Quote:
Originally Posted by stevehertz
Steve Wright changed the face of radio presenting from being a person that named the next record to being the host of a 'show'. Tony Blackburn was kinda halfway there with his tales and witticisms but SW took it to another level. I like Tony too.
|
I would say that the transition from ‘that was... this is...’ announcer to a personality driven show was initially brokered in the UK by the 1960s offshore pirates. Kenny Everett in particular on Radio London (who also did the then unusual thing of double presented shows with Dave Cash). Then there was Keith Hampshire with his ‘Keefers Commotion’ and Emperor Rosko on Caroline. (Caroline had to change its style quite dramatically with the arrival of Radio London – early recordings reveal the presentation to be very stiff.)
Kenny Everett was often under a cloud at the BBC for various misdemeanours so never fully developed his act on Radio One. Looking back, compared to today it was quite tame but, back then, taking the rise out of politicians (and their wives) was not the done thing at Auntie. Noel Edmonds had a bit of a regular sketch thing going on in his shows but in the 1970s presenting had gone back to one jock and a pile of records. Because of this Steve Wright’s ‘zoo’ format then appeared to be very radical amongst the DLTs, etc., of the time. It was imported from American commercial radio which, of course, had previously been a considerable influence on the offshore pirates.