BBC Radio Leeds celebrates its 50th birthday by broadcasting live from its original home at the Merrion Centre
On June 24th 1968, at 5.30pm, BBC Radio Leeds made its first broadcast to listeners across Leeds, presenter Liz Ambler was the first voice on the station.
To mark the station’s landmark birthday, special programming on June 24th will celebrate the station’s heritage, followed by a week of shows broadcast live from the Merrion Centre, the station’s original home and Town Centre Securities’ largest single asset.
Starting on Monday June 25th, BBC Radio Leeds will broadcast over 25 shows from a pop-up studio on the main mall of the Merrion Centre in the heart of Leeds city centre. Listeners are invited to come along throughout the week and watch as the programmes are broadcast.
Richard Stead will start the week’s broadcasts as he presents his breakfast show live from the shopping centre. Other shows coming live from The Merrion Centre are: The Stephanie Hirst Show, The Big Yorkshire Phone-In with Liz Green, The Teatime Show with Gayle Lofthouse and West Yorkshire Sport Daily. Andrew Edwards’ Weekend Breakfast Show will be there on Saturday along with Nick Ahad and, on Sunday July 1st, the week of broadcasts from the Merrion Centre will conclude with Gardening with Tim Crowther.
There will be photo opportunities with some of the presenters broadcasting live from the pop-up studio in the Merrion Centre, and guests from across the region will be featured on the shows throughout the week.
At 5.30pm on Sunday June 24th exactly 50 years since the station went on air, BBC Radio Leeds will broadcast a special documentary about the last five decades.
The documentary will bring 50 years of BBC Radio Leeds back to life. Using archive material, the programme will feature extracts of the first day of broadcasting in 1968 before working its way through the decades to relay the sound of the radio station as it grew and matured into what it is today. Extracts of old programmes have been gathered following a six month search for old recordings of the radio station made by former members of staff and even listeners who have sent-in their old reels of quarter-inch tape and cassettes. The material gathered goes as far back as 1968 and paints a picture of how BBC local radio has evolved over the past 50 years.
Later on Sunday evening, (8-9pm) The Durbevilles folk show will feature the song the late Jake Thackray wrote to promote BBC Radio Leeds on that opening night. Fake Thackray (Jake Thackray’s estate approved impersonator and biographer John Watterson) has written a modern version of that opening song which will be aired for the first time.
Sanjiv Buttoo, Managing Editor for BBC Radio Leeds, said: “Radio Leeds has enjoyed 50 wonderful and varied years of broadcasting to West Yorkshire. Our listeners are constantly changing and the station tries to reflect everyone in the content we produce, providing essential information, connecting communities and entertaining them with great music, engaging guests all held together by a talented mix of professional presenters. But we’re always looking for ‘what’s next’ and hope that we continue to attract an ever changing audience who we know are now accessing what we do not only on radio, but through their TV’s, computers, tablets and mobile phones.”
Edward Ziff, Chairman and Chief Executive of Town Centre Securities, owners of the Merrion Centre said: “We are pleased to welcome BBC Radio Leeds back to their original home at the Merrion Centre to help celebrate their 50th birthday.
Both the station and shopping centre have been part of the city’s history for a significant amount of time, which is testament to the hard work of all involved over the years.
We wish BBC Radio Leeds all the very best, and look forward to welcoming regular and new visitors to the Merrion Centre during the week to help them celebrate this momentous milestone”.
Merrion Centre
The Merrion Centre is a mixed use island site in a prime location in Leeds city centre comprising of almost 1,000,000 sq. ft of covered shopping centr...