Early Risers.

[tetsudofan]

Talk of Forces Radio reminds me of my time in Singapore between 1975 and 1976 at which time there were still some British Forces based in Singapore who had their own local radio station which broadcast daytime programmes.

 

Made use of the broadcasts to wake me up in the morning but one morning there was nothing but silence until some minutes later there was a rather exhausted announcer puffing and panting, "sorry folks, overslept this morning"

 

Keith

[chrisf]

2 minutes ago, tetsudofan said:

Talk of Forces Radio reminds me of my time in Singapore between 1975 and 1976 at which time there were still some British Forces based in Singapore who had their own local radio station which broadcast daytime programmes.

 

Made use of the broadcasts to wake me up in the morning but one morning there was nothing but silence until some minutes later there was a rather exhausted announcer puffing and panting, "sorry folks, overslept this morning"

 

Keith

 

It happened to the best.  Robert Dougall served for a while as an announcer on the Empire Service.  His autobiography relates that he overslept one night and flew through the corridors of Broadcasting House to tell the Empire how sorry he was.

 

Chris

[Gwiwer]

6 hours ago, Barry O said:

Semprini and his Serenade

Which was always opened with "Hello ..... Old one, young ones ..... Loved ones, neglected ones"

 

I might be showing my age now but it was father who ruled the roost and the radio (sorry - wireless) dial and determined that we would listen to Semprini Serenade, The Billy Cotton Band Show, The Clitheroe Kid, Round The Horne and The Navy Lark.  Mother was permitted an uninterrupted Woman's Hour and if no-one was visiting we were also obliged to visit Ambridge and The Archers.  Sometimes we had company meaning the wireless was (thankfully, so far as I was concerned) turned off.  

 

And as he said "I'm paying for it so I decide what we listen to".  

 

Ah.  Welcome to Fry Day.  A much better day in meteorological terms than yesterday.  However the railway was still hungover and floods were affecting numerous routes.  Including an impressive river where the Down Brighton Slow line usually is at the south end of the House of Fun.  The river had abated sufficiently that trains could resume by 08.00 though they still cannot reach the likes of Carshalton and Mitcham Junction where there is a severe excess of River Wandle.  

 

And so to the weekend which is already under way with a queue to get things through the sloshing machine, a pile of dishes awaiting purificatory eurhythmics and a Wait Rose to be visited.  The latter must be done today because the egg-chasers are back tomorrow.  As the establishment is located almost adjacent to the station and is surrounded by many of the favoured Houses of Falling-Down Water it is Notter Good Eye-deer to run the gauntlet of road-blocks and police lines to shop tomorrow.  I don't fancy arguing with 20,000 inebriated Welshmen either although if nothing else goes their way the CAN sing   

 

I'm off for a stroll in the sun.  First stop Garden Centre followed by Art Shop followed by that Rose which cannot Wait.  

 

Stay safe until I return.  

[Ian Abel]

POETS! Whilst I may somewhat POE, that'll be just to head to JFK, and it's more a POL as I'm on the late (7PM departure) again.

This means my POE will not really exist and I'll not make it home until the general area of 10PM give-or-take

 

Nothing startling to report (hah, it's ALL reports here really!!) from yesterday.

 

This weekend sees a welcome rest - though I'm sure there'll be some added items on a to-do list from the Mrs!

May get to do some hobby stuff, if I'm lucky.

Clocks go forward in the US this weekend, you only "lose" and hour of sleep if you're not sensible enough to change the clocks at bed time IMHO - personal preference of course.

Sunday the family have arranged/decided on a gathering to celebrate my birthday, not sure what's planned, but some useful consumption of liquid and solid goodies for sure.

 

<Editorial comment>

Even though we're in the market for a hybrid or EV, I REALLY REALLY WANT A CONVERTIBLE MUSTANG, there's something incredibly alluring listing to the growl from that 5.0 Liter V8 when you punch the throttle  Tsk, tsk...

<end>

 

3 and partly sunny driving in, not convertible weather  , expected to make 8 and rain starting about the time I head for JFK!

 

Tally ho.

Edited March 6, 2020 by Ian Abel

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, The Lurker said:

 

Mrs Lurker didn't get the same exposure and so does not get that sort of humour....

Aditi was brought up in a household where the radio was for news, weather and cricket. She seemed to have had a childhood/youth devoid of humorous radio and television. The only comedy she seemed to like was Dad’s Army.  However over many decades her sense of humour has blossomed. 
Tony

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Ian Abel said:

I REALLY REALLY WANT A CONVERTIBLE MUSTANG, there's something incredibly alluring listing to the growl from that 5.0 Liter V8 when you punch the throttle

Google maps suggests you could drive from New York City to your home in about 19 hours...

[Ian Abel]

8 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Google maps suggests you could drive from New York City to your home in about 19 hours...

Trust me - IF there was any problem with the flight tonight, I'd seriously consider it  

I've done the drive before, however that was in a 25ft moving van, we stopped overnight

 

EDIT: If I could get a refund on the airfare, excluding the time involved it'd probably be cheaper!

 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Ian Abel

[Gwiwer]

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

In the Midlands Radio Luxembourg was very prone to fading. When Caroline started my mother was convinced we would be arrested for listening to pirates and made us go away from the house to listen. 

 

Radio Luxembourg's fade was famous.  It always frustrated the enjoyment of material not always available on the BBC and got worse - to the point of making it almost impossible to tune into and listen - as the small hours went by.  Poor David "Kid" Jensen, who was on the 1-3am shift (UK time) must have felt hard done by given the number of listeners must have dropped right away by the time he presented his show.  

 

I am told the fade was caused by a combination of low transmitter power and atmospheric conditions.  

 

Then there was the "Under the Bedclothes Club" presented by a since-discredited DJ who later "Fixed It" for many a child.  Many a parent might have wondered exactly what their teenage offspring were about hiding transistor radios under the bedclothes and listening to a show so titled.  

 

If I had never listened to the pirate stations I might not have come to appreciate many a band nor learned the ways of life from the likes of John Peel until much later than I did.  

[J. S. Bach]

A rousing late good morning owl from a rather brisk but SUNNY! Piedmont. This morning was spent taking my trash to the "convenience center"*, having breakfast at KJ's, and doing laundry at the laundromat. What a morning. Now time to enjoy ER.

 

*why is it called a "convenience center" when I have to go there on my dime?

 

 

[Ian Abel]

Whoops...

forgot to comment on "pirate" radio stations!

 

Listened to Luxemburg for a long time, interestingly usually fairly clear, then Caroline, and London when they came on the air.

[chrisf]

Big L made much more of an impression on the teenage Chris than Caroline.  I was extremely lucky to visit the MV Galaxy, three and a half miles off Frinton, on Saturday 20th May 1967.  There I met among others Tony Blackburn, Ed Stewart and Keith Skues.  John Peel was on shore leave but I met him on a subsequent occasion.  Imagine British radio without them.

 

Chris

[Barry O]

Ey up!

12:46 am in Singapore. It is 28C and a tad humid....but the lounge..now clear of Italians who have boarded their flight, is a nice air conditioned area.

 

Landing at Changi far better than any that the skipping kangaroo airline managed. 

Time for a quick shower then get back on the plane.

Have a great day everyone!

 

Baz

[Kingzance]

17 minutes ago, chrisf said:

Big L made much more of an impression on the teenage Chris than Caroline.  Imagine British radio without them.

Yes Chris, BigL was a more reliable source of latest pop than Caroline when I lived in Bath but when BigL closed down, Caroline continued. I found Blackburn and Stewart rather boring, Skues was a little better but two who did influence me were Peel and Walker, the former sadly missed and to whom I owe my love of Pink Floyd and the latter who has that ability to appear to be talking to you rather than a whole legion of listeners.

 

Two steres of logs delivered and stacked. A few old gits got their kit out in the local pub, discussed exposures over a couple of pints and then ventured outside to picture this and that. I was spared the Wait of Roses, getting myself around a pint or two of an IPA at the time.

 

Enjoy your Friday.

[PeterBB]

Luxemburg totally agree - you needed to be right up close to it to hear.  The Archers took over from Dick Barton, I listened to the very last episode, Mrs Dales Diary was an early afternoon programme ..."I'm worried about Jim" ...

Pirate Radio - never specifically listened but at lunch times the cafe I went to had it blaring away.

Television - was 14 before we had one but was lucky enough to see the 1966 World Cup final in colour because girl friends mother kept house to a rather rich accountant ... we had our own colour television in 1970.

Question - where is the person who started this thread?  - always comes up on 'content that I follow' although most of my followed content never seems to surface.

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

For those who can't remember it, or never heard it, the full conversation was -

"Min put the cat out"

"Why Henry?"

"Because it's on fire Min"

 

As to Cliff Michelmore and Jean Metcalffe they first 'met' each other while presenting 'Two Way Family Favourites' with one of them in Germany and the other in England, their first face-to-face meeting wasn't until some months later, they married in 1950.

 

Now to today and the only radio nostalgia was missing part of 'The Archers' because I forgot they were on having been out at a quiz night last night - where we came 3rd, our worst result ever but what do you expect when there's a round about 'New Romantics 'slop' music?  Who the h*ll is this Duffy person, who would seem to be female judging by her voice although the one called Ed Sheeran didn't sound much different.  Anyway much nicer weather today so I quite enjoyed my stroll to the chiropractor.  But my flabber was somewhat gasted by the inability of people in the 'one basket only' queue in Waitrose to actually first handover and then subsequently pack into a shopping bag a few articles of shopping in less time than I have observed it to take to move a container from a 20,000 teu container ship onto a trailer standing alongside.  I wonder how container crane drivers manage at checkouts?

 

WHS was also visited and various comics were obtained which ought to keep me amused for an hour or two then it was home and back here where one thread seems to have attracted the intention of someone with very strange ideas - how unusual for RMweb (not).  Then mushrooms and bacon duly cooked for myself and Mrs Stationmaster (bacon free in her case) and sudoku is next in the day's programme with caiuliflower cheese for dinner tonight.

 

Enjoy the rest of your day and good to hear Bazis gradually wending his way home having left behind the container cranes of Botany Bay

Edited March 6, 2020 by The Stationmaster

[Compound2632]

11 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Afternoon all,

 

For those who can't remember it, or never heard it, the full conversation was -

"Min put the cat out"

"Why Henry?"

"Because it's on fire Min"

 

 

"Would you care for a picture of Queen Victoria?"

 

 

"No, thank-you. I'm trying to give them up."

 

Open your wallet and repeat after me: "take five pounds".

[Tony_S]

17 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

about 'New Romantics

A long long time ago my brother’s first wife was telling Aditi all about a group called Ultravox that she liked. Aditi asked were they the ones that did “shaddupa yer face”. I was quite unwell during the new romantic music era so would haven’t heard much and would have not been much help. 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Tony_S

[AndyID]

For a couple of years in the 60's my scout troop ran a disco on Saturday nights. I was the DJ, mainly because dad had a radiogram which received FM and a great brute of a Grundig tape recorder.

 

My job was to record the current top twenty hits from Pick of the Pops on Sunday evening taking care to hit the pause button to edit out the waffle between the songs. Technically what we were doing was illegal but it did keep us off the streets.

 

We could get Radio Luxembourg quite well in Paisley although it did fade in and out. The signal wasn't sent as the usual straight line transmission. It propagated through the ionosphere instead but that made it susceptible to a lot of variables. It's quite remarkable that it worked so well.

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2020 by AndyID
troop not group

[Dave Hunt]

A good evening from Red Dragon Land.

I remember the various Radio Carolines well. When I was doing my advanced flying training at RAF Valley in Anglesey in 1967 flying the Folland Gnat some people occasionally went over to Fraggle Rock to visit the ship. One day one of the DJs announced on air that he was being beaten up by an RAF jet. "Hello XR5xx," he said, reading out the aircraft's airframe number. It was fairly soon after landing that the culprit (not me I hasten to add) was giving the Station Commander a good listening to as the start of a fairly miserable couple of weeks for him. The DJ (can't remember who it was) sent an apology when he heard what had happened. 

 

For a moment this afternoon I thought that Ian A has popped over from the western colonies when we stopped in the car park at our hotel next to a 5 litre bright red Mustang. I was right about Wales, though, even if a little previous in my estimation. From sunny skies and still air a few hours ago it is now persisting down with gales forecast soon. Looks like I may have to watch a certain rugby game in our hotel room tomorrow (???). Don't worry HH, I'll try not to cheer too loudly when the whites score (he writes hopefully).

 

Enjoy your evening (other times are available) and welcome back Baz in the wee small hours.

 

Dave

 

 

[AndyB]

21 hours ago, AndyB said:

I may panic buy a pint of beer tomorrow evening. In case of total hysteria I may splash out for a packet of crisps, too. 

 

 

 

[roundhouse]

2 minutes ago, AndyB said:

 

 

 

That's just nuts!

[Gwiwer]

16 minutes ago, AndyB said:

 

 

 

 

Guaranteed to produce some excuse-me's   Though I note the glass is branded for Doom Bar and the contents might, by the colour and head, indeed be the same.  Still an honorary Cornish ale even if 90% of it is brewed in Burton-on-Trent these days.  Only cask supplies to Cornish pubs still comes from Rock AFAIK and it does taste slightly different.  

 

The toilet paper shortage has arrived locally.  Waitrose was all out of the stuff but had placed kitchen roll at intervals along the empty shelves.  Perhaps there has been a sudden influx of Australians   

 

 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Gwiwer

[petethemole]

One kichen roll + one breadknife = two bogrolls, sorted; (and some dust).

[Joseph_Pestell]

18 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

 

Guaranteed to produce some excuse-me's   Though I note the glass is branded for Doom Bar and the contents might, by the colour and head, indeed be the same.  Still an honorary Cornish ale even if 90% of it is brewed in Burton-on-Trent these days.  Only cask supplies to Cornish pubs still comes from Rock AFAIK and it does taste slightly different.  

 

 

 

 

 

Slightly different? I beg to differ. The Molson Coors Burton version of Doom Bar is fairly awful. I won't have anything to do with it. Even drank fizzy lager at one pub where the only "real" ale was Doom Bar.

[AndyID]

Come to think of it dad's radiogram didn't have any means to send the audio to the tape-recorder and the sound quality would have been very poor if I'd used a microphone so I tapped into the pre-amp valve in the radiogram and brought the signal out to a jack socket (my dad was pretty tolerant). Because the radio signal was FM the recording was just about as good as a 45 record .

 

I also had to learn a fair amount about electronics keeping the Grundig going. It tended to go through  valves and certain caps would blow from time to time. The drive belts used to fail regularly too.