Sixteen men on a dead man's ship ... words from McCulley Workshops' best hit "The Buccaneer" - listening to Springbok Radio in the 70's, we were all very proud of South African music and it would be played over and over that most of the time you never even new that other music existed.
On Friday night round midnight David Gresham would do the Top 40 and we would all try and stay awake for it to find out who would be the Number 1 this week, but inevitabally we would fall asleep and have to wait until Saturday afternoon for a repeat of the show.
We had no TV in the early seventies so the radio was our only source of intertainment, and especially in winter when the only warm place in our cold house was between the sheets. The radio would be on just loud enough for us to hear it without mom & dad being able to hear it, else they would come and turn it off.
I remember also listening to the horror stories on "the destined hour" and having nightmares for weeks afterwards, especially the story of the little girl who picked a flower off someones grave and woke up the next day with scratch marks on her cheek. Then there was the story of the little girl who's stepmother hated her and let her play in an old fridge, the poor little girl eventually suffocated inside the fridge, but the kids toys got revenge, they found the stepmother strangled and the only fingerprints were those of the gollywog.
The week-ends had the best radio programms especially Friday and Sunday nights, Friday we had "Squad Cars" - " They prowl the empty street at night, waiting in fast cars ..."
Then Sunday nights would be "The men, from the ministry", "Father dear Father", "The Navy Lark" and "Test the team" oh yes and how could we forget Saturday afternoons with "forces favourites" with all our messages for the boys on the border.
Do you remember Tuesday nights, "consider your verdict" and how can we forget the afternoon programmes "The chappie chipmunk club" and "Jet Jungle", I can see all the characters of these shows in my minds eye, but now that Television is around you wonder what they would have looked like had they been Television shows and not Radio shows?
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3 comments:
Those were certainly the days - how I long for them back!
What fun, safe environment
I remember distinctly Springbok Radio (a few shows are on the Web). Your description is very apt.
David Gresham's Friday night programme was the Top 20, which began at 10.00pm. The song Buccaneer started with the line 'sixteen men on a dead man's chest' and the chorus ending with ' I'll swing you from the yardarm and all you'll do is die'. I remember all the afternoon programmes you mentioned and some of the evening quiz ones like 'Just A Minute' and 'My Music' on the English Service channel.
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