Christmas at Bush House 1984-85

I spent two pre-Christmases working at the BBC World Service HQ at Bush House (above) on the Strand in London. These were way back in 1984 and 1985 when I worked as an assistant and then an interim manager at BBC World Information Centre and Shop.

It was a wonderful time to be there-although frantically busy from when the shop and Information Centre opened at 9.30 a.m. until it closed at 7.00 p.m. From 1st December to Christmas Eve anything that we put on the shelves was snapped up. BBC golf balls, Images of Britain and other traditional style Christmas cards, umbrellas and tea-towels.


More conventional items such as BBC records and audio cassettes, sweatshirts, pens, pencils, T-shirts and diaries sold well needless to say. Christmas 1984 was the year that Fawlty Towers was released on video (VHS and Betamax!) Videos were horrendously expensive in those days, retailing at £24.95 or £99 for the boxed set of Fawlty Towers, but they sold nonetheless.


All the frantic activity was accompanied by the piped live feed from the Bush House Studios, mostly the English service, from Richard Baker’s classical choices to John Peel, DLT to Edward Greenfield, Bob Holness to the World Radio club team, with the news read by the likes of Meryl O’Keefe and John Wing. We could also switch to any of the language services that visitors wished to hear.


Carol concerts at the local churches of St Mary Le Strand and St Clement Danes (below), the latter built in 1682 were another festive feature of December on the Strand.


All in all they were wonderful preparations for Christmas. For more of my tales from Bush House, go to:
Coffee Break at Bush House: http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2011/08/coffee-break-at-bush-house.html
and my 2002 article for Monitoring Times at: http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2009/08/tales-from-bush-house.html

There is also a two part series on the BBC WS's departure from Bush House next year, at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00m98kf

A Swiss Christmas

Switzerland in Sound is a wonderful programme, packed full of Swiss info and presented by the lovely Bob Zanotti. Bob was on shortwave with Swiss Radio International for over 30 years and it’s great that he now produces a regular podcast (via PCJ Media in Taiwan.)


Join him preparing for Christmas and baking some Christmas cookies with unpronounceable names at his home in the Emmental region, 750 metres up in the mountains (3rd December 2011 podcast).


So, if it’s as cold with you right now as it is here in north-west England, I suggest you make yourself a hot chocolate, curl up on the sofa and indulge yourself with a virtual visit to Switzerland- a different place or topic in every podcast and they are always of interest: http://www.pcjmedia.com/switzerland-in-sound-bob-zanotti

Radio Advent calendar links for 11th to 20th December

Here are some links to last year's Radio themed Advent calendar for 11th December, or you can navigate to the entire calendar via the side panel on the right- click to Dec 2010.

http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-2010-radio-advent-blog-11.html

Festive internet radio

A few festive internet radio stations for you to try out include http://www.allchristmasinternetradio.com/ which has scheduled programmes thus eliminating repeated music too often.

There are also lots of portals which list festive music stations, such as http://www.shoutcast.com/radio/Christmas 

I have been writing Christmas cards to the sounds of a station by the name of The Christmas lounge-chilled holiday groove, at http://somafm.com/ and some classic sounds from http://www.classicholidayradio.com/ which is less classical and more US crooners such as Tennessee Ernie Ford singing “Joy to the world”. Well worthy of a listen for entertainment value alone.

What to buy the radio fan at Xmas?

Here are a few ideas for last minute presents for the radio enthusiast.
How about a “I love Radio 4” hooded top? I am sorely tempted by this to see me through the winter, although some of the other clothing options on offer are less tasteful. Check for yourself at www.printedclothing.com with the Radio 4 merchandise at http://www.printedclothing.com/shack/contents/en-uk/d91.html


Scott Fybush has been producing a calendar of US transmitter sites for over ten years now, and it is always an artistic piece of work that would grace any radio shack
http://www.fybush.com/calendar.html 
It’s time to buy a new diary as well. National radio stations producing 2012 diaries include LBC and Classic FM. The LBC Londoners’ diary http://www.lbc.co.uk/order-your-2012-lbc-londoners-diary-today-45628  and also at the Book Depository www.bookdepository.co.uk  and Amazon, from around £8. 12 LBC 97.3 presenters including James O’Brien and Steve Allen share their Ultimate London Landmarks

The Classic FM diary is only a click away at http://www.classicfm.co.uk/shop/classic-fm-diary/  and also at the Book Depository and Amazon. It includes humorous classical music anecdotes on every page, composers' birthdays and on-this-day facts.

Santa Andy

Andy Walmsley is already in the festive mood at his always rather splendid radio blog:
http://andywalmsley.blogspot.com

with packages of classic Christmas jingles at:  http://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2011/12/jingle-all-way.html?showComment=1322839432742#c3973667579102611623

...plus an advent calendar of Radio Times covers on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Random-Radio-Jottings/113123188769904 , and more fascinating all year round features to read than you can shake a striped candy stick at.

Radio Themed Advent Calendar

Here are the links to last year's Radio themed Advent calendar for the days 2nd December to 10th December, or you can navigate to it in the side panel on the right:

http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-2010-radio-advent-blog-2.html



http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-2010-radio-advent-blog-3.html


http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-2010-radio-advent-blog-4.html


http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-2010-radio-advent-blog-5.html


http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-2010-radio-advent-blog-6.html


http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-2010-radio-advent-blog-7.html


http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-2010-radio-advent-blog-8.html


http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-2010-radio-advent-blog-9.html


http://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-2010-radio-advent-blog-10.html