Dec 18
Paint Your Wogan
It was 30 years ago this month that the Minister received his big break in radio, a letter being read out by the legend that is Sir Terry Wogan.
In what would prove to be something of a recurring, anticlimactic theme through the Minister's life, he missed the actual event. Ah, well...
Wogan is a genuine broadcasting genius and he (along with Radio Luxembourg a couple of years later) sparked my love affair with music radio. When you Wake Up To Wogan, you hear and feel his own love for the medium.
One of the great joys of the advent of Listen Again, the iPlayer and podcasts in recent years has been the ability to hear more of his output: I can't tell you how much I wish that technology had existed in the mid-90s and early part of this decade when my insomnia was at its worst.
Peel was rightly revered but he was, regrettably, under-heard (at least until he found his way onto Radio 4): Wogan is not only loved, he is listened to (and has been listened to for decades) by a size of audience that takes away the breath of those who know anything at all about the numbers behind British radio.
If ever a long, happy and healthy semi-retirement was deserved, it's deserved to Sir Terry.
Thanks for everything, Tel.
