas 1987 (nearly 19 years ago) that had a Christmas short story on it (read by Des Caffrey), some interesting local ads including ones for a local car company sung by children to the tune of Robin Hood, Maxwell House, P&O Ferries etc, the extended music that was used to play the short stories in full; John Shaw doing the phone-in part of the programme as well.
I used to think back then that Trent was the 1980s answer to what we would call now as a "chav" radio station but in hindsight my memories of it have mellowed a lot. Miller is now at Ram FM, isn't he?
Around the same time we had David "Kid" Jensen doing the Network Chart sponsored by Nescafe (you may remember that Jensen was Britain's most famous Nescafe drinker in 1986 in those ads back then). Ironically Jensen originally had an afternoon show there when Trent launched back in 1975 - they poached him from Radio Luxembourg. However BBC Radio 1 poached him from Trent instead.
Jeremy Beadle had his Brainbusters show on Sunday nights around the same time. Various radio stations also relayed the show, but some only took one or two hours of the show. Cue Beadle saying at the end of the first hour "Radio Broadland will leave us at the end of this hour". Luckily we got the full three hours just like LBC.
The ads back then were always for either window companies or brands of coffee. I remember the Heatseal windows one sung to the tune of "I Hear Thunder".
If you tuned into Saga 106.6 FM you will get a good majority of 1970s and 1980s Trent presenters there.
The sounds of this town
Spreading around sweet music
Trent is the place
301 is the space
Sounds like you want to hear
Sounds like you want to hear
Sounds like you want to hear (or was it just twice?)
3 Oh 1"
No - I dont remember it at all!!
First station listened to in Derby in 1985 on 96.2 from Nottingham - we didn't get our own Trent until 1987. A fine station it was too - from the East Midlands 24 hours a day so could react to local events. Networking from Nottingham was much more acceptable than the situation today.
Does anyone else remember interesting shows like the Television show with Andy Marriott on Sundays after the local Top 30 and before the Network Chart. Then there was also Richard Murdoch's Kick up the 80s on a Sunday night which was an essential listen in the early 90s. The sultry tones of Jenny Costello on Weekend brekkie. Happy Days eh!!
Sad it all went BADLY wrong when RAM came on in 94.
I remember Viking taking Brainbusters but-from memory-it didnt last long
I thought Andy Miller on 96.2 was excellent, also the American guy later on IIRC Franklyn Hughes (sp?). The 1980's was the era that I started listening to Radio Trent. Also the excellent GEM AM from 1988, by then on 945khz and that signal gets out over much of the East Midlands and into the north during daylight. Currenlty on number 5 on my car radio AM presets, well Classic Gold GEM is.
It takes me back to the early days of Radio Trent and its great to hear all those presenters again.
On Sunday mornings it is great to hear Steve Mericke on the Breakfast Show followed by David Lloyd. Also Jon Peters and Tony Lynham during the week, John Shaw late night at weekends. Even Andy Marriott and Len Groat have been know to turn up on occasions.
Ron Coles certainly knew what he was doing in Nottingham when SAGA was set up with all those ex Radio Trent presenters. Those of us who grew up with them can now enjoy them in our middle age.
I did read in the Sunday Times that SAGA were thinking of selling their radio stations. That could be a good thing if they continue the good work but ditch the SAGA name. I think its the name SAGA that puts lots of younger people off listening.
I think you're right Cookie - the Saga format is sufficiently loose for a new owner to rename the station and tweek the output so that it appeals more to the 30 plus set ie make it distinctive from the Heart and GCAP clone relays. The format says 2/3 of the music must be 20 years old or more which would mean the music from when Trent was great!!!
Having the old Trent lot on there certainly helps as they really know the area.
Never heard Danny myself when he was on Trent. Our paths crossed when he moved to head up SGR Colchester. As fate would have it, I was later to leave SGR and move to Trent myself. Danny's enduring passion and enthusiasm for Trent lives with me to this day.
Yes. Andy Marriott continued to be on Gem-Am doing programmes like Timewarp on Saturday nights in Autumn 1994 where he played various hits from a certain year in the 1960s and 1970s along with television themes and even ads, left over from his Television [sic] Show. Got three tapes of those - six different years. He also did Mellow Marrow (Marrow was his nickname of course). And he did Pure Nostalgia that was also done on BBC Radio Nottingham, music from the 1940s and 1950s, until Amanda Bowman took it over. I have to say that Marriott stood out from the other presenters like Lyman, Peters and Merrike who just played the music and talked inbetween tracks.
Marriott continued to do his Television Show on what used to be Century 106 on Sunday nights between 7.00 pm and 10.00 pm in early to mid 1999. Now I am not sure whether he still does, but he did the same programmes for Saga 106.6 on Bank Holiday Moindays until recently.
He used to have a website that had ads with his voiceover on, usually East Midlands based ads, as well as him reading out that lovely Clement Clarke Moore Christmas poem, "Twas the Night Before Christmas..." that Gem-Am usually put on air at 11.55 pm on Christmas Eve in the 1990s.
Following on from Hullboy's comment, I seem to remember that Jeremy Beadle did his Brainbusters in about 1987 and then for some reason he was sacked and some unknown called Dave West was on instead of him. It wasn't long before local programming on each radio station returned by 1988. As Beadle doesn't do much these days (he's not About as he was in the 1980s and 1990s) he would have made great radio if he came back to do that slot now. I know that he did the same slot for Talk Radio UK when it opened in 1995. His radio show always reminds me of that 1980s Sunday evening, watching Spitting Image, That's Life or Hale and Pace end, switching off the television and turning on the radio, almost forgetting that I had school the following day! We never had it so good in the 1980s!
Danny Cox is now at BBC Radio Oxford.
I remember him getting his teeth into Diana Ross once,in her song "Chain Reaction" there is a line that says "you made me tremble when your hands moved lower", and Andy played this few seconds repeatedly once saying it sounds like "you made me tremble when you had a motor mower" I thought this was hilarious at the time....
Where is he now??
Maybe Dave West?
Also worked at Capital in Euston tower.
Steve
It went something like: "it's fun fun fun at butlins and you get a discount with Trent FM".
Great station up until GWR murdered it, just like Beacon.
Steve
I listened to Andy Miller, The Music Jam, Colin Woolley, Danny Cox and Gary Terrza (he's a continuity announcer on Channel 4 now)
Bob Snyder? What a chap! The PC, IIRC, and did the odd swing shift.
I mailed Chris Baird recently to say thanks for his excellent work 30 years ago!
Geoff Cooper. Jon Peters (who still sounds the same!), Graham Knight. I thought Dale Winton sounded Australian! he was only three years older than me!
r
Jeff Cooper's tribute site.
He's still at Saga 106.6 in the East Midlands, I think, along with Jeff Cooper, one of the original Trent presenters.
Dave West, as I have said above, took over the Jeremy Beadle slot on Sunday evenings, I think.
Jusy goes to show the respect people have for the station.
I've heard from a friend of broadcasting friend stories that they were, as the HQ was built on the former Nottingham Childrens Hospital.
Andy Jackson
Boundary Sound