Century Radio, North East England, 1994 - 1997

by Ben Baxter
(work in progress)

Century Radio was a regional radio station broadcasting to the north east of England, from Alnwick in the North on 101.8FM to Thirsk in the South on 100.7FM. A Border Radio Holdings station, the direction of the station seemed very much decided by John Myers and John Simons, managing director and program director respectively. These two also appeared on air, with John Myers broadcasting as John Morgan in the morning and John Simons at drivetime. The personality-based station had a 50/50 mix of music and speech, and began broadcasting on Monday, September 1, 1994 at 8 a.m. This was the first time John Myers would announce that 'a star is born' and play the Barbra Streisand record (he did the same on the other two Century stations, as well as at Real Radio which he went on to spearhead after Capital Radio Group bought the three Century stations from BRH in 1999). There was a huge pre-launch advertising campaign to raise awareness of the new station both on billboards, in newspapers and even on television with the slogan "the best thing for ears" which was not carried through to the on air presentation at launch. The north-east region was split into two by the two transmitters and advertising was sold separately in each micro region.

The original presenter line-up included Andy Hodgson, John Morgan, Simon Bates (ex-Radio 1), Tony Fisher, Paul Frost (TTTV), John Simons, Steve Phillips, Phil Matthews, and a large news team who broadcast a rolling news service for two hours every weekday. After securing commentary rights for Middlesbrough Football Club, Saturday consisted of sports programming on the Teesside transmitter, with Gary Davies presenting the Light Top 40 in the north. Sunday had a two hour gardening phone in - unheard of on local commercial radio today, Country Countdown USA for three hours, and ex-Tyne Tees TV in-vision continuity announcer Neville Wanless with nostalgia for three hours. There were also different personalities after a couple of years, such as the Canadian Moose Evans and American "PJ the DJ" - which was interesting to hear in itself.

Programme controller John Simons also took a risk by employing Mike 'The Mouth' Elliott as the late-night phone in host. Mike Elliott was previously known as a standup comedian, but excelled as a late-night host. This appointment was not without controversy - Elliott's increasingly controversial 'shock jock' style made sure that the Radio Authority were often listening, and on the occasion when he told a caller who was proud that she was cheating the benefits system to "f*** off", it was by chance that a member of the Radio Authority happened to be listening at the time. He was immediately taken off air and the rest of the show was music. Century did in fact have a 'slander budget' of between £10,000 and £50,000 to cover any eventualities from their big personalities. Mike could ad lib like no-other, and when the studios had a power cut (which actually happened quite often) instead of the DAT tape of Andy Hodgson being played until the computers were back up and running, Mike just talked for over 20 minutes - hilarious stuff. (Elliott now presents a nationally networked phone-in show on a large number of local Radio Investments company stations called "North South Divided").

John Morgan was very much the star of the station - his Breakfast Gamble (similar to Take Your Pick) hooked listeners for the best part of an hour every morning for two weeks at a time and led to complaints from employers that most of their staff were sitting in the car park waiting to hear the final outcome of the gamble to hear if the caller would take the money or open the envelope. The prizes were pretty spectacular too - £10,000, a new car, a round-the-world holiday, etc. Century were also the first station to give away a new house in a very long promotion and elaborate day-long outside broadcast. However, Morgan AKA Myers was seemingly growing tired of the on-air presenting and was keen to develop his career in radio station management. He was always looking for a way or an excuse to get off the air for good - the listeners loved him and ratings plummeted when he was not broadcasting on the breakfast show. He finally took his leave when Princess Diana was killed, never to return to the Century airwaves again for a regular show. I think, years later, that he did a network show on all 3 Century stations called "Fun on the Phones" and this may have also been carried on to Real Radio.

When Border Radio Holdings purchased Sun FM in Sunderland, Century ran a news story about it, introducing John as John Myers and not John Morgan as he gave, in business speak, a statement regarding the takeover. There was an attempt to replace John Morgan at breakfast with Steve Colman, an ex-GNR presenter, but the listeners didn't take to him, considering him the reason why Morgan was not there any more. Ratings plummeted, advertisers threatened to pull, and Morgan was back on. Colman claims he wasn't given a chance, and I don't know what went on behind the scenes. In the past, John Myers was a continuity announcer on Border Television (hence the BRH link?), is a big Carlisle United fan and loves submarine films. Century even advertised nationally on Granada Plus, a satellite channel with the line "whenever you're in the north east, listen to Century", which was a pretty ambitious and unique thing for a local radio station to do. Morgan was also on BBC 1's Noel's House Party as his comedy character Mr. Martin, a pigeon fancier and wind-up caller (he claimed the reason he did not get chosen to be visited by a live camera crew to film him singing his song was because he had made sarcastic comments about Edmonds' shirts in rehersals earlier that day). Century even helped the BBC to find other Newcastle-based acts for the item, as John Simon's claimed the BBC in Newcastle weren't the audience the House Party were after. Myers did however get Century mentioned on national primetime TV to an audience of over 13 million. (the next week another local radio presenter - from Hereward I think - was a contestant and didn't get chosen either).

Century had a listener club, which wasn't free to join, but did send out regular full colour newsletters and had nights out organised and compared by Andy Hodgson (who used to do that sort of thing for a living).

A large jingle package was sung by JAM Creative Productions of Dallas (through Alfasound), re-singing the KVIL Celebrate package, although the travel bed was from another KVIL package by TM Century. Voiceovers were by Nick Coady for many years and liners were eventually replaced with male American sweepers which were short lived and quite odd (e.g. "If your postman doesn't listen to Century, leave the dog out, and don't feed him", "Andy Hodgson and Morgan in the morning - together, they rock your socks off" and "Morgan doesn't break rules, 'cos he doesn't have any! Century's Morgan in the Morning").

Century's commercials were almost exclusively recorded and produced at Alfasound in Cheshire, and when Century decided to build their own commercial production facility and stop using Alfasound, this was one of the reasons cited as to why Alfasound closed. The commercials for larger campaigns often used sung jingles, such as those for Everfresh (butchers), Catterick Caravans, Century Windows (not related!) and Autotrader (which used a very well done TM Century gospel-style breakfast show cut).

At the time, Century's new computerised studios were state-of-the-art and one of the most technically advanced installations in all of Europe. Perhaps it was all too easy to voice track shows, as one day when other presenters were ill or on holiday, Tony Fisher not only presented the mid-morning show, screened calls on the lunchtime phone-in, and presented drivetime but also presented the graveyard shift from 1 till 5a.m.! Tony did like his jingles and often used the instrumental mix-outs of the original jingle package on his drivetime show. Rod the station engineer (who made regular appearances on Mike Elliott's late night phone in) would give tours of the station on evenings to interested listeners who pre-booked. Rod was very kind and sent me a copy of the jingles on tape when I was 15.

I have a lot of recordings of Century jingles, adverts, promos and trailers, but I'm not too sure where I stand with copyright regarding publishing them on the web. Maybe one day...

For a while I always thought there was a link between Century and the Midlands' Heart FM as they had the same jingle package resung and also the same company to design their logos which both had a very similar style.

In many ways, Century was a bit of an old boys club - the only female voices were newsreaders - and many staff had previously worked at Radio Tees in the 1980s. I believe the first and only female DJ before the station was sold to Capital was the American "PJ the DJ".

Century is now known as Century FM, owned by GCap, and is mainly pop music targetted at women presented by southern presenters but still with . Nothing like it was!

Abridged from Broadcast: "On 19th October 2006 Guardian Media Group bought Century FM (and also the Manchester Century) from GCap for £60m. Both stations have assets of £1.5m and in the year to 31 March generated earnings before interest, taxes, etc. of £5.3m. GCap will continue to sell the station's ads and receive commission from the revenues for five years under the terms of the deal. GMG chief executive John Myers said he was delighted to retake control of the Century FM stations, which he launched in 1994."

This entire article copyright Ben Baxter. All right reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or part without prior written consent.

Updated - Thu, 17/04/08