Andy Westgate

Andy joined BBC Radio Bristol in 1978 as a “station assistant” and presented the early breakfast show and a Saturday morning show. In 1981 he moved to Severn Sound in Gloucester where he launched the station’s late night service: later he moved to weekday afternoons (Andy Westgate’s Afternoon Affair) and Saturday breakfast. When West went back into the night in September 1984, Andy joined as Deputy Head of Music and to present the new Late Show, which contained a phone-in hour. Initially this ran from 10-11 p.m. but this was soon changed to 11-12 in an attempt to attract a few more callers! The hour after midnight was called “The Music Speaks for Itself” and it did. Listening back to my few tapes of parts of that hour makes me ealize just how good late night radio was before stations became frightened of playing anything unfamiliar.

 

After Tom Clapton left Radio West just before the end, Andy took on the breakfast show for the final few weeks. He remained with GWR after the merger and presented the drive-time show on GWR’s West Wiltshire frequencies (936 AM, 97.4 FM). There was interference on GWR’s other AM frequency (1161) in Oxford, so while at university I listened to GWR on 936 and was glad to hear Andy again, but the complete opt-out was dropped after only a few weeks due to “poor reception” (one might have expected the management to know the service area, given that those transmitters had been running for three years!). As GWR moved inexorably towards a “more music” sound, Andy took over the evening show and remained in charge for a number of years, playing good-quality adult music.

 

In Andy’s own words: “When I was taken off the evening show to concentrate on Head of Music duties, after a few months I was appointed Overnight Controller for Overnight Express. This service was broadcast on both AM and FM around the ever growing network. This was prior to Graham Torrington and when they employed him they had nowhere for me to go until I suggested going back to Severn Sound as PC for the re-launch, as I still live in the Stroud area. After 2 and a bit years, like so many others of the management team, I was asked to leave, but was lucky enough to walk back into Swindon first on FM for a few months swing shifts, and when (the late) Sandy Martin moved to BBC Wiltshire Sound I got his gig on Gold.”

 

A reshuffle of presenters took Andy back to Gloucestershire radio, and until the merger of Classic and Capital Golds in August 2007, he presented the local drive-time show on Classic Gold 774. He was with Radio West/GWR for 23 years. Since leaving, he did some cover shifts for the now-defunct Original 106.5 in Bristol, and presented weekend breakfast on Andover Sound. At the time of writing, he’s not on the air; he lives in Berkshire and runs his own company, specializing in fiberglass design and repair.

 

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“Kingston Hospital
Radio – where it
all started.”		   Pilot of the airwaves   “Andy head and shoulders above
Tony Blackburn and Paul Burnett”		  
     
Marka Riffat finishes the news, then Hooray Henry helps Andy start the second hour of his Saturday lunchtime show in late 1984   Andy on the late
show, reading the
weather after the
midnight news		   The music speaking
for itself