January, February and March 2004. The BBC is rocked by the Hutton Report whitewash and the government pushes top-up fees through by a whisker. Meanwhile in the charts Peter Andre has an unlikely comeback nestling alongside Michelle McManus and Britney Spears at the top of the charts. On TV I'm a Celebrity hooks Andre and Katie Price up, and on 2nd February a new company called "ITV plc" is formed.
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| Spring 2004 schedule (scan courtesy of Tim Bateson) |
I actually really enjoyed listening back this time (and for the first time didn't always cringe at my bits) so it's a bit of a monster selection. I say this every time but I forget how much fun it all was until I listen back to it all, so strap yourself in for 82 minutes of early noughties student radio. You'll hear the good, the bad and the ugly - sometimes in the same show.
00:00 URY returns for 2004 (11/01/04)
As I had the honour of putting the station back on air for the new year I decided to be exceptionally geeky even by my standards and lead up to the first news bulletin with a compilation of our jingles (yes, like Radio 1 used to do). Listen carefully for a) long-dead shows The Nerve and Spin It Or Bin It and b) a bizarre "piss in your pigeon hole" jingle which had otherwise been wisely binned off.
02:12 Early Breakfast with Jonathan Bufton (11/01/04)
This term started with a repeat of the previous term's schedule for a week whilst the new schedule was prepared, which meant my final Early Breakfast was the first show of the year - almost exactly a year after I started. I loved being on air at this time of day but living off campus in my second year had made it an earlier start with obviously darker and colder mornings than previously, and you can tell here I'm not exactly upset to be going. At the start I'm referencing a loop of speech-based Autumn 2003 highlights that had transmitted over the Christmas break for the first time instead of the transmitter being turned off. Look out for a topical gag at the end followed up nicely by IRN. Sadly (for me at least) this was my last solo show other than stand-in slots until the following October.
04:28 URY Breakfast with Jonathan, Tom and Adam (15/01/04)
Fun and games as my breakfast co-host baton is passed from Adam Bell to Tom Hughes. This morning we peruse Tom's "Stars of Soap" album and "Play Your Post Right" with some of URY's promo CDs (and place your bets now as to how on earth I'd heard of Easyworld). Shame Academy touches on Adam's singing, and Tom and I discuss the likelihood of London getting the 2012 Olympic Games. Mystic Bufton is spot on as ever.
09:48 The Classical Show (18/01/04)
Somewhat unusually for this period URY had a classical music show every Sunday afternoon. My housemate and co-presenter Michael Brothwell became a little obsessed with Peter and Tim, the two verbacious chaps who presented this, and later you can hear a bit of our weekly parody.
10:46 URY Evening Selection with Tim Bateson and Simon Taghioff (19/01/04)
URY long-floated "drivetime show without the driving" finally launched as the "Evening Selection" this term and this is the first edition. It ran 1800-2000 each night, but in a classic bit of committee compromise the daily news programme The Source remained at 1800. As we were obliged to play SBN's adverts at 18:02:00 each edition started with this two minute pre-recorded intro and that obligatory ad break, followed The Source (tonight with James Wickham and Tom Scott - that's if we can hear Studio 2). I've also included the "campus bar report" (yes really) so you can hear Adam telling us that funnily enough there weren't many people in the old Langwith bar at 7pm on a Monday night - but check out those bar prices! It appears the show ran under that clunky title until at least 2008, continuing today as URY:PM. There is no longer a campus bar report.
16:57 URY Top 20 with James Brookes (19/01/04)
James Brookes kicks off the first URY chart show of 2004.
17:42 The Nation's Favourite with Michael and Jonathan (20/01/04)
Michael also quit earlies this term and we decided to club together to do to get a daytime slot to do something new. We ended up doing lots of sketches and spoofs, many of which were centred around URY itself. We did it until we graduated in the summer of 2005, though later on we were a bit negative and off-message. It was a bit hit and miss at the start as we found our feet, but for a while it was the most creative and rewarding thing I did on the station and even had some actual listeners.
Unlike most of our shows we did a fair bit of preparation each week, spending the morning shouting ideas between our facing bedroom doors at home before heading onto campus to do the show at midday. This is from the first show as we take a trip to "The Quiet Place" to contemplate amongst the peaceful solitude. Notice Michael is yet to learn to shut up when I'm talking.
21:16 Lunch with James Gallagher (22/01/04)
Described during his barely audible handover with Verity Wilde as a cross between "Jeremy Vine, Breakfast with Frost and The Wright Stuff", JTG - now a hot shot science correspondent at BBC News - launched his new journalistic lunchtime show this term. I never heard Frost throw to Justin Timberlake after his intro, though. Listen out for some expert scheduling of the B&Q advert voiced by James himself and Tom Hughes being about as good at predictions as I am.
25:18 URY Breakfast with Jonathan and Tom (23/01/04)
Starting with something that was clearly a theme this term - gravity. As Tom reads the What's On guide, the Evening Selection mini disc falls noisily from the notice board to the floor. Then we compare the winners of Pop Idol 2 and Pop Idol 1, and after the news a triple bill of ads - Nightline (voiced by Kate Harries and an unknown chap), Battle of the Bands (voiced by Matt Wareham) and...whoops. The B&Q ad on the Mini Disc I was due to play had accidentally been replaced by a random audio clip and in not pre-fading more than the first couple of seconds, ended up being put to air.
Finally the first play of a track that was to become a monster hit and one of the defining sounds of my time at uni - Toxic by Britney. It was highly unusual to get a promo copy of a song like this, least of all 5 weeks before its release, so we gave the ridiculous PR guff on the CD slip case a big push. Unsurprisingly I changed my mind on the track itself before the term was out.
30:40 The Nation's Favourite (27/01/04, 03/02/04 & 10/02/04)
Play-and-record jingle fans, it's the full News In 2. Following complete silence from SBN at the top of the hour we do the news ourselves. Michael always knew how to push the envelope and that he does - firstly after a techie invasion, and then towards the end of a the show after relaying some station gossip (listen for the audible gasps in the studio).
In show 3 James Wickham gives us a shock, the Classical Boys enter the studio (just as another MiniDisc falls off the wall) and following an Aftershock advert I channel my inner Jay-Z with one of the entries.
The week after starts with a jolly little handover with Wickham in Langwith following the previous night's Battle of the Bands heat. Then our own take on James Brookes' long running feature Fascinating Facts (with another ad libbed fact when Michael mucks up the next track), and finally gravity and physical media are still not getting on well.
42:59 URY Breakfast with Jonathan and Tom (13/02/04)
Each week in The 11 O'Clock Tom we would indulge Mr Hughes - better known as host of The Big Cheese - with a chance to play an incredibly cheesy track of his choosing. This one was a particular stinker...
44:19 The Nation's Favourite (17/02/04 & 24/02/04)
Once we stopped talking all over each other Michael and I complemented each other quite well. He was a better presenter than me and far more spontaneous on air, and I did the bulk of the writing and pre-preparing features in advance. Here is our regular take on Radio 1's Newsbeat.
The following week's show starts with the culmination of "when MiniDiscs attack" as the entire rack collapses on the desk right at the start of the opening link. Now everything airs from hard drives it is easy to forget how much of an absolute tip radio studios could be if the previous show didn't tidy up properly.
Next up is our version of BBC Two's Great Britons called Great Bridges (yes, about the many bridges on York's campus), written by me and presented by Michael as Teflon Pillock (a name we were taken with when Paul Merton used it discussing Tecwen Whittock of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire coughing fame). This feature was recorded for Weekend Early Breakfast in the summer of 2003 and we gave it a lunchtime airing on The Nation's Favourite. Long term bridge-watchers will of course be aware that the description of the Langwith bridge was out of date by the time we repeated this, as health and safety got the better of the uni and railings were attached. Teflon was to become a regular stooge in our sketches.
Finally, BBC Radio Heslington takes to the air for the first time. From what I recall the porcelain frog incident was a genuine story from Michael's work experience at Radio York!
48:53 Kinki Indie with Owen Murphy (26/02/04)
Another URY long-runner from the Thursday night buildup to Toffs, here with Station Manager Owen sitting in.
50:42 URY Breakfast with Jonathan and Tom (27/02/04)
A bit of history here as URY introduces computer-based playout for the first time, initially for jingles only, and yours truly cocks it up massively. I recall this being used on-and-off as the system was refined and when I graduated in July 2005 MiniDiscs were still the default. It was extremely handy though in allowing you to play one wet jingle between two songs from MD and then another dry jingle in the intro to the second song from hard drive (yeah, check me out). Followed by a promo for Elections 2004 voiced by Angela Davidson. The mention of YSTV doesn't sound much but was a great leap forward in cooperation between the two societies at the time.
52:39 The Nation's Favourite (02/03/04)
More Great Bridges with Teflon Pillock. The Alcuin bridge (RIP) is a particular highlight here.
54:30 The Source at Six (03/03/04)
James Dickin talks up to the aforementioned 18:02:00 SBN ad break, but instead of a break gets the three pips immediately signalling to opt out again. I'm guessing this was a Studio 1 hot-seat-handover as it all goes a bit wrong when Richard Hubbert and Frank Arnold clearly aren't ready, so fill with one of the bizarre five years old "that was the 20th century" promos (which here imply URY News covered the Second World War) before starting again.
57:22 URY Breakfast with Jonathan and Tom (05/03/04)
I used to find the What's On Guide feature really really dull, so here I childishly try to liven it up using a sound effects CD I got in the Virgin Megastore sale in York. Then after the news (using a stolen 90s 1FM jingle) it's a National Missing Persons Helpline ad voiced by Simon Taghioff. Finally it's Tom's turn to push boundaries with his own version of Mysterious Girl.
1:01:30 The Big Cheese with Owen Murphy (08/03/04)
Owen appears to have been URY's supply teacher this term, here taking on Tom's usual berth of The Big Cheese. Unlike the rest of us Owen knew when to shut up and get on with it and despite this show being quite the opposite of his usual musical taste he holds the fort like an absolute pro - check out that talk up to Amy Grant!
1:02:18 Elections 2004 Hustings (11/03/04)
All I have of this year's election coverage is this clip of a candidate for Services Officer (who I have a hunch was elected) running through their ridiculous list of pledges. Spoiler alert: Your Shop didn't get a slush puppy machine. James Gallagher is your host.
1:04:45 URY Breakfast with Tom Hughes (12/03/04)
Student union election day itself was a huge day on campus, with the results announced in a big event in Derwent College that evening. I was producing YSTV's coverage in 2004 so ducked out of that morning's breakfast show, instead heading to Goodricke to begin the daunting job of transporting half of the station to the other end of campus on trolleys. As I stood in Your Shop listening on my Walkman I heard it suggested I was missing the show to have a lie in. URY was just round the corner, so I couldn't resist...
1:05:34 Midnight Messiah with Janos Bene (14/03/04)
A controversial edition of the show (which I downloaded after hearing the fallout) where Janos themed the show around masturbation and orgasm. Yep you read that correctly. Aural stimulation indeed. (Bad to the Bone? sorry...)
1:07:19 URY Breakfast with James Wickham (16/03/04)
We've all had mornings where you just want to give up and here our host does just that, all caught on my recording as we were on straight after with The Nation's Favourite. Matt Wareham and Matt Fullerton are left holding the baby.
1:10:10 The Nation's Favourite (16/03/04)
To add to this, the 5-months-away-from-going-bust sustaining service the Student Broadcast Network were visiting Heslington that morning and we'd been told to be on our best behaviour, so we pointed out all the things they definitely didn't do. Followed by our spoof promo for the Evening Selection.
1:11:54 URY Breakfast with Jonathan and Tom (19/03/04)
The last day of term and it's my turn to have an off day. I'd overslept and arrived half an hour late which hadn't got us off to the best of starts, but listening back I was clearly in a funny old mood. Here are the last few links starting with our medical slot and some more station gossip, then our rundown of the Top Ten and a refusal to play the number 1 now my opinion of Toxic had improved.
Finally a URY posse fills the studio as we awkwardly discuss if I was carrying on with the show next term. Tom and I had been something of an arranged marriage in being placed on breakfast together, and our natural styles (Tom upbeat and positive, me cynical and downbeat) didn't always gel as you can hear in these clips. That said, listening back has been a lot more enjoyable than I expected and there are some genuine laugh out loud moments, but as my degree was suffering it was probably the right decision to get a morning a week back. Fourteen years later it was a pleasure to welcome Tom onto my Alumni Takeover show to relive our memories of radio's most successful breakfast show (on Fridays, in Spring 2004, in the Heslington area).
Next time, FURB, it's the summer of 2004!
