What I didn't realise until I started combing through my cassettes (which, other than a date, are largely unlabelled) was quite how much of the campus radio station I'd recorded upon my arrival in October 2002. I'm not really sure why either - I think I loved that not only did we have a student radio station, it could be received in our rooms on campus. I never quite understood the cynicism about student media from students - for me it was exciting to have this output made especially for us. Not everyone on it was up to Chris Moyles or Scott Mills standard (and that's putting it mildly), but that's what you'd expect from a station where anyone with a minimum level of technical expertise was able to "have a go". As you'll hear in this compilation there were plenty of rather good presenters, some of whom have made a career out of it. I just thought it sounded like great fun and after encouragement from my housemates, decided to have a go myself: you can read about my years as a fair-to-middling DJ here.
It was after YSTV's 50th birthday bash recently that I realised that whilst YSTV has 13 years (and counting) of programming online, there is next to nothing available for URY. In fact I'm guessing unless someone else pressed play and record, most of this compilation doesn't exist anywhere else. Hopefully these recordings might be interesting to those who weren't there as a snapshot of student radio fifteen years ago, and to those who were - and particularly those actually in it - as a real trip down memory lane. What's weird is how much I captured on tape of people I would later know quite well, and in some cases still do.
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| Autumn 2002 slightly dubious Freshers' Week publicity |
As Radio 1 Vintage proved, nothing can quite take you back to a point in the past than hearing the live radio of the period, and there's plenty here to root the output to the last few months of 2002, with talk of Fame Academy and other TV of the period, the SU president on York's dull imagine, hopes of a central bar and new campus (both of which would finally arrive at the end of the decade) and the Conservative Party chair telling her MPs to stop infighting...whatever happened to Theresa May? All that and the usual "music and chat" that the generic schedule billing listed.
A couple of disclaimers - every single clip is recorded in glorious mono on cassette, so adjust your sound quality expectations accordingly (although I quite like the nostalgic fuzzyness of AM). The exceptions are the jingles and ads, which I sneakily made a copy of when I started presenting the following term. This also means there's none of me - well, almost...
And yes, the Toffs ad is in there. Enjoy.
(If I've mis-remembered any of the names - it's been a while - or you've got any more info, let me know in the comments and I'll update it)
00:11 URY Top 20 with James Brookes: the first one of the term, and a plug for the URY welcome meeting for freshers a couple of days later that would persuade me to have a go myself (14/10/02)
02:51 The Source at 6 reports on Theresa May's attempts to change the image of "the nasty party". An open goal for jokes so I won't even bother... (07/10/02)
03:58 James Gallagher and Kimball Johnson with quite a unique link that has to be heard to be believed (12/10/02)
05:26 The Nerve with Rob Berry - which I recall was an arts magazine at 1830 after the news. Here we have the glamour of "Cinema Liaison Office" which I can't believe was an actual elected role, and the first appearance of many by James Wickham as he pretends to interview David Gray (07/10/02 and 23/10/02)
06:59 The Score - Saturday afternoon sports news, which was again anchored at this point by James Wickham, here slagging off IRN who'd been misbehaving (26/10/02)
08:47 The Lowther advert - voiced by Ed Mitson who doesn't seem to believe what he is saying. I love how it tails off the end with "down by the river" - find it yourself
09:19 James Gallagher again who seemed to like playing this song at the time (November 2002)
09:49 The Source at 6 with Brendan Beaton and (eventually) Verity Wilde. The opening theme of this show was great - as if The Day Today never happened. The three beeps at the start were the opt-out signal from the sustaining feed after their news and ads, which of course meant it was more like The Source at 6.03 (05/11/02)
10:40 The Lush Show with James Dickin - an actually quite good dance music show, even if AM wasn't the best place to listen to it (08/11/02)
11:28 URY Breakfast with Kate Harries - this was Sunday's breakfast show, which the following term I'd have the dubious honour of warming up for with Early Breakfast. Amazingly the Breakfast Show website of the period is still online (10/11/02)
12:30 Janos Bene - the closest thing URY had to a John Peel figure. Every link would be much like this... (13/10/02)
13:36 URY Breakfast with Adam Bell - Monday's breakfast show. A year later I'd not only co-present the programme but also live with the presenter (11/11/02)
14:48 Rook and Gaskill advert - it's that man Wickham again. Nice pub, but it wasn't close to campus as the ad claims...
15:31 Soldiers of Hell with Spencer Vale and someone else dissecting Fame Academy, Pop Idol and other talent show guff of the period (13/11/02)
18:14 The Source at 6 - SU president Tom Connor on York's dull image, something much discussed that year I seem to recall. Introduced by Verity Wilde again (22/11/02)
20:55 URY Breakfast with James Brookes - Saturday's breakfast show. Despite joining in 1997 James is still on the station today, seemingly because he does a good job and is a very nice man (23/11/02)
21:52 URY Gold - apparently the first edition too. James Wickham and Lee Beaumont launch a long-runner that would carry on even after I left York (25/11/02)
23:40 Kevin Bowman and James Scott talk through that night's TV. Kevin was in charge of YSTV at this point and told me every single caller they mentioned on their show was fictional, which is not at all surprising (09/12/02)
25:35 The Big Cheese with Tom Hughes - and a memorable guest appearance by Michael Brothwell. Michael and I lived in the same block on campus and he asked me to ring the studio to pose as a mad fan of his show, the results of which can be heard here. The three of us would live in the same house for our second and third years and I'd later present with both Michael (doing more of this sort of nonsense) and Tom (on the breakfast show), none of which we'd have predicted at this point in 2002 (10/12/02)
29:23 The Toffs nightclub ad (voiced by James Dickin) which I think all of us can recall word for word 15 years on as it aired for so long. Apparently this continued to run for a period after Toffs stopped paying URY to play it, as everyone was so used to putting it out.
29:57 The Source at 6 - the last edition of the year with the obligatory "and finally" story (13/12/02)
Coming soon....Spring 2003! (how did you guess?)
