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"WHO
IS THE BOSS? - LES ROSS!"
Les Ross M.B.E.
Click The Photo To Visit 95.6 FM BBC Radio WM !
A
legend in Midlands radio broadcasting for over 30 Years and multi Sony
Radio Award winner!
and
"The definitive voice of Birmingham" according to
Chris Tarrant
ON AIR - SATURDAY 6am TO
9am and SUNDAY 9AM
UNTIL NOON -
LISTEN LES ON BBC RADIO WM - ON AIR
95.6 MHz FM all over the
West
Midlands
DAB Digital
Radio : (NOW Wolverhampton, Shropshire & S. Staffs on Block 11B -
218.640 MHz)
DAB Digital
Radio: (CE Digital Birmingham and Black Country on Block
11C -
220.35
MHz)
Locally on Telewest Cable
channel 930 - 934
Also on the
internet via the BBC WM website.
Les Ross is Birmingham born and bred and
always wanted to become a disc jockey, even making radio programmes at
home with a Dansette record player. At the age of eleven he wrote
a letter to the manager of Radio Luxembourg asking for some help whith
his ambition. No response was forthcoming, but never the
less at the age of 15 he entered Mecca’s Disc Jockey of the Year
competition, and won, beating even Johnny Walker!
Somewhat
ironically the competition prize consisted, in part, as an audition for
The Great 208 - Radio Luxembourg - strangely this part of the prize did
not come to pass. Mecca, however offered him a job at the Mecca
ballroom in Birmingham twice a week. After that Les worked for the
Birmingham Roller Rink for five nights a week while also working days
at
IBM (International Business Machines), and later at Witton Park
cemetery as an administrator.
His
first full time professional job as a DJ was in 1970 when he began
working for a night club in Birmingham. Further offers came in
and
Les was chosen to host the Saturday Morning Show on BBC Radio
Birmingham
in the same year. BBC local radio was very new at the time, Radio
Birmingham having been launched in 1970, and Les's vivacious style was
a
hit with the listeners. BBC local radio tended to be rather more
sober thyan it is today and news of this popular and up-beat programme
reached the BBC Director General at Broadcasting House in London who
quickly contacted Radio Birmingham's Station Manager asking 'Is this
the
sort of programming that BBC local radio should really be doing?'
Not being fazed by this communication from HQ, Radio Birmingham's
manager retorted 'Yes, in spades!' And Les stayed.
Due this popularity, the contract became a full time post with Les
presenting the Breakfast show, starting every morning at the
unearthly hour of 5am!
In
1975, he was lured away from the Midlands by an Independent Local Radio
Station, Radio Tees in Stockton, who invited him to present their
Breakfast show. This was also an enormous success and he became a great
favourite so when he was approached by BRMB to return to Birmingham for
their
breakfast show, it was a very difficult decision to make because Radio
Tees was such a great station to work for. However, Les decided
to join the two year old BRMB (261 meters medium
wave / 1151 kHz and
94.8 VHF Stereo!) and quickly built up a very loyal fan base among the
young and old alike. A great favourite he later presented
was the "Round The World Phone Calls" show every sunday, where BRMB
would pick up the costs of allowing Les to ring up listeners' friends
and relatives around the globe with sometimes hilarious but often
heart-warming results. Don't forget the 1970's and 1980's were
times when international calls were often prohibitavely expensive and
there was no internet e-mail! Great programming.
[See more about BRMB on This Site]
[See more about BRMB at The
Windy Corner - an external site]
Les Ross On BRMB
Radio in the 1980's
Les would make great audio sketches and mini-comedies including the
unforgettable "Yesterday Never Comes", a daily two minute serial set in
the imaginary town of Little Wittel - not far from Wattle! He
played all the comedic characters, such as Gravely Ill, the Little
Wittle undertaker (a play on the place name Gravelly Hill), and of
course what listener could forget about Miss Take! Nim Nim Nim!
During his time at BRMB Les was also asked
to present an ATV programme
called ‘Revolver’ which required extensive cookery and musical
knowledge!
In
February 1986 Les won a SILVER HEART AWARD from THE VARIETY CLUB for the 1985 INDEPENDENT
RADIO PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR.
Les Ross on
television at the collecting his Silver Heart award
from the Variety
Club
In 1988 the commercial broadcasting regulator, the Independent
Broadcasting Authority (I.B.A.) was encouraging ILR stations, such as
BRMB Radio, to make better use of their VHF/FM and AM/Medium Wave
transmitters by splitting frequencies. In April 1989 BRMB Radio
was relaunched as "96.4 FM BRMB", while over on AM an additional
'sister' station on the medium-wave band was created, which Les Ross
himself named "XTRA AM" ! He moved from the BRMB breakfast show
to launch the new XTRA AM station, where he
also presented the
breakfast show, and it was still the best breakfast show on the dial!
Les wins the Sony
Best Breakfast Show Award in 1989 -
for his BRMB Breakfast Show that he had just left!
XTRA AM was broadcast on
1152kHz AM (261 meters) in the Birmingham and
Black Country. The new station was also carried on 1359kHz (220
meters) in Coventry and Warwickshire via the medium wave transmitter
previously occupied by Mercia Sound, which had recently merged with
BRMB
to form part of the 'Midlands Radio Group Ltd'.
XTRA AM played played popular 'classic hits', mostly from the sixties
and seventies and especially featuring Elvis Presley, The Beatles and
Cliff Richard. Favourites from the eighties were also included as
were some of the current, tuneful chart hits. It was probably
this
wide appeal coupled with the Les Ross breakfast show that made XTRA an
instant success. XTRA AM even gave its sister station, the long
established BRMB, a good run for the money in the ratings. Simon
Davies, from Marcher Sound, and Deborah Kinch (formerly known for being
"Delightful Deborah"
on Steve Wright's show on Radio One) were employed by BRMB to give the
station a bright new sound to not only compete with BBC radio, but also
with Les' breakfast
show on the all new XTRA AM
Capital Radio plc took over the Midlands Radio Group in 1993. They held on to
the Birmingham stations BRMB and Xtra AM, but sold the other stations
in
the portfolio (including Mercia Sound and XTRA AM Coventry, Radio Trent and GEM-am in Nottingham and Derby)
to GWR Radio, who also acquired Beacon
Radio
and WABC Wolverhampton in that same year. The Coventry and Warwickshire transmitters of XTRA AM on 1359kHz were
eventually taken over by GWR's oldies station
Classic Gold which was piped in from GWR's remote studios elswhere in Swindon.
Les Ross On BRMB In
The 1990's
Les's hugely successful breakfast show was moved back to 96.4FM BRMB in
August 1993, where all his loyal listeners no doubt followed him since
ratings at BRMB once again increased rapidly over the following
months. Predictably the ratings at XTRA AM plummeted.
Station bosses had to steal Tony Butler (previously of BRMB Sport fame
in the 1980's) back from BBC Radio WM to help support the audiences at
breakfast on the AM station. Les continued his successful
breakfast show on BRMB until he "retired" from BRMB in late 2002.
Les has won many awards including
‘Independent Radio Personality of the year Award for 1985’, ‘Top
Breakfast Show’ at the 1986, 1990 and 1994 and 1997 Sony Awards and
also
an MBE for his services to broadcasting and in 2004 became a member of
The Radio Academy.
Les'
work at the Birmingham radio stations BRMB and sister service XTRA AM
undoubtedly helped make them such great successes between 1976 and
2002. Capital Radio closed XTRA AM in 1998 - Read More HERE - and Les retired
from BRMB in 2002 after feeling rather out of touch with the youth
programming that BRMB FM now represented.
To celebrate Les' retirement BRMB station bosses decided to name a
Virgin Trains locomotive after the Midlands radio legend in a grand
ceremony. (Les is a self confessed train-spotter!) I
recorded the event, which was broadcast live from Birmingham at 9am on
Les' last breakfast show, and Les seemed quite underwhelmed by the
carry-on!. I thought that it sounded a little odd at the time
that
the usually high spirited Les wasn't as perky as usual and seemed to be
a little lost for words.
The reason, it has been alleged, is
that the event was more of a publicity stunt for BRMB / Capital Radio /
Virgin Trains, rather than for purely altruistic reasons, and it appears that the locomotive itself
was nearing the end of its period of service anyway, so a short time
later the
locomotive "The Les Ross" was de-commissioned! All in all a
rather pointless excercise. Poor old Les Ross - both of them!
Was it mere co-incidence that BRMB's listening figures took a bit of a
turn for
the worse when
Les left the station I wonder?
Les
immediately moved Saga Radio in the West Midlands where he presented the breakfast show in
his own inimitable syle from December 2002 and dramatically increased
the station's audience at that time. Well of course! He was
initially in good company as past colleages from the old BRMB Radio,
such as
news supremo John Hawkins and station boss Brian Savin, were in the
employ of SAGA at the time.
Les
decided to leave Saga when new management arrived in the summer
of 2004 and decided to adopt a more typical current-day commercial
radio style of presentation of less talk and chat; Les was, in
effect, instructed
(by E-mail), to play the records without talking over them and read the
'cue card' announcements. There was to be no
more of Les's hallmark impromptu jolly banter on the phone
with the listeners or with popular news-reader and sparring partner
John
Hawkins.
See "More" below.
Les is far too witty and creative to be influenced by this nonsense,
and he told the the station that he would be
leaving at the end of his contract in late December 2004.
Unfortunately this was also announced prematurely in the Birmingham
Evening Mail and
thus the station told him not to do any more shows and showed him the door!
(Fortunately for listeners, SAGA hired the fabulous Roger Day to
present several shows on the station).
So much of local commercial radio (ILR) presentation has been handed
over to DJ's who are only to willing to be given a chance to
get on the air - even if it does mean just reading from cue
cards!
This suits station bosses and accountants at many group stations as,
one presumes, it
keeps costs to a minimum! Real local personalities with
individual
flair and talent are becoming increasingly rare on ILR. The
experienced presenters/entertainers having left or been elbowed out are
often being snatched up by the BBC local stations who want some
experienced local
talent. Station managers at BBC Radio WM, including the current
incumbent Keith Beech,
have taken opportunities of appointing talent deserted
by commercial radio. Radio WM has welcomed some well known local
ex-commercial radio names in the past.
Legendary sports broadcaster Tony Butler came [back] to BBC WM after
Capital Gold dropped most local programming and closed the Birmingham
station '1152 XTRA-AM', replacing it with a relay of Capital Gold from
London in 1998. Jimmy Franks left Capital owned BRMB to join
BBC Radio WM in 2004 to present some excellent local music
programmes on the station. Another local legend in the midlands
is
Ed Doolan who also joined BBC Radio WM from commercial radio station
BRMB, but this was back in 1982 when BRMB was still BROADcasting.
The latest signing to BBC WM is, of course, local legend Les Ross - the
chicken that really has come back home to roost, because BBC WM started
out in life being known as 'BBC Radio Birmingham', where our Les first
started his radio career!
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LES
ROSS - THE AUDIO FILES
HERE
LES ROSS AUDIO ON THE BRMB AUDIO PAGE - HERE
(Page Opens In New Window)
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MORE . . . .
This from IC
Birmingham
One of the
region's best-known radio DJs is leaving Birmingham's SAGA FM station,
claiming management nannying was turning him into a "robo-jock".
The
final straw for veteran Les Ross, MBE, was being banned from drinking
coffee in his studio during the early bird breakfast show.
Ross,
aged 55, said that although he had more than doubled his show's
ratings, he was only offered a one-year contract at below half-pay.
"If
I had been happy and felt that I had support, I might have stayed for
half the money," he said.
The
winner of three Sony Gold Awards as Britain's top breakfast DJ, Ross
was last week inducted into the Radio Academy's Hall of Fame on the
same
day as BBC Radio WM's Ed Doolan.
Ross,
who leaves on December 24, said he had tired of emails telling him when
he could talk on air and to whom. He was not allowed to talk over the
end of a record or play any rock music.
"I
don't think the station knows what its target audience is. I can't play
the Rolling Stones, yet if you go to to a Stones gig the crowd is just
a
sea of white hair!"
SAGA
Radio director Ron Coles said yesterday: "I would like to thank Les for
his hard work during the last two years with the station"
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MORE . . . .
More from IC Birmingham
Les Ross today promised to sign for BBC Radio WM - two days after being
sacked by commercial rivals SAGA FM.
Manager Keith Beech said: “I am really
pleased because I’ve been keen to get him for years.
“We shook hands on the deal after your
story broke in the Evening Mail and we just need to sort out the paper
work - I’d like to think he’ll be with us for at least a couple of
years.
“Les will start work for us early in
the New Year but I’ve got to work out exactly what he is going to do.
“He will begin on a weekly show, but
will be doing a lot more speech than he has in the past. He has a great
sense of humour and is passionate about current affairs.
“I want him talking to callers and
listeners, but there will be some music in his show.”
Les, aged 55, initially worked for the
old BBC Radio Birmingham at the start of his career, before later
spending 26 years at BRMB.
After his two years at Saga were due to
end on Christmas Eve, the triple Sony Gold Award winner decided not to
accept the station’s offer of a new one-year deal at ‘less than half
pay’.
He was then sacked for opening his
heart to the Evening Mail about how he had tired of Saga’s ‘management
by email’ policy.
Les, who said he was stopped from
taking coffee into his studio in case he spilt it, added: “If you pay
peanuts you get monkeys."
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MORE . . . .
This From A BBC Press
Release (5/1/05)
BBC WM announced today that
Les Ross will present a new Sunday morning show on the station
from 6 February 2005.
Les, who began his career at
the
former BBC Radio Birmingham, is going back to his roots with
his return to BBC WM. He will present the mid morning show on
Sundays, from 9.00am to noon.
Les forms part of a brand
new
Sunday line up for BBC WM, which also saw Ed Doolan take over
as presenter of the Sunday Breakfast Show, BBC WM's main
religious programme, now hosted by Robert Beckford. Carl Chinn
and Bob Brolly will host the
afternoon shows and contribute to making Sunday's line-up one of BBC
WM's most prestigious, as all four men have been honoured with MBE
awards for their services to broadcasting. Keith Beech, Editor,
BBC WM, says: "We feel very proud to be offering such a unique and
impressive Sunday schedule to our listeners and we are delighted that
Les Ross, a definitive voice of the Midlands, will be joining us.
We have been working with Les to create a show that is new and
exciting, but that also incorporates variations on some of his most
popular features, which many listeners will remember."
Les Ross adds: "I always thought I'd come back to BBC
Birmingham. In my opinion, you can't do better than be on local radio
in
your home area. I'm very much looking forward to it."
Les began his radio career at BBC Radio Birmingham in 1970 before
moving
on to commercial stations Radio Tees, BRMB/XtraAm and Saga FM. He
has picked up two prestigious Sony Awards during his 34 year
broadcasting career, and was awarded the MBE for services to
broadcasting in 1996.
In December 2004, Les and Ed Doolan
became the first regional broadcasters to be inducted into the
Radio Academy's Hall of Fame.
LES ROSS ON THE AIR:
Les Ross can be heard on BBC WM every weekday from 1pm to 4pm.
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Grateful thanks to Alan Nicklin of 107.4 Telford FM and Wolverhampton's 107.7 The Wolf for ironing out a few 'wrinkles' in our radio pages.
Cheers Alan!
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