The Victory Roll - The Rise, Fall and resurrection of Radio Victory

Mention the names 'Victory' and generally they will think of Lord Nelson's Flagship with a lot of Portsmuthian residents and radio enthusiasts they will think of it as the name of the radio station that brought commercial radio to the South Hampshire, West Sussex and the Isle of Wight in 1975.

Although with its studios in Fratton, Portsmouth and as the ILR franchise for the city itself. The actual reach of the station took in Southampton as well, making for a pan-Solent approach to programming to cover both cities in news, sport and music as well. With the spread of local radio both via the BBC and Commercially throughout the county, Victory itself was seen to be the competitor to Radio Solent which had started in 1970 finally bringing local radio to the South of England.

In both style and content BBC Radio Solent and ILR's Radio Victory were competing on the same territory, bringing a mixture of music, chat, sport and local personalities. Such with each of them employing staff and DJ's who would go to either station at one time or another. A prime example was Kenny Everett who syndicate a show to Radio Solent at the start of the 1970's, but by the mid-seventies was syndicating one to Radio Victory.

At the time of launch in October 1975, the station had a feeling of want to be part of the community it served and it was little wonder that Victory built up a very loyal audience against Solent and was even topping the BBC's national music stations with the emphasis towards including the community as part of its programming. In particular 'Radio Victory News' looked at all aspects affect local people from planning issues to more deeper debates into local politics. With the area at that time which it served including the Naval Dockyard, never did this come into more deeper focus than in 1982. With job cuts to the workforce at the Naval Base and also the Falklands War as well. So the station during the period of the conflict went to a twenty four hour operation to cover the latest news, keeping locals up to date with breaking stories all the time.

For all its entertainment, Radio Victory was not afraid to try new things in its schedule with 'Navy News' reflecting the city's maritime links, during the first week of broadcasting, presenter Eugene Fraser partook in a live daily reading of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. This showed the link between Dickens and the city of Portsmouth where he was born. Alongside high culture sat 'The Wibbly Wobbly Wireless Show' presented by children and aided by focussing on what they liked in their day to day lives, plus for older teenagers '7-teen' looked at the issues effecting them.

In Victory playing pop music, its output reflected all types of music including Country and Western, Rhythm and Blues, Heavy Metal and Rock as well as championing new music with these programmes becoming hugely popular, not least 'Folk-Us' with local artist Shep Woolly looking the local and national folk music scene on a weekly basis. For all this success, the station one by one dropped these programmes to become a pop music station to reflect what other Commercial radio stations were doing in the early to mid-eighties. With pop music being such a big part of the output, this meant that they had their own chart show called 'Victory Roll' based on the sales at the local Co-Op department store years before there was a commercial radio chart show of any kind.

Though for being commercially successful did mean that what Radio Victory had done so well in its early years had simply vanished leaving the new DJ's to come through and form new careers for themselves. But this left the station unpopular with the IBA, with one of the problems, the station serving two major cities where as most ILR contracts served one major town or city and its surrounding area. The problem of what to do had reared its head once again, the feeling was that the IBA thought that Radio Victory was somewhat ignoring Southampton, although Victory was the holder of the contract for Portsmouth and not the Solent area as a whole. Somewhat the West Sussex problem had been solved with the launch of Southern Sound in the early 80's, but in this period rather then keep Radio Victory in place and advertise for a new Southampton contract, it was decided that Victory would be stripped of its contract and have it handed to Ocean Sound who were given a bigger area including the city of Southampton to start in October 1986.

Though where as most people would think that would be the end of the Radio Victory name, but one major world event made the station reborn again.

In 1994, the city of Portsmouth became the major focal point for the commemorations for the 50^th anniversary of the D-Day landings and the city's 800^th birthday, the new station called Victory FM was set up by Mark Samways and Kevin Huffer to be able to cover these events with the city's then Lord Mayor Alex Bentley gave space in the city's civic offices to allowing the service to go on the air for a twenty-eight day restricted service licence. This sewed the seeds for the service to be broadcast over Christmas 1994 and in June 1995 for the 50^th anniversary of D-Day both times with RSL Licences.

The name Radio Victory was re-given to the service when it was broadcast on cable television and for temporary FM licences such as to cover the UK Special Olympics in Portsmouth, with the success each time, six further RSL licences were used between 1994 and 1998. When a new ILR franchise was issued to the Greater Portsmouth area, they won it and started to broadcast from September 1999. Though with the station was taken over by The Local Radio Company in late 1999, many of the original staff who had re-set the new permanent station having left the company meant there was a whole change in personalities at the start of the year 2000.

At the turn of the new millennium in not being able to grab a foothold against more established local rivals, meant that Victory re branded twice in a couple of years before Portsmouth Football Club took a major stake in the station allying it to the club itself allowing the station to have the financial support at that difficult time, but when the football faced financial problems themselves this meant that when the station was sold to Celador's radio arm who took the station and made into to the southern offshoot of its Breeze station combining with stations from Winchester, Southampton and Haselmere.

The name of Radio Victory may have gone from radio dials, but the spirit and enthusiasts will live on for a name which meant radio in the city of Portsmouth.

It Was Alright to debate - The reaction to It Was Alright in the 1970's

So after two programmes, It Was Alright in the 1970's is finally over from seeing people's views from 'They knew' through to 'OMG wasn't that amazing'. I can reveal that I did donate a clip to the programme highlighting Ken Dodd's performance on a 1974 edition of The Golden Shot and I know will get brickbats for doing that. But frankly I couldn't care less at all, but in the two editions it has caused debate.

Isn't that a good thing for a programme to do? In this world of poverty porn, surely its is good for programmes to cause any type of reaction. I admit my part in all of this maybe a small one, however when I do research I do it for a reason to help people make programmes and write books. Though yet, in some way the public never see what goes on behind the scenes of anything like that. Presuming that shows are just thrown together in a way to make everyone look unmitigated, in all of this the producers used people who worked on the shows in question to look again at the clips and see what they thought now.

To some this almost like tantamount to locking them up and throwing away the key, however the explanations were there for people to see. As such, context is a key word to use in these cases, yet even today can everything said to be as clear cut as anything can be. No, not at all but that never stops people from trying something.

Its almost like throwing the baby out of the bath water as happened when alternative comedy came to sweep away the old style comedians, do we sweep every bit of entertainment from the 1970's under the carpet? Yes, in hindsight we do know about things that took place and abuse of power which happened, as always people should be exposed for this.

But for all that do we suddenly want to kick what Morecambe and Wise did, no we should not at all. As the new hipster generation comes along with their attitude, some people have been exposed already for what they are doing today and as such this will always happen with people in the limelight, the responsibility lies with everyone to like things or not like thing. Consistence in judgement comes the ability to watch something with new eyes and that we should be grateful for. 

The Same Old.. Same Old.. - What the BBC does in 2014

With comes the autumn and the end of year, for all apart what has happened in criminal cases there has been the invention of a new game of BBC bashing. But it is not what you think at all, there have seemed to be more providence then usual this year of the BBC getting it wrong. As viewer complaints rack up over some things which are right to be complained about, we come to the other end of the scale and in particular two incidents.

The commencement of the broadcast of Jamaica Inn, saw a record number of complaints that the actors were mumbling, thinking although this may have been important to the script did not stop viewers thinking they have got complete power to let the BBC know and the social media community bare arms to show their displeasure with the easy situation of journalists just sitting search social networks to take comments and turn them into a newsworthy event. By this the power held by viewers nowadays has never been greater then it ever has been, shows can be stopped by a sustained campaign or just one small piece of footage not shown in the right place can make an ordinary person into public enemy number one.

Significantly this happened with 'Alaskagate' in the Great British Bake Off, even people who don't even watch the programme knew about what had happened with the subsequent events which surrounded it, the theories about what a person had done or not done were flailing around social media such to the level where Sue Perkins decided to have her say on Twitter to say everything was above board with this event. Though it was the BBC who bore the brunt of this effect, with people thinking something like that can be changed instantly. 

But as the saying goes "With great power comes great responsibility" and on both sides this is the case, the BBC will broadcast thing which are seemingly right and the public will have their say on them. It is when the lines become blurred on simple matters, that is when things can go wrong on either side. Opinion will always be there, but when to give it on matter is a case to learn. The simple things can seem quite plain, but for every small voice comes a wave, responsibility is key to match viewers with broadcasters. Now broadcasters ask viewers what they want, where as they used to give it to them. From entertaining has now turned into a constant need to inform, too much information can confuse somewhat. In a typical Monday to Friday schedule on BBC 1 for instance, generally there are only about three or four programmes per week which actually entertain and the most of the time is informing the viewer. The Reithan model has been written large, but is it right still to be doing this?

ITV for all its commercial needs has seen a shift to more entertaining programmes in the past year, to prove popular and populist. With Peter Fincham at the helm, it is not surprising at all to see this. As not a person who came through an independent production company, he has shown his touch to know how the public want to be entertained and thus they are slowly gaining on BBC 1 and starting to pass them. For all the complaints that ITV has gone downmarket, hasn't it always been the combination of both? In the early 1970's On The Buses sat next to Upstairs Downstairs, but isn't that the case with ITV's current entertainment output and Downton Abbey.

BBC 1 will not be able to do this and compete until something is changed and the move from promoting people from the factual department goes away. With factual people comes an obsession with information, but BBC 1 does not need this as it is a 'General Entertainment' channel just like ITV is, but with the wonder-kin Danny Cohen overseeing all the BBC's television output much like Mark Thompson did, it restricts themselves from doing anything at all and forms a reliance on the same programmes. They maybe pleased with the Great British Bake Off right now, but when it has peaked and it will. Where do they go from there? It says it all that one of BBC 1's most popular shows came from BBC 2 and is produced independently. Where as in-house production has stalled, no wonder Tony Hall just wants the BBC to be another production house.

The Right Royal let down or Its A Muck-up... - A look at The Grand Knockout Tournament

Having now seen 'The Royal Knockout Tournament' for myself, well since it had appeared on television. With everything that surrounds Stuart Hall's links with it, one question to come out of it is, why? The initial idea put onto paper seems a good one, get the royals and some celebrities to play some wacky games all for charity. Then again how can this fail at all, though perhaps maybe on how it can succeed at all. Apart from Mr Hall, the line up seems like a who's who of mid to late 80's celebrities from both sides of the Atlantic. The likes of Chicago Bears players rubbing shoulders with Gary Lineker, Geoff Capes on centurion guard duty, Les Dawson trying to be some sort of foil where Eddie Waring once stood.

Though itself, the actual games could be transferred into any era. But yet, it seems to be trying to hard. With Rowan Atkinson in full on Blackadder mode, with a seeming disinterested face that he's been dragged along to Alton Towers for an afternoon's 'fun'. Fun by proxy, it seems. Seemingly where seeing giant costumes and people falling in the water, maybe conceived as fun. However the reality is something different, expecting lots to wet faces, actually some of the celebrities are quite able. The site of Toyah Wicox shinning along a wet spinning log, is some what surreal and surprising when she is rather good at it. Actually, it is hardly surprising that Christopher Reeve, then at the peak of full fitness can be as adept as the character he plays on screen. Then again, the site of him flying off and smiling at the camera as he does so, maybe have been too much even for some of our star studded stars themselves.

Clearly with the programme trying to appeal to more global audience, with Meatloaf turning up to rub shoulders with Mel Smith, knowing about Mel's Meatloaf parody can seem slightly surreal. Coming with this is that all the events are sponsored from the likes of McDonalds through to Asda putting their names to games, when maybe time spent on thinking up new product ranges might be a bit more profitable then getting involved with this. But then again the whole thing does have a whiff of Fine Fare about it, cheap and cheerful. Knowing with the afterwards, with questions being thrown at Prince Edward or lack of them it seems for all its efforts that it doesn't even have a proper feel of something special. Its more akin to a wet Wednesday trudging around a half completed theme park then actually something most people would be proud to have taken part in. Though not surprising that most of the celebrities would not have put it on their showreel at all. 

For all its efforts in trying too hard, this is the final nail in the coffin for Its A Knockout as a format. Yes, there was that Channel 5 revival with Keith Chegwin and the woman who now does 'Homes Under The Hammer'. Its is the death knell for a format that with S. Hall taken out of it, did quite well for itself. Though laughter maybe a tonic, its not laughing along with it. By the year of its broadcast in 1987, the public are laughing at it. Something from a bygone age dragged out once again to fill a gap, yet as such it does say more about why it was dragged out. An idea thought up by a Prince, filled in by the BBC and finished with a side order of fries.

The connotations are now there, allowing for something to be viewed as ironic. But for all the irony, I can't see Charlie Brooker dressing up as a foam rubber giant for our entertainment. Perhaps celebrities are above that now, with an easy choice of learning how to twirl a hoola-hoop or ballroom dancing. Celebrity had become sofa based, just like the people who were watching this. For all a level of smart intelligence, comes a need to make a fool of one's self. It its self-evident in The Grand Knockout Tournament, but yet without it would not have been half as much fun pulling it apart. Cruel but purposeful, of which it can be said on reflection that it does say a lot about 1987 itself.

The Reaches of all Branches.. Fact or Fiction?

Over the past months we have seen what has happened in Operation Yewtree, court cases heard and tried. But what exactly has gone on, in all this we have seen performers go from one end of spectrum to the other. As such I felt it is the right time to tell you my experience, many years ago I was an autograph collector writing to celebrities to get them before Yewtree happened. During this I did write to Stuart Hall and Rolf Harris for their autographs, I realize there will be people questioning why I did this, some will be shocked and other will decry this. 

But whatever you think I am not holding them up to be idols or hate figures, only telling you my experience of this. Am I embarrassed that I did this, no. Am I pleased that I did this, no.  Maybe some people may not think this is a position at all, but there maybe other people who did the same over the years. By the wave of social media, there have been jokes, there has been opinion and debate over it all. Though where does it leave us now? At anything like this, jokes will be made, plus video clips have been drawn on to say they are banned or comments made as to alter what something might be. 

How things are read is something as well, a sketch by Not The Nine O'Clock showing children being rounded up to be taken see 'Rolf on Saturday, OK' has now got a another meaning although the original meaning was that the show was boring and they had to ship children in to be in the audience. Though how do we know that John Lloyd and Sean Hardy were not saying something else, but with them including Chris Langham as part of their original line-up for the show and knowing the knowledge about himself now. Should they be criticized for making part of their show?

Sometimes after the event things can be reflected on as such, where as Operation Yewtree ten years down, what will be the thoughts of people. How do we know that people now are doing what went on back then? We do not know, as they did in the past. In hindsight we can use what we know know, however the press who built up the celebrities and reputations have knocked them down.

Though is this self-justifcation on their part, almost a cleansing of the soul. The programmes of those who have been convicted will never get seen again, but can we just leave a blank space where once things existed? Naturally enough, people of the future will ask why, as such with the Second World War that period has not been blanked. So why should this period be blanked as well? There maybe not want to be understanding about this, which is fair enough as people also want to understanding. 

In darker times we have gone through things to be healed on the other side, but like any fresh wound, if poked healing cannot start. As much we will be reminded through satire about what has gone in this period with the likes of Charlie Brooker skimming the surface for jokes, there can be only so much which can be got out of a subject or event. 

Myself, do I question every day why I did what I did? Maybe, somethings you have to live with because what happens in the future, either good or bad nobody can tell.

Avast, a larks with mein electronic digit... (50 years of BBC2 with a big cake and all..)

BBC2 is 50. Well, well.. Finally, its joints are getting creakier and its hair is needing some artificial help along the way. But how could you describe the channel to an alien? Well, you could always show that 40 Minutes documentary, about being an alien on earth with trees and a lady undressing herself. 

Though enough with the nudity, there's been plenty of that over the years and coarse behavior and its never done its viewers any harm at all. I don't remember Percy Thrower with nipple tassles though on Gardeners World,  how did we get to this point though? Apart from some people throwing paint at a still BBC2 ident, there have been many interesting programmes on BBC2 through the years and rather then doing a top ten as most people would seem to do about the subject or make a hilarious copycat (see 'The Big Fat Quiz') quiz.

How does BBC2 like to lift its skirt and show itself off? For instance, from Pete and Dud talking about bloody Greta Garbo at the window, onto those Goodies, onwards into space with The Hitchikers' Guide and Red Dwarf and back down to earth with a bump to The Office. The channel itself likes a good laugh and has made comedy a key part of its schedule, though along the way it hasn't been plain sailing. May we not forget, Its Ulrika plus also the second series of Look Around You, with a tiny bit of The Mighty Boosh.

As the channel shows itself to be a breeding ground for shows, with The Apprentice starting off on the second channel, business is a serious business. The Troubleshooters three of Sir John Harvey-Jones, Sir Gerry Robinson and now Lord Digby Jones showed there was an appetite for smart documentaries about the business world and that over time you can move from being a Sir to ending up as being a Lord. But business is entertainment as well, taking us 'Back to the Floor' and leaving us with 'Blood on the Carpet' thanks to Robert Thirkwell's well thought programmes over the years. With as much business people and other people learning more about vast sways of business aspects than reading a lifetime's supply of the Financial Times.

Though there is no business like show business as someone once sung, as well as serious programming music is the food of love for BBC2 with it having Dance Energy in the 90's, being Later with Jools, see if it will pass The Old Grey Whistle Test, plus thanks to the foresight of the BBC light entertainment department allowing Terry Henebery to come up with Jazz 625 showcasing some of the finest jazz musicians ever. But the second channel shows its class as well with its coverage of the arts. Arena, the fore-barer today's modern arts documentaries has been floating along in the moonlight for many years now looking at the Ford Cortina, how to do it My Way and with an amount of menace looking at the Beano and Dandy story. 

Ever so often it will show its sport credentials as well, starting off what has become an institution in Match of the Day from Beatleville with Kenneth Wolstenholme in 1964 to Nigel Starmer-Smith from a wind swept Rugby Special, the quiet of the green baize in its snooker coverage to the men and women of the oche in its coverage of the BDO World Darts Championship. Plus even dedicating a whole afternoon of sport on Friday afternoons during the late 80's and early 90's. Though the channel likes the smell of oil and petrol as well, apart from the Open University that is. BBC2 was the home of Formula One for many years as well Moto GP, but it likes to get itself all revved up now and again, from the pokey motoring show started by Angela Rippon and Noel Edmonds, through the sensibleness of Tony Mason, Chris Goffey and William Woolard to today's massive road trips partaken by Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. Seemingly Top Gear is what BBC2 is about today and has always been which is fast paced, funny, incisive plus informative as well.

But as BBC2 sees itself in a mirror, does it seem to be sagging? A little, but doesn't everyone do by the time they get to fifty? When the candles are lit on the birthday cake, most probably made by The Great British Bake Off team, the second channel can look at itself and say 'Yeah, I've done alright for myself!' Then raise a glass, a cup, a mug or even an Arielator from Jed's house in I'm Alan Partridge to BBC2, you might not be old as your bigger brother or sister, though at least you kept us entertained.

Recreating the impossible, probably..

Hello once again, its been a while hasn't it?

Now you maybe wondering where I have been since the latter part of last year and why there have been no blog updates at all, partly for two reasons. I have been occupying the spare time I have in different ways, but most importantly spending time working on the most important project that I have ever done so far.

Out on there on the internet, there is so much information about television history and presentation with so many different websites such as Transdiffusion, TV Cream and TV Ark to name but there is also a lot of facts as well. For instance on the upcoming 50th anniversary of BBC2 there is the ability to read about what happened on that aborted opening night as well as seeing it in video.

Though much with archive television, some pieces of footage exist and others do not. Meaning for an opening of a new television station or franchise, that the opening programme and some of that day's continuity may exist. But via discussions with some of my friends, we wondered what day's broadcasting we would all like to see again.

From this came a seed of an idea, to pick a particular day or year's schedule and try to re-piece it back together. Now you must be wondering what exactly this has to do with my absence from here, but I can explain now.

In the autumn of last year, with the challenge laid down by my friends. I decided to do a project of such magnitude, I think no-one has ever done it before. I set out to recreate the first day's broadcast of TVS in January 1982. You might say 'Yeah, that's easy to do!' but consider this, in initial footage that I had, there was only the opening programme 'Bring in the New', the launch documentary 'Birth of a Station' and a small fragment of continuity including that lunchtime's ITN News read by Trevor McDonald.

However on the actual day, 1st of January 1982, there were over 19 different programmes on that day. But the schedule showed on that day actually differed from Thames and LWT's for instance. Some of the programmes which were networked were shown in the slot that the rest of the country was looking at them in, but TVS showed some of them at different times and had programmes which had been seen by the rest of the network a few days earlier.

Plus, also nearly all the continuity was missing, meaning that had to be reconstructed piece by piece from scratch and footage of the programmes shown on that day, had to be found in various places. Even with some of the footage missing, I had to reconstruct that as well.

You might say, all in all that it is quite a hefty task to do all that. Lo and behold though, I have managed to do that and after nearly six months, my recreation of TVS' first day is finished. Before this I have made other videos for YouTube and also made a pop video for some of my friends. This was a different kettle of fish though, I mean by stitching everything together including adverts from 1982 as well. Making it look like as it was broadcast, the continuity gives it that added touch, to seem like you are watching a truncated version of that day's programmes.

You might ask why, but it was showing people what exactly TVS would have looked like on their opening day as not many people would have video recorders to tape the whole day off the television. People say its easier to that now in a digital age, however the recreation is about a historical document as well. This is part of the nation's television culture, when a new ITV franchise came onto the air it was big news compared to today when a channel launch hardly goes unnoticed.

So that's my part of the story, if you would like to know more please do not hesitate to find me on Twitter @boggenstrovia and there we will go from there, OK?

Keep an eye out for more articles coming soon...