Midlands Yesterday – photos Maureen Carter

Here is a selection of photos from the Midlands Today reunion – entitled Midlands Yesterday, held on Saturday 3rd September 2016 at the Midlands Arts Centre. Thanks to Maureen Carter for sharing the photos.

Anita Bhalla, Sue Beardsmore MC

Anita Bhalla, Sue Beardsmore

Ann Gumbley Williams, Jim Knights MC

Ann Gumbley Williams, Jim Knights

Ann Banks MC

Sally Morris and Ann Banks

Jane Ward, Mary Sanchez, Kay Alexander MC

Jane Ward, Mary Sanchez, Kay Alexander

Maurice Blisson MC

Maurice Blisson

Pete Shannon, Gary Hudson MC

Pete Shannon, Gary Hudson

Pete Shannon, Maureen Carter, MC

Pete Shannon, Maureen Carter

Richard Uridge MC

Richard Uridge

Rick Thompson MC

Rick Thompson and Gill Thompson

Rick Thompson, Pete Shannon, Jim Knights, Maureen Carter, Cathy Houghton, MC

Rick Thompson, Pete Shannon, Jim Knights, Maureen Carter, Cathy Houghton,

Roz Gower MC

Roz Gower and Mike Wilkie

Roy Saatchi MC

Tony Francis and Roy Saatchi

Sue Beardsmore, Maureen Carter MC

Sue Beardsmore, Maureen Carter

Midlands Yesterday 2 MC

? and Keith Ackrill

Midlands Yesterday 1 MC

Brian Conway, Kathy  Rochford, Sally Morris

Midlands Yesterday 3 MC

Bob Sinkinson, Frances Coverdale, Mike Wilkie, Jim Knights

Gary Hudson MC

Gary Hudson and Mark Readman

Midlands Yesterday MC

Maureen Carter MC

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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