New Year's Eve - Monday 31st. December

For this final program for 2012 I thought that I would feature the Top 20 for the year 1962 - a look at what were the most popular hits fifty years ago.
And here is what the DJs were playing and what we were buying back then, counting down from No. 1 to No. 20.......

1. Working For The Man - Roy Orbison
2. Ramblin' Rose - Nat "King" Cole
3. Multiplication - Bobby Darrin
4. Alley Cat - Bent Fabric
5. Can't Help Falling In Love - Elvis Presley
6. Wolverton Mountain - Claude King
7. The Lonely Bull - Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
8. Telstar - the Tornadoes
9. Stranger On The Shore - Acker Bilk
10. The Boys - the Shadows
11. Dance With The Guitar Man - Duane Eddy
12. The Swiss Maid - Del Shannon
13. I've Been Everywhere - Lucky Starr
14. The Cha Cha Cha - Bobby Rydell
15. Midnight In Moscow - Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen
16. If I Didn't Have A Dime - Gene Pitney
17. Do You Want To Dance - Cliff Richard and the Shadows
18. Roses Are red (My Love) - Bobby Vinton
19. He's Not A Rebel - Vikki Carr
20. Big Girls Don't Cry - the Four Seasons

In addition to the above, the following were the Top 10 Australian Hits for that year:-

1. I've Been Everywhere - Lucky Starr (included above)
2. Si Senor - Rob E.G.
3. Sing - Johnny O'Keefe
4. Southern 'Rora - the Joy Boys
5. I Remember You - Frank Ifield
6. Wolverton Mountain - Kevin Shegog *
7. Get A Little Dirt On You Hands - the Delltones
8. 5-4-3-2-1-Zero - Rob E.G.
9. Girl From Wolverton Mountain - Dorothy Baker
10. Midnight Bus - Betty McQuade

I will be playing all of the above tracks (* sorry but I don't have this one) during the show, along with other hits from 1962.

I was prompted by a news item last night, in which the Red Cross were appealing for blood donors across the region, to feature a classic Hancock's Half-hour, "The Blood Donor", in the comedy spot following the 10:00 AM news and weather.
If you have not heard this previously, then you'll love it. And if you have heard it before then I'm sure you will enjoy the re-run.

Happy New Year to you all!

Friday 28th. December - Penultimate Show for 2012.

This second-last show for the year will be a mixture of all things Pop and Easy-listening from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and into the 1980s; I will not be focusing at any one decade or year.

The Comedy Spot following the 3:00 PM news and weather is another from the Hancock's Half-hour series, this one entitled "The Threatening Letter", from 27th. May 1958, and featuring all five regulars for this period - Tony Hancock, Sid James, Bill Kerr, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams.

Please join me and spend three hours wallowing in radio-nostalgia!

Christmas Eve - Monday 24th. December

This is, to all intents and purposes, my Christmas show so I will be playing whatever the lucky-dip comes up with over the 3 hours from 9:00 AM until midday.

Forties, Fifties, Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, Nineties, Easy-listening, Soft Jazz, Latin, Contemporary.......plus comedy snippets and, following the 10:00 AM news, a Goon Show entitled "The Missing 10 Downing Street", from 1957.

Join me for a nostalgic Christmas Eve listening experience.

Friday 21st. - Santa Is Nearly Here!

Only a couple of days to go before Christmas!
Today's program will mostly be a mix of hits and easy-listening music from the "Baby-Boomer" decades of the 1950s and 1960s.

The comedy spot following the 3:00 PM news is a Hancock's Half-hour show with a Christmassy theme from December 1958.
Entitled "Bill and Father Christmas", it features the regular cast for that period but Kenneth Williams' place is taken by a one-off appearance by Warren "Alf Garnett" Mitchell.

Please join me for this next-to-last show before Christmas Day.

NOTE!
I will also be on air in the regular morning timeslot on Christmas Eve, Monday 24th., from 9:00 AM until 12:00 Noon.

Monday 17th. - the lead-up to Christmas!

Yes, it's the last week before Christmas and, as previously mentioned, the comedy spots for both today and Friday 21st. will feature Hancock's Half-hour Christmas-themes.

The first of these went to air 56 years ago on the 23rd. December 1956 and is entitled "Hancock's Happy Christmas", with Tony Hancock, Sid James, Bill Kerr, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams - arguably the best cast of all the Hancock series.

The show for next Friday was broadcast on the 25th. December 1958, two years further down the track from that mentioned above and is entitled "Bill and Father Christmas".
This also features the three regular stars and Hattie Jacques but Kenneth Williams is replaced by a young Warren Mitchell, who later gained infamy as the bigoted Alf Garnett in the TV series "Until Death Us Do Part".

The music selections for both shows will include pops and hits across the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies.

NOTE!
I will also be on air in the regular morning timeslot on Christmas Eve, Monday 24th., from 9:00 AM until 12:00 Noon.

Friday 14th. December - Girl's Day!

I will be featuring the "girls" of the 1950s and 1960s today - the vocalists of the female gender who gained stardom as pop-singers during the years between 1950 and 1970.
The playlist includes the following :-

• Lulu
• Gloria Gaynor
• Dionne Warwick
• Jane Morgan
• Sandie Shaw
• Nancy Sinatra
• Helen Shapiro
• Dusty Springfield
• Cilla Black
• Annette Funicello
• Brenda Lee
• Connie Francis
• the Caravelles
• the Shirrelles
• Della Reese
• Hayley Mills
• Dodie Stevens
• Linda Scott
• Eydie Gorme
• Etta James
• Little Eva
• Marcie Blaine
• Little Peggy March
• Sue Thompson
• Mary Wells
• Skeeter Davis
• Millie Small
• the Angels
• the Murmaids
• the Crystals
• Nancy Wilson
• the Singing Nun
• Astrud Gilberto
• Peggy Lee
• the Jellybeans
• Petula Clark
• the Poni-Tails
• Doris Day
• Sara Vaughan
• Kathy Kirby
• Rosemary Clooney
• Marianne Faithful
• Leslie Gore
• Judy Stone
• Bev Harrell
• Dinah Lee
• Patsy Ann Noble
• Noeleen Batley

The half-hour comedy spot following the 3 o'clock news will be "The Foreign Legion", a Hancock's Half-hour show first broadcast in April 1958.

Please join me for some nostalgia between 2:00 and 5:00 PM.

Sunday 9th. and Monday 10th. December

SUNDAY

On Sunday afternoons between 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM Kay Fitton presents her Sunday array of classical music.
However, on this particular Sunday Kay will be in Sydney and so I will be sitting in her seat in the studio up until at least 5:00 PM. If my commitments allow then I will go through until Kay's usual finishing time of six o'clock.

But the format will not be Classical.
I will be presenting a show consisting of light and easy music interspersed with comedy snippets and at least one full half-hour show from the golden days of BBC radio.

Please join me if you can on Sunday afternoon.

MONDAY

As I have an unscheduled and urgent dental appointment on Monday at 8:15 AM there is a distinct possibility that my regular Monday edition of the Baby-boomer Radio Show will, at the very least, have a delayed start.
At the worst, I will not be able to get into the studio at all that morning.

I hope my regular listeners will forgive this slight disturbance to the regular programming.

However, if all goes well, I will be featuring the music from the charts for 1958 and 1959 and, for the comedy spot after the ten o'clock news and weather, a Hancock's Half-hour from the 17th. February 1957, entitled "The Emigrant".

 

Program for Friday 7th. December

For the half-hour comedy spot today I will feature another in the Hancock's Half-Hour series of radio comedy shows.
This one was first broadcast by the BBC on the 8th. December 1959 and is entitled "The Poetry Society" and was the fourth-last of the radio shows, the series ending on the 29th. December 1959.
Hattie Jacques had left the show at the end of the fifth series (June 1959). She had been a regular cast member since 1956.
Kenneth Williams, a regular since the first series aired in 1954, also departed at the end of the fifth series.
So join Tony, Sid and Bill as they delve into alternative culture!

The music for today's Baby Boomer Radio Show will highlight tracks from 1958, 1963 and the 1970s.

NOTE!
I will be featuring two Hancock's Half-Hour shows with Christmas themes during the week before Christmas.
That's Monday morning 17th. and Friday afternoon's show on 21st. December.

What's on for Monday 3rd. December?

Today's program will have a broad-brush approach, with hits and classics from right across the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, together with Easy Listening tracks dotted throughout the three-hour show.

Following the 10:00 news & weather I will be playing a classic Hancock's Half-Hour from the 1950s. First broadcast by the BBC on the 18th. March 1958, this episode is entitled "The Americans Hit Town".

Please join me for some nostalgic radio from 9:00 AM until Noon.