Midlands Today Reunion – Midlands Yesterday

1977 regional news presenters Guy Thomas, Kay Alexander,Peter Windows, David Stevens B.Row Michael Hancock,Tom Coyne AG

1977 regional news presenters Guy Thomas, Kay Alexander,Peter Windows, David Stevens B.Row Michael Hancock,Tom Coyne

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A reminder of Midlands Today Reunion – MIDLANDS YESTERDAY.

The reunion is for anyone who worked on Midlands Today, as Presenters, Journalists, Production, Engineers, Cameras, Sound, VT, Film, Lights, etc.

The date, time and venue: Saturday, 3rd September 2016, 1pm – 6pm, Deloitte room at the Midlands Arts Centre.

Everyone who worked on the programme is invited.

Buffet tickets will cost £10 which covers finger food and room hire.

If you would like a ticket please email Roy Saatchi: roy.saatchi@iwishicouldmakethiswork.com  and he will let you know how to get a ticket and pay for it.

Any more details email Maureen Carter (maureencarter@gmail.com) or Cathy Houghton (cathy@houghton.net).

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Kay Alexander leaves BBC Birmingham

copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Midlands Today’ presenter, Kay Alexander, retires today from BBC Birmingham after nearly 40 years.  She began working for the BBC in 1974, and yesterday she presented her last bulletin, at lunch time.  Besides from ‘Midlands Today’ she has presented ‘Best in Brass’, ‘Children in Need’ for the Midlands region, ‘Miss Great Britain’, and ‘Life File’.   Although originally from Surrey, she became an adoptive Brummy after studying English at Birmingham University.

The photo dates from 1977, it includes the regional news presenters, left to right:  Guy Thomas, Kay Alexander,Peter Windows, David Stevens, (back row) Michael Hancock,Tom Coyne.  Thanks to Annie Gumbley for making the photo available.

The following comments are just some of those left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Ruth Kiosses: ‘Ahhhhh end of an era! Such a lovely lady with such a beautiful and distinctive voice.’

Julie Mayer: ‘All good things must come to an end, but they are shoes that will be hard to fill. Lovely lady and great friend.’

Pam Relton: ‘I always think Kay must have a portrait in the attic – she looks so lovely. Really is the end of an era. All the best Kay.’

Ros Gower: ‘A true lady and an enormous pleasure to work with. Happy retirement Kay.’

David Crozier: ‘I remember Kay as a warm, intelligent and immensely professional person. Happy days, Kay!’

Fiona Barton: ‘Happy retirement, Kay. Was so lovely to catch up with her and Brian earlier in the year. What a fab couple, so much fun…they didn’t look a day older than when I left Pebble Mill more than 20 years ago!’

Steve Peacock: ‘Fare well Kay and enjoy the next phase’

Dawn Trotman: ‘Always a joy to work with and a consumate professional. Glad to know I am also leaving the BBC in the same week as such a glamourous lady. Enjoy your retirement Kayx’

BBC Radio Birmingham – Blog by Nick Owen

I first worked at Pebble Mill in 1973 after I landed a job as a news producer on BBC Radio Birmingham, the forerunner of BBC WM.  It was a case of third time lucky getting into the BBC, having failed twice in the previous months to get a job in the Midlands Today newsroom. I arrived from The Birmingham Post and was overwhelmed with all the technology! I was always hopeless with anything mechanical, so learning to work a tape recorder was terrifying, but I got the hang of it in the end and became pretty adept at editing too, with razor blades and tape etc! I was told I had a fairly boring voice so I had to work on my intonation, to try to sound a bit more interested, but I really felt I had found my vocation. In fact, I loved it.  It wasn’t long before I read my first live bulletin – I was introduced on air by a young disc jockey called Les Ross, but I have no idea what happened to him!

Ultimately, I became Sports Producer, following my friend Jim Rosenthal, and that took me all over the country and Europe following the fortunes of our football teams.  Up the corridor, of course, was the Midlands Today newsroom with such luminaries as Tom Coyne, Alan Towers, Geoffrey Green and Tony Francis ( whom I’d trained with long before I came to Birmingham). I remember one day Tom Coyne said hello to me in the gents and I was so thrilled I nearly had an accident.

I left in 1978 to join ATV but returned to Pebble Mill to present Good Morning with Anne and Nick in 1992. More about that some other time, but I have to say thanks to the BBC at Pebble Mill for giving me my first chance in television back in August 1977.  They were doing a regional opt to herald the start of the football season, but Tony Francis, who would normally have been expected to front it, was away on holiday so they were clearly desperate and asked me!  I co-hosted it with Peter Windows, then a familiar face on continuity, and our studio guest was someone who became a great friend Larry Canning, the former Aston Villa player, then well known as a reporter for Sport on Two. The show was produced by another long standing friend, Rob Kirk, now at Sky News.

Some very happy days!

Nick Owen


Midlands Today – photos from Annie Gumbley

Copyright resides with the original photographer, no reproduction without permission.

Midlands Today presenters 1977

This photo shows the Midlands Today presenters from 1977, front row, left to right, Guy Thomas, Kay Alexander, Peter Windows, David Stevens, back row, Michael Hancock, Tom Coyne.

Midlands Today started broadcasting on 28 September 1964, from a studio in Broad Street, Birmingham, and moved to Pebble Mill when the building opened in 1971.

Pebble Mill newsroom 1978

The second photo shows the newsroom itself and includes: Paul Freeman (standing on left), Jo Dewar (on phone), Annie Gumbley (slightly bent over), Julia Gray (Simpkin).

I wonder if the hand bell (foreground) was for organising meetings!