News
Mike Stewart and the news team in 1982. From left to right: Mark Dyson, Lynne Mullen, David Garmston, Mike, Steve Kyte and Margaret Gilmore.In common with other Independent Local Radio stations of the day, Radio West provided extensive local news and sport coverage with a team of up to nine journalists. With very few exceptions, news bulletins were provided every hour on the hour, and consisted of three minutes of national and international stories from IRN followed, at peak times, by a three-minute local bulletin. These local bulletins were broadcast from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and until 1 p.m. at weekends. In the early months of West a late night bulletin, which included local news, was broadcast at 10 p.m. In the last few months, peak-time weekday and Saturday morning bulletins were combined local and national bulletins read in Bristol, and ran for up to eight minutes.
West’s news magazines, West At One and West Tonight, were West’s longest running programmes, and survived throughout the station’s time on the air. West at One ran from 1 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. (originally 1:20 p.m. because, I think, the programme contained a sports bulletin). West Tonight gradually moved forwards: it ran from 6:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. in the early months, moving to a half-hour at 6 p.m. when Modern World started in late 1982, and finally to a 5:30 p.m. start when the hours were reduced in October 1983.
During the speech block period (February 1983 to October 1983) West Tonight grew an “Extra”, which was a slot from 6:35 to 7 p.m. dealing with (on successive days) politics, business, a documentary, arts and sport. This must have been very expensive to produce, and was probably not a wise use of the station’s resources at the time.
Venue magazine’s review of the station output in October 1982 gave West Tonight a grade D. The enigmatic comment was “Hard-working news team led by very able prefect Mike Stewart. However not enough attention paid in class.” I have no idea what this means! The station’s news coverage sounded perfectly professional to me, and was certainly more attractive than the worthy but (to my ears) extremely dull and excessively detailed coverage on Radio Bristol. IRN in those days was also a very different creature, with respected journalists providing crisp, concise and informative coverage of national and international news.
Sport, especially local sport, received a great deal of coverage. In the early days, sport bulletins were part of the breakfast show, West at One and West Tonight. There was a three-hour Saturday afternoon sport and music show (called, brilliantly, “Sport and Music”) with Ray Edwards and Mike Stewart (well reviewed by Venue!), and sport bulletins through the evening on a Saturday, although I think most of these later disappeared. If Bristol City or Bristol Rovers had a home evening match, there would be live links to Ashton Gate or Eastville throughout the evening. By February 1983 the Saturday afternoon show was being presented by Mike Stewart on his own, and by the end of the summer the show was being presented by Tony Kelly. Tony left in late October and I don’t know what happened immediately after that, but by mid-1984 the show was being presented by John Ford and the incomparable Jonathan Pearce, and even for a non-sports fan like me, was enormously entertaining.
Mike Stewart was Head of News until he became programme controller on the departure of Dave Cash. He was succeeded by Steve Egginton. For details of West’s journalists, see Radio West People . It is remarkable how many later went on to fame and fortune.
Radio West’s news service described in the Radio
West Annual, 1983
Steve Egginton Radio West Newshound . Head of News Steve Egginton promoting the Radio West Newshounds, March 1984
West Tonight Lynne Mullen David Garmston. A typical moment from West Tonight with Lynne Mullen and David Garmston, 1982)
Richard Evans Final West at One. Richard Evans finishing the final West at One on Friday 6 September 1985)