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thought this might be of passing interest. sorry if it seems like bragging. it's not meant to. It's come from this week's in-house newspaper, Ariel:
"Boot hunter bags old recording - and polishes it up for broadcast" by Claire Barrett
An eye for a bargain and a head for a haggle helped BBC Radio Shropshire give its listeners a little bit of second hand local history this week.
News presenter Andrew Hewkin was rummaging through a stack of old records at a car boot sale, when he came across a 42-year old disc on which a local church service had been professionally recorded.
‘It was an acetate which stood out because it had a typed label, with the name and date of the recording, and clearly wasn’t a commercial release,’ he explains. ‘The BBC has very little archive material from Shropshire – and the station itself is not yet 20 years old – so anything that pre-dates 1985 is a big deal.’
A regular at boot sales and charity shops, where he browses for his favourite big band music which his radio dial finds increasingly difficult to locate, Hewkin knew how to play the bargain game. ‘The seller asked £1 for the record,’ he says. ‘But I beat her down to 75p. You have to haggle…’
The 1962 service, which features the St PeterÂ’s Church choir of Worfield in Shropshire and a sermon by the parish vicar, had to be digitally enhanced using CoolEditPro software before being broadcast on Sunday morning in the stationÂ’s regular religion slot. It was complemented by an interview with one of the original choristers, 79-year old Dennis Fincher, who is now church sexton.
Meanwhile, the Radio Shropshire man, who has also turned up a 1967 local brass band recording which subsequently went out on air, intends to keep scouring for broadcast-worthy car booty, as well as additions to his 6000-strong collection of old vinyl.
‘It’s mainly cheesy stuff,’ he confesses. ‘You’re never going to find a rare Elvis disc at a boot sale these days – everybody knows how valuable they are – but you can pick up some James Last for just a few pence.’
"Boot hunter bags old recording - and polishes it up for broadcast" by Claire Barrett
An eye for a bargain and a head for a haggle helped BBC Radio Shropshire give its listeners a little bit of second hand local history this week.
News presenter Andrew Hewkin was rummaging through a stack of old records at a car boot sale, when he came across a 42-year old disc on which a local church service had been professionally recorded.
‘It was an acetate which stood out because it had a typed label, with the name and date of the recording, and clearly wasn’t a commercial release,’ he explains. ‘The BBC has very little archive material from Shropshire – and the station itself is not yet 20 years old – so anything that pre-dates 1985 is a big deal.’
A regular at boot sales and charity shops, where he browses for his favourite big band music which his radio dial finds increasingly difficult to locate, Hewkin knew how to play the bargain game. ‘The seller asked £1 for the record,’ he says. ‘But I beat her down to 75p. You have to haggle…’
The 1962 service, which features the St PeterÂ’s Church choir of Worfield in Shropshire and a sermon by the parish vicar, had to be digitally enhanced using CoolEditPro software before being broadcast on Sunday morning in the stationÂ’s regular religion slot. It was complemented by an interview with one of the original choristers, 79-year old Dennis Fincher, who is now church sexton.
Meanwhile, the Radio Shropshire man, who has also turned up a 1967 local brass band recording which subsequently went out on air, intends to keep scouring for broadcast-worthy car booty, as well as additions to his 6000-strong collection of old vinyl.
‘It’s mainly cheesy stuff,’ he confesses. ‘You’re never going to find a rare Elvis disc at a boot sale these days – everybody knows how valuable they are – but you can pick up some James Last for just a few pence.’
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