The Golden Hour (radio feature)
Encyclopedia
The Golden Hour is a long-standing feature/segment on UK radio station BBC Radio 1
, where records are played that all charted in the UK Top 40 in a certain year and listeners are invited to guess the year.
took over presenting the breakfast slot on BBC Radio 1
and Tony Blackburn
moved to present the mid-morning slot (9–12 am). One of the features he started on this show was the Golden Hour. This was originally an hour of records that had all charted in a specified year, with Tony using a different year each weekday.
Tony Blackburn continued this feature until he vacated the weekday mid-morning slot in Autumn 1977 with a move to weekday afternoons. He was replaced by Simon Bates
, who would continue the feature at the top of the show between 9 and 10 am.
Bates amended the format however, turning it into a guessing game for the audience to participate in. Records were played, sometimes interspersed with clues, so listeners can 'play along at home' and guess what the year was. The year would be revealed by Simon near the end of the hour. Later on, Simon split this into two half-hour segments, playing songs from two different years. There was also a feature which ran between 1996 and 1999 called "Golden Hour Jukebox", then "The Jukebox", then "Greatest Hits Jukebox," where listeners could ring in and suggest tracks instead of the normal format.
Towards the end of 1993, when new controller Matthew Bannister
took over and reorganised both the shows and presenters, Simon Mayo
moved from breakfast to mid-morning, taking over the feature from Simon Bates. The Golden Hour, or 'Classic Years' as they were now sometimes referred to lasted until 1996, when they were replaced with an hour of music from a number of years including the current one. Between May 1994 and April 1995, Sunday lunchtimes also gained the Classic Years (12–2 pm), also presented by Mayo.
The 9–10 weekday slot was eventually named "Radio 1's Greatest Hits", becoming the somewhat unwieldy "Radio 1's Greatest Hits: The Mystery Years" in 1999. Listeners were challenged to answer a question on a piece of archive footage from the relevant year.
Simon continued 'The Mystery Years' until he left the station on 16 February 2001.
co-hosted his show with Tony Blackburn and between 9 and 10 am they brought back the Golden Hour in the form of two half-hour years. At the start of 2008, The Chris Moyles Show
gained the Golden Hour as permanent feature, although only once a week rather than every day as in previous years. Moyles plays this every Friday, starting at 9 am with half an hour of songs from a year and getting the listeners (as well as friends of the show) to text in their guess before revealing it ahead of the 9:30 news. From 9:30 to 10 am he tends to play 'older' records, usually one selected by each member of the team. Moyles plays old Golden Hour jingles from the initial Golden Hour in his Friday slot.
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
, where records are played that all charted in the UK Top 40 in a certain year and listeners are invited to guess the year.
History
In June 1973, Noel EdmondsNoel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds, is an English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented many light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts, Noel's Saturday...
took over presenting the breakfast slot on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
and Tony Blackburn
Tony Blackburn
Tony Blackburn is an English disc jockey, who broadcast on the "pirate" stations Radio Caroline and Radio London in the 1960s and was the first disc jockey to broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in 1967. In 2002 he was the winner of the ITV reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity.....
moved to present the mid-morning slot (9–12 am). One of the features he started on this show was the Golden Hour. This was originally an hour of records that had all charted in a specified year, with Tony using a different year each weekday.
Tony Blackburn continued this feature until he vacated the weekday mid-morning slot in Autumn 1977 with a move to weekday afternoons. He was replaced by Simon Bates
Simon Bates
Simon Bates is a UK disc jockey and radio presenter. Between 1976 and 1993 he worked at BBC Radio 1, presenting the station's weekday mid-morning show for most of this period. He later became a regular presenter on Classic FM...
, who would continue the feature at the top of the show between 9 and 10 am.
Bates amended the format however, turning it into a guessing game for the audience to participate in. Records were played, sometimes interspersed with clues, so listeners can 'play along at home' and guess what the year was. The year would be revealed by Simon near the end of the hour. Later on, Simon split this into two half-hour segments, playing songs from two different years. There was also a feature which ran between 1996 and 1999 called "Golden Hour Jukebox", then "The Jukebox", then "Greatest Hits Jukebox," where listeners could ring in and suggest tracks instead of the normal format.
Towards the end of 1993, when new controller Matthew Bannister
Matthew Bannister
Richard Matthew Bannister is a British media executive and broadcaster. After attending King Edward VII School , he graduated in law at the University of Nottingham in 1978, and joined BBC Radio Nottingham as a trainee reporter and subsequently the presenter of its speech-based breakfast show,...
took over and reorganised both the shows and presenters, Simon Mayo
Simon Mayo
Simon Mayo is an English radio presenter who has worked for BBC Radio since 1981. As of January 2010, Mayo is presenter of Simon Mayo Drivetime on BBC Radio 2 and, with Mark Kermode, presenter of Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews on BBC Radio 5 Live.In 2008, Mayo was recognised as the "radio...
moved from breakfast to mid-morning, taking over the feature from Simon Bates. The Golden Hour, or 'Classic Years' as they were now sometimes referred to lasted until 1996, when they were replaced with an hour of music from a number of years including the current one. Between May 1994 and April 1995, Sunday lunchtimes also gained the Classic Years (12–2 pm), also presented by Mayo.
The 9–10 weekday slot was eventually named "Radio 1's Greatest Hits", becoming the somewhat unwieldy "Radio 1's Greatest Hits: The Mystery Years" in 1999. Listeners were challenged to answer a question on a piece of archive footage from the relevant year.
Simon continued 'The Mystery Years' until he left the station on 16 February 2001.
Reinvention
On 30 September 2007, to commemorate the station's 40th anniversary, current breakfast show host Chris MoylesChris Moyles
Christopher David Moyles is an English radio and television presenter and author, who currently presents The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 and Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on Channel 4....
co-hosted his show with Tony Blackburn and between 9 and 10 am they brought back the Golden Hour in the form of two half-hour years. At the start of 2008, The Chris Moyles Show
The Chris Moyles Show
The Chris Moyles Show is the current BBC Radio 1 breakfast show in the UK, and has been since Chris Moyles became the station's breakfast show presenter on 5 January 2004. From 2004 to 2007, the show was broadcast 6:55–10:00 am each weekday, but since 15 October 2007 it has started from...
gained the Golden Hour as permanent feature, although only once a week rather than every day as in previous years. Moyles plays this every Friday, starting at 9 am with half an hour of songs from a year and getting the listeners (as well as friends of the show) to text in their guess before revealing it ahead of the 9:30 news. From 9:30 to 10 am he tends to play 'older' records, usually one selected by each member of the team. Moyles plays old Golden Hour jingles from the initial Golden Hour in his Friday slot.
Smooth Radio
Simon Bates revived the Golden Hour for commercial radio after joining Smooth Radio in January 2011. The feature appears as before, on weekdays between 9 and 10 am on Bates' breakfast show, and sees listeners invited to guess the year that a number of songs charted. There are usually two featured years.External links
- Classic Radio 1 Schedules
- BBC News - Ode To The Golden Hour
- Radio Rewind's Tony Blackburn page
- Radio Rewind—Clips of Simon doing the Golden Hour