The Editor of Radio 1’s Newsbeat programme is appealing to people across the industry to help him track down a recording of the first ever edition.
The programme – which aired at 12.30pm on 10th September 1973 during Johnnie Walker’s show – isn’t in the BBC’s archives and so far Rod McKenzie’s search has proved fruitless.
Rod told RadioToday.co.uk that he hoped to transcribe the first ever Newsbeat and use some of the words on the walls of the programme team’s new home in Broadcasting House when they move from Radio 1’s current Yalding House base next year.
“It’s been a frustrating search,” he told us. “Astonishingly, the BBC archive don’t have any Radio 1 output from 1973 and even my most anoraky former colleagues haven’t been able to come up with the goods. The nearest we’ve got is the teatime edition from 10th September with Ed Stewart presenting and handing over to Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman. It’s a fantastic piece of radio history – but I’d love to find the actual first edition in Johnnie’s show.”
McKenzie is also looking for recordings of any other moments from Newsbeat history and is hoping other collectors can help out. “I’ve got plenty of stuff from the mid 80s onwards but there isn’t much stuff surviving from before that,” he added.
Posted on Thursday, October 20th, 2011 at 11:48 am by RadioToday UK