the show that time forgot

music played ~ sunday 25 september 2011

1-2pm

Don't Get Me Wrong (The Pretenders)
Ha Ha! Said The Clown (Manfred Mann)
A Million Love Songs (Take That)

Cheery Tunes with a sing-a-long quality
Summerlove Sensation (The Bay City Rollers)
It Might As Well Rain Until September (Carole King)
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Say Mama (Gene Vincent)
Where Is The Love? (Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway)

Newsround Tameside: Early Autumn 1992
Iron Lion Zion (Bob Marley & The Wailers)
Sleeping Satellite (Tasmin Archer)
It's Only Natural (Crowded House)
The Crying Game (Boy George)
Possessed (Vegas)
End of the Road (Boyz II Men)

1

Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy (Queen)
Right Now (The Creatures)
Those Were The Days (Mary Hopkin)

Cheery Tunes ~ absolutely lyricless
Buckeye (Johnny & The Hurricanes)
Roulette (Russ Conway)
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Back Street Luv (Curved Air)
Happy Birthday (Altered Images)

 Early Autumn 1968
Mexico (Long John Baldry)
Dream A Little Dream of Me (Mama Cass)
Red Balloon (Dave Clark Five)
Jesamine (The Casuals)
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Hugo Montenegro)
Little Arrows (Leapy Lee)
This Old Heart of Mine (The Isley Brothers)

Rhapsody In Blue (Rick Wakeman)
 

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is a regular feature of The Show That Time Forgot on 103.6FM Tameside Radio, carefully preserved from 'a previous life' not so long ago...

Each week, in the first hour of the show Mike looks back at the lighter side of the local news in Tameside' from 'a certain month in a certain year' using the original scripts compiled from editions of the Reporter and occasionally other local newspapers.

The original Newsround Tameside was a weekly feature on the local hospital radio station - sadly now defunct - which broadcast to the patients and staff at Tameside General Hospital. The station was officially launched in 1983 as Heartbeat Radio, but later adopted the name 8 Towns Radio.

Mike was there right from the start, training a team of volunteers to compile and read the hourly news bulletins. He read the news on the station's very first day on air,
Saturday 22 October 1983.

That same weekend, he presented the first edition of Newsround Tameside, compiled from the week's local papers. The 15-minute round-up evolved into a feature within Mike's own show which ran for 10 years, from February 1984 until early 1994.

8 Towns Radio made history in October 1992 when it was heard across the borough of Tameside for the first time. This was a special event broadcast to help raise funds for the hospital station, but it was also the first community radio station created by local people, for local people, here in Tameside.

As such, it proved to be a trail-blazer, pioneering the 'real local radio' of today - 103.6FM Tameside Radio.

 'G'day... you're tuned to Microphone Wallbank'....an instantly familiar voice makes the announcement during our back-to-back music interludes known as the Cheery Tunes.

And yes, it really IS the voice of Rolf Harris himself, recorded way back in 1986! Mike interviewed Rolf backstage at G-Mex in Manchester, during a break in rehearsals at the Halle Summer Proms - he was the narrator for a performance of Peter and The Wolf.
 
"At the time, he was presenting Rolf's Cartoon Time on TV and had just published a book on cartoon drawing, on which he scribbled his autograph in typical style!

"A genuinely nice guy - I found that the man as seen on TV is exactly what you get when you meet him in real life."

"Our conversation, first broadcast on 8 Towns Radio, for the patients of Tameside General Hospital, included many great memories of Rolf's early career and an impromptu rendition of the first song he ever performed - complete with customary, improvised sound effects and the unforgettable title...
Seven Beers With The Wrong Woman !!!"

Listen to Mike's legendary Rolf Harris interview - visit the audio archive of

Radio Starlion,
the patients' radio service at
Stepping Hill Hospital,
Stockport

e-mail the show

Mike is one of several ex-8 Towners who are now with Tameside Radio. For a real blast from the past, with lots more photos and vintage audio clips, click here: