1614: Beacon Top 40 with Mike Baker - 1979

The unmistakeable Beacon sound powers through, from the chap who’d started it off from Wolverhampton three years before. In this excerpt from a Beacon Top 40 in November 1979, Mike Baker does the business, with that slick sound he’d honed – as had many others - at UBN, the United Biscuits Network. Witness how Beacon claimed ‘The West Midlands’ rather than its licensed area (then Wolverhampton and the Black Country) - then in separate ownerships the station battled over the significant BRMB overlap.

Hear the ads and lengthy news (5 minutes) typical of the time too, a Terry Wogan voiceover – a fireworks PSA – nodding to the meaningful speech required - and the Toby jugs thing…

Mike Baker died in 2013.