I left the School in 1961 and immediately went travelling in northern France with class mate Sean Irwin. We got on well together – the only discord being over whether to boil our night time Nescafé in front of the tent or whether to drink it lukewarm; statesmen have let less significant issues escalate into all-out war. In the case of Sean and me, we were wise enough to control our tempers. A significant contribution to the worsening of Anglo-French relations occurred when I threw a fag-end as I thought out of the nearside window. Later I discovered that it was nestling cutely in the folds of the driver’s jacket flung carelessly on the rear shelf and had already burned a largish hole in the material. I dropped the butt end out of the window making sure it descended to the roadway. I consoled myself with the thought it was his fault for being so untidy. I dread to think what foul words he employed about English hitch-hikers when he discovered the damage to his jacket.
In September 1961 I went to Nottingham University to read Industrial Economics. I took the opportunity to do a good deal of drinking in the Buttery and a lot of acting in plays as significant as Pinter’s “The Homecoming”. My wasted days yielded their result three years later when I got an Honours degree, but a third, much to my parents’ displeasure.
My first job was on the Loughborough Monitor where I started as a reporter. Then came the Fleet Street Letter where I was appointed Deputy Editor which sounds grand, but only when you recall that the Editor was the only other member of staff.
Then in 1968 my career took a huge leap forward when I was appointed as a Producer Presenter on the newly launched BBC Radio Nottingham. By 1970 I was Deputy Manager and by 1972 I was elevated to the grand position of Manager. As a producer I selected the music to be played on my shows. Woe betide me if I chose anything which had a pop beat. The manager Gerald Nethercot made it clear he did not favour pop music. “Listeners don’t like pop music, “he once said “They just think they do”. This policy changed immediately once I was appointed manager.
A year later there was talk of commercial radio stations being launched and I felt it important to issue a memorandum to all staff warning of the dire consequences should anyone be as foolish as to apply for a position at the likes of Radio Clyde or Capital Radio. Shortly afterwards in 1974 I was appointed to the job of Programme Controller at Piccadilly Radio in Manchester – where I remained till the station was bought-out in 1989.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oka7FWvILrI
Quotation from Mike Shaft: “Piccadilly Radio was probably the best radio station on air in the UK through the 1970s and 1980s. These were the early years of Independent Radio in this country and many of the stations on air were experiencing difficulties, financial and otherwise. Piccadilly, under the stewardship of Managing Director Philip Birch and Programme Controller Colin Walters, somehow managed to keep problems away from the station and when there were problems, they were managed in a way which always showed the station in an excellent light”.
Since then I have been working as a consultant in the radio industry or doing nothing much since my retirement around 2002. So that’s it. Not a nuclear scientist or Professor of Oncology. But a colourful career in a variety of different employments. Twice married with my kids performing tasks far more elevated than any I achieved; and living for the past ten years in France and not regretting a moment of any aspect of my adult life.
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