Straight in at Number One!
Tuning into the chart shows on the radio was a growing up ritual – whether you listened in to Alan Freeman, or Simon Bates at Sunday teatime – or took your little tranny into school to eavesdrop on Johnnie Walker or Paul Burnett at lunchtime revealing the latest chart positions, screaming at the success of your favoured artist.
Maybe you recorded the programmes on a reel-to-reel tape recorder or early cassette recorder, simply using a microphone – which was fine, until the dog barked or mother called. Real devotees jotted down the titles of every song to track progress for future reference.
The first chart show heard in the UK is said to date back to 1948 – beamed to our shores by Radio Luxembourg on crackly 208 with Teddy Johnson at the helm. The chart was compiled using the sales of sheet music; and Teddy originally feared such a predictable show might fail:
“What’s the point? We’re playing these records all the week. They’re not going to listen to them all in one programme!”, he told Boom Radio’s David Lloyd in a 2016 interview. “We got tremendous audience figures”. Teddy would later be the UK’s 1959 Eurovision entrant with his wife Pearl Carr, with ‘Sing Little Birdie Sing’.
The format proven and noticed by the BBC, Alan Dell rifled through the charts from the music press in the late ‘50s on the BBC Light programme, succeeded by David Jacobs and then Alan Freeman as the rundown evolved into the famous ‘Pick of the Pops’.
When Tom Browne took over chart duties on the BBC through much of the ‘70s, he wrestled initially with the importance and pace of the frenetic programme: “I closed the mic after the very first Top 20. I had to lie down on the floor. It nearly wiped me out!”
Now, Boom Radio continues the tradition in the 21st Century with its weekly Vintage Charts hosted brilliantly by John Peters.
The two-hour rundown on Boom features charts principally from the great ‘60s and ‘70s years, with the occasional visit to the ‘50s or early ‘80s. John’s programme is becoming as much a part of Sunday lunchtimes as The Clitheroe Kid!
Hear the Vintage Charts on Sundays at noon on Boom Radio!
You can find Boom Radio on DAB; or ask Alexa – also on your phone, tablet or laptop.
Click here for how to listen to Boom Radio.
