Radio Hallam began broadcasting to Sheffield & Rotherham in October 1974. It was unusual for its time in that most of the DJs (and its legendary ex-Radio London PD, Keith Skues) were already veterans, mainly of the BBC. And it sounded like it! Although I was offered a job there during that summer by Keith Skues, I chose a "better offer" from the BBC to become a Radio 1 & 2 newsreader and announcer. However...

Nearly 20 years later, I did join the station (in early 1993) for the launch of The New Hallam FM with Programme Director, Steve King. By then it was a larger 'South Yorkshire' station and I was surrounded by solid radio people like Peter Grant, Howard Pressmann and Dave Kilner. The four of us turned out to be one of the station's strongest line-ups of all time. We were the favourite station of bus drivers, market traders, media folk and - yes - bank managers! It truly was a station for everyone, before the desperate arrival of narrowcasting. Steve King was an accomplished organiser and the station was extremely professional.

By 1995, it was just plain old Hallam FM again and the station was taken over by Emap Radio and I was asked by their new PD Dave Shearer to launch Magic AM's breakfast show - and to start a new Sunday evening show on Hallam FM playing three hours of local and new music. The show was called 'XS' and led to the eventual creation of radio2XS. As far as Magic was concerned, I think I probably held the record for the shortest breakfast stint ever (six weeks) before I ended up back on afternoons. In contrast to Steve King's day, the Emap version became an unpleasant experience as it gradually turned from a quality operation into something rather nasty and I exited in 1998.

Some of my Hallam FM & Magic AM audio

This micro-site is operated as a tribute to Sheffield's Radio Hallam. It is in no way connected with any present-day station, which ceased to use the Radio Hallam name many years ago.