Tony Hayes

OK, I got my first transistor radio in 1973, a Vesta LW/MW thing from Woolworths in Birkenhead, for the princely sum of £2.99 – majorly expensive when you’re 8!! Of course we had a family radio, which was always tuned to 1500 metres, Radio 2, so I grew up on The Seekers, Nana Mouskouri, Bing and Frank… and The Kings’ Singers 🙂

Having my own radio though I was free to scan the dial, but didn’t find much I liked. A lot of early 70’s pop is utter shite, all those Glam Rock bands – the look was ugly, and the music was too! So, I found Radio 3 of all things, and listened to Homeward Bound on that.

Naturally I had the radio under the sheets, and Saturday and Sunday mornings were a pleasure as at 8am, Ed Stewart came on with Junior Choice. How I loved that show, a kid’s tune followed by a chart tune – Nelly The Elephant, Puff The Magic Dragon et al, great stuff! I’m so glad they periodically bring it back still, and Ed is THE MAN when it comes to this show.

I first got into pop music in late 1977, in fact I’d been out with my bro and a neighbour knocking down snowmen and we got chased, I realised the buzz wasn’t worth the hassle so came into the warmth and watched Top Of The Pops. Suzy Quatro was on, I loved Suzy and, thinking of it now, she probably started my interest in women wearing shiny clothes. Although I thought that accolade went to Sheena Easton on that fine lunchtime in 1980 when Noel Edmonds ended Swap Shop with her video for Modern Girl. I was hooked, on her shiny jumpsuit AND her! 😉

In the summer of 1978 my cousin introduced me to Radio Luxembourg, the great 208! Adverts on the radio? Wow! That was like television! (which I loved). Disco was king and the Luxy sound was something I craved every evening from 8, when the signal came in, and couldn’t switch off – so I took it under the duvet at night, or continental quilt as it was known then.

My first hearing of a pirate broadcast was either in that year or ’79 when, during a crap song on Luxy, I tuned around and heard Derek & Clive being transmitted on 252 metres MW (I think). I’d never heard anything like it and was almost wetting myself in bed.

Never able to receive Radio 1 successfully on 247, I started listening on the day of the wave change in 1978. Wow! Pop music radio all day! I was hooked, taking a radio to school every day. First a transistor, later the Bush VTR 103 – a massive radio that looked like a cream handbag! We weren’t allowed radios in school, but I guess the staff at Pensby Boys’ thought there was no point in banning mine, I even handed it in when we did PE lol. When I carried the Bush there was no chance of me listening to it in lessons, but when I had my trusty Philips MW/UKV European blazer jacket sized tranny, I just flipped it under my elbow and rested on it. Thus resulting in my record 13 ‘U’s in my exams lol 😀

Radio was my love, my companion.

I’m unsure of the time, but think it was ’79, I went to a Fete at the church down the road and got a HMV 3 band, red leather and silver, 60’s big transistor set. This had VHF and I soon tuned into Piccadilly on 97. This was a faster paced station than Radio 1 and the local offering, Radio City, which I’d never bothered with. The jingles fast and pacey, I loved Pete Baker in the morning, Phil Wood, Susie Mathis and Steve Penk’s Sunday afternoon show from 3-7, including the ‘Teenage Hitline’ – the top 20 songs as voted by us, the listener, throughout the week. Steve had it all, energy, passion… I was hooked! My first dedication was on his show, read out over London Calling from The Clash. Steve soon got the Saturday night oldies show, but even that he made his own, with pacey presentation and songs banged together non stop – growing my musical knowledge. I’d also tune to the oldies show on City, but what a come down! Joe Butler’s ultra slow presentation 🙁 this steered me away from City and on to Piccadilly – on both 97 and 261…and that’s how I came across MAR lol.

There I was listening to Piccadilly whilst doing my paper round, when this annoying splatter interfered with my enjoyment of the pop on 261. I didn’t know what it was, but soon tuned up and heard the dreadful din – and where was the pop? Fuck that! I was back on 261, putting up with that racket encroaching on my station of choice.

In 1980 Colin Sayer wrote in to Simon Tate with a request for me. I didn’t really know anything about Colin, except that 5 years earlier he headbutted me into the concrete bus stop outside school for no reason. One of those ‘what you lookin’ at?’ moments of an angst ridden youth, or just a fool? I thought anyway, there I was being mentioned on Radio City’s Downtown. I guess it was meant for JJ, but Simon was filling in. This was the start of a great writing relationship with Simon, one of the nicest guys in radio. He toured me around City and I visited his static caravan at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1981. He was a really genuine guy, you don’t find too many of them in the dog eat dog world of ILR!

I flicked between Piccadilly and City across late 1980 to the start of ’82 then my radio life was to change forever, one night in early ’82.

Flunking school big time, my parents made me attend night school at Hilbre on a Thursday night for Physics lessons – all I wanted to do was listen to my radio, which is what I did as soon as I got out. I walked along to that stop just by The Ridger pub and started flicking around. Sunshine 539 was coming in unusually strong and I flicked through the AM band, landing on a station I’d never heard before… Radio Nova on 819, music almost non-stop (something unheard of on our stations), slick presentation… I was instantly hooked! It said ’88fm’ on the jingles but I could hear nothing on my Sony tranny. I went home and there it was, fluke or what! I couldn’t get a tape in quickly enough to record Jason Mayne’s dulcet tones until, at midnight, came the dreaded message after Nova news, ‘Radio Nova is switching off now due to technical difficulties, we’ll be back at 6am’. Of course they weren’t, not on my Sony FM radio cassette, the skip had passed, but 819 was alive with this fresh new sound 🙂

Nova changed my musical life, getting me into AOR and not just pop. They didn’t play Tight Fit, they played Steely Dan and Kenny Loggins, all new stuff to me. Where was the pop? I flicked between Piccadilly’s 5pm chart of the day and Nova’s more adult feel throughout my paper round. You see, I didn’t know the songs – but it wasn’t long before I did, and it’s these great songs that I bring you in the Kiss & WABC Years!

Casey Kasem wasn’t a new voice to me, I’d listened every Friday night to him on AFN 871 since 1979. His distinctive voice and presentation style. Yeah, it was a bit slow, but boy did he have delivery!!! Casey was on Nova twice a week, Sunday afternoons, perfect for my walk to friends in West Kirby, and Wednesday nights at midnight. That great music that was splattered across Nova’s playlist was there in one huge 4 hour chunk! FANTASTIC!!

There was a guy on Nova who did weekend late nights, called Roland Burke. He was the guy behind the Heartbeats segue songs they played, like Stars on 45, but with the real stars! Along with the general jingle/promo making in 19 Herbert Street. I called him regularly, try dialling 0001 604043 (or whatever it was) on a DIAL telephone when they were regularly engaged! I said I should come over one day and he said why not? I was on the boat over the following Wednesday night at 22:45!! £11 return, with a free bottle of gin… go figure! I had a great time in Dublin, experienced Nova from the inside, met the gang, partied in the City centre at 2am – I didn’t know there was life at 2am!! Recorded a ‘can you tell me, do you listen to Radio Nova?’ voxpop, which I heard at about 17 mins past 7 on Friday morning, as I stood in the queue to disembark the ship that had brought me home. I was a Radio Nova star, well for 30 seconds at least – and they did give me the tenner, despite it being totally fixed – with the traffic sounds on a BBC sound effects lp LOL.

Nova moved from Herbert Street to Rathfarnham, so another visit was in order – with Rollo taking me on a trip around Dublin’s other pirate stations. A funny thing about Rathfarnham was the lights, as they flicked on and off to the beat of the song played by Nova, Rollo showed me that light switch was in the OFF position! Chris Carey asked me about the quality of reception on the Wirral, his mum lived in Chester. I said it was good until the night drew in, he said he should angle the AM towards us. I looked forward to that until I found that he meant to skew the music towards us too 🙁 all that shit I tried to avoid was now on my station of choice! GRRR!!!!

Off to Q102, still flying the flag of ‘quality’ music over Dublin, I was soon in touch – and soon back in Dublin. Had a trip to Sunshine 101 too, and met Robbie – nice guy. Had two trips to the Q, but after about a year they started British-ing out and there was only one place to escape – SUNSHINE 101. Originally a quirky, mumsy feel Irish station, Sunshine had grown up and got ‘with it’, super slick links, pacey presentation and great processing! I stayed with Sunshine till the closedown, where I could be seen standing outside work in Liverpool – blubbing to Alive, Alive-o on that fateful night of it’s forced closedown.

Soon I was the possessor of a satellite dish throwing open to me a whole new radio experience – coming from the opposite side of Europe! We stuck on Sky Radio at work as it was nice, easy Magic 105.4 stuff of it’s day – but I’d discovered another station… Radio 538! Fuck me, these guys knew how to do it fast! It grew my musical taste of European music and I even appeared on several shows calling in for various songs – the only person to do that from the UK, as far as I recall. Corne Klijn even called me at a friend’s I was out visiting, to put me on air – WHAT A STAR!!!

538 went ‘digital’ and I moved to N Joy from Hamburg, then to NRJ Paris and Voltage 96.9, also from Paris – a dance/pop station, I listened for about 3 years until they started going rocky with all that shit music I’d avoided by listening to foreign radio – OASIS etc.

DAB was in then and I was soon onto Capital Gold, and later LBC 97.3 – to which I have been a regular caller. What? I hear you ask, a TALK station? Well, it’s never boring!!!!

I’m ignoring the ‘pirate’ in me, so where do I start? I hated MAR, but was enchanted by the sounds on 97.25 in 1982. It was called Radio Veronica, and I used to coincide my walking home time, from my mate’s in Pensby to mine, to hear this strange transmission – the fast presentation, the optimod sound, the stereo effects – I didn’t know who or what it was, I was entranced!

Later it was ADFM 97.55 and I got in touch and found out where Andy lived, a friendship was born – and many great nights on air! Remember me not telling Colin and him tracking us down? LOL.

Anyway, I’m omitting something… I sent tapes to Radio Atlantis on 936, and did 3-4pm on a few Sundays, before moving to 102.7 Kiss Fm, or did I do some Elenore?, I can’t remember, anyway, I pissed Steve Bishop off – totally unintentionally, as I didn’t realise that I was under contract to Atlantis. I must have done Elenore, but my wine muddled brain doesn’t remember right now LOL.

Kiss was a blast! Si Mack did a one hour heavy rock show, then Alan Ross did an hour, me two, then Colin two – five hours of American top 40 hits. Si dropped out and Alan did 12-1, me 1-4 and Colin 4-6. Is that right? I can’t remember. The guy behind the great TX was the fantastic Davo, without who Kiss wouldn’t have existed. However, he had a mate called Mark Wright who, despite being a lovely fella, couldn’t present how we wanted him to. He was Steve Wright from the Wirral, and that just wasn’t us! We declared to Davo ‘our style or his?’ It was an ultimatum and I understand that he was divided, but we weren’t, we left Kiss and started WABC – thanks to Andy and another Andy… Andy Crane, who inadvertently started another pirate station in the annals of Wirral’s rich Pirate tapestry – best told over an Abbot at a Spoons near you 😉

Now, older and more musically worldly wise, I appreciate a lot of the tracks dragged up by the current MAR crew – listening on those alternate Sunday nights is bliss, all those ‘forgotten 45s’ as a great DJ on 10 Gold used to say.

Long may it continue…. 🙂

Tony