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Sunday 8 May 2016

Fifty years of Jimmy Savile

Goodness gracious guys and gals, do you realise that Radio 1 will be 50 years old next year ? Do you care ? I don't except that it sounds good, unlike the rubbish that is Radio 1 in 2016. Here's one year that Radio 1 still sounded pretty good to me & millions of other youngsters. Ten years after it began and the country loved it's disc jockeys back then !
 Blimey, guys and gals, spot the DJ who hasn't been implicated in Yewtree. I can count seven who've either been : arrested, sacked or posthumously denounced by the Savile police etc. 
The Radio Times I have used for my post is dated 1-7th October 1977, bang in the middle of Sir Jimmy Savile's 'crime' spree or thereabouts, and here we have almost the whole of this publication celebrating these seven blokes. Six years after Claire M's tragic death and four years after Rodney Collins's was asked by Derek Chinnery to ask his pals in Fleet Street whether they had any dirt on Savile ? - they hadn't ! Nevertheless, here he is, right there at the front and a nice big article about him inside.
First though, have a look back at happier times for DLT, Tony Blackburn, Cliff Richard and so on 
 

Dave Lee Travis and Hot Chocolate
Alan Fluff Freeman and Genesis
Kid Jenson
And the Radio One Roadshow including the legendary 'Smiley Miley' and his guess the mileage competition ! Happy days 
 
 I allowed myself a wry smile at the inclusion in the magazine of another Yewtree bit player : Wilfred D'eath, yes really he has a column all to himself, he's not a producer now he's a writer of sorts reviewing the comings and goings at Radio 4, which would have been of no bloody interest to my sixteen year old self !
 Then there's Jim, who has lots to say about his radio show - speakeasy, you might find his words interesting !

A new series of Speakeasy folks ! And it's on the radio at 2pm on Sunday, just after his double top ten show ! He describes having no real interest in politics, save thinking Maggie Thatcher is a 'particularly attractive lady' and that communism will never take on !
 Goodness gracious, Savile was giving people a voice before that idea became a slogan rather than a service ! I'd sure like to read or hear the speakeasy on 'gossip columnists' 

 Then there's the psychology of the 'punters' who tune in to listen to those voices ! 
There's that mention of blindness again ! Be interesting to know just WHEN that show went out ! Someone find out if you can, I cannot go there again !
Two years before the RT celebrated Radio 1's ten year milestone, it published a fantastic, in-depth article about Savile who is by this time (May 1975) a huge TV and Radio star. The press couldn't get enough of him. They were in his houses, at his hospitals and there were no questions that were off limits ! 
I wonder if the dame spoke to the same folks Anthony-Haden Guest met as he 'followed him on his other multifarious weekly activities' Bet you haven't heard this Broadmoor 'voice' before ?
 Unless you've seen this in an earlier post ! 

So, what's my point about 50 years of Radio 1 ? What's that got to do with Justice For Jimmy ? My point is, and always will be, that Jimmy Savile was in the public eye for more than half a century and not once was he arrested for ANY offence let alone the 214 the corrupt yewtree cops have appended to his dead body ! I hadn't previously read that snipe at 'gossip-columnists' until today ! You see, these 'trolls' did exist back in 1977 they haven't suddenly arrived via social media and twitter and, punters always like a bit of gossip, don't they ? 

I'll be re-reading more of my Savile library (it's quite extensive you know and cost me a small fortune), but it was worth it. You see, you can put any old shit in any old rag or in anyone's mouth if the price is right. But you cannot alter the FACTS, and the FACT is that Jimmy Savile was loved and trusted by us 'punters' and that was enough for him, sod the gossips. It's enough for me too ! 

29th May 1975
 
 

2 comments:

  1. "... a jungle warfare bushhat..."
    What, the same one he was wearing when he didn't violently sexually assault S&G pin-up,Dee Coles (and vanishing friend)?

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  2. That comment he makes about letting the "pro's hang themselves" probably speaks volumes. Not part of the London-based glad-handing, back-slapping media circus was he.

    ReplyDelete