\n Legendary presenters from the past and present and fans met at The Hold in Ipswich to celebrate 50 years since Radio Orwell’s first broadcast.\n<\/p>\n
\n The station launched on October 28, 1975 and was one of the original 19 Independent Local Radio stations set up in the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n The anniversary celebration was hosted by Stephen ‘Foz’ Foster who interviewed some of the most notable presenters of the station’s past, including Norman Lloyd, Patrick Eade and Nigel Rennie.\n<\/p>\n
\n Stephen Foster hosts a special event at the Hold, Ipswich, to mark 50th Anniversary of the first ever programme on Radio Orwell (Image: Lucy Taylor)\n<\/p>\n
\n Stephen Foster hosts a special event at the Hold, Ipswich, to mark 50th Anniversary of the first ever programme on Radio Orwell. Pictured with former presenters, Patrick Eade & Nigel Rennie (Image: Lucy Taylor)\n<\/p>\n
\n The highlight of the event was the discussion with two of the original presenters from 1975, Keith Rogers and Andy Archer.\n<\/p>\n
\n Reflecting on the memories of the station, Mr Rogers, who presented the first ever Radio Orwell show, said: “My time at Radio Orwell was definitely a major highlight for me.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I used to love going to the speedway. I had never been before but I got really hooked to that when I was here.\n<\/p>\n
\n “They got me roped in for a Destruction Derby once and I had no idea what was going on when I got into this car.\n<\/p>\n
\n Stephen Foster hosts a special event at the Hold, Ipswich, to mark 50th Anniversary of the first ever programme on Radio Orwell. Pictured with former presenters, Keith Rogers & Andy Archer (Image: Lucy Taylor)\n<\/p>\n
\n Stephen Foster hosts a special event at the Hold, Ipswich, to mark 50th Anniversary of the first ever programme on Radio Orwell. Pictured with former presenters, Keith Rogers & Andy Archer (Image: Lucy Taylor)\n<\/p>\n
\n “All the experienced drivers immediately went for me. There’s a classic picture of me sitting in a car about half the width of what it was when I got into it, climbing through the front window to get out.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Archer said: “I kept coming back. I did three stints across the Radio Orwell history.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We had a wonderful cricket team at the time which was fun, we used to play teams from around the area.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I do wonder how we used to manage because we would go to the pub every lunchtime, have a few drinks and then go back and read the news in the afternoon.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Stephen Foster hosts a special event at the Hold, Ipswich, to mark 50th Anniversary of the first ever programme on Radio Orwell. Pictured with former presenters, Keith Rogers & Andy Archer (Image: Lucy Taylor)\n<\/p>\n
\n Stephen Foster hosts a special event at the Hold, Ipswich, to mark 50th Anniversary of the first ever programme on Radio Orwell. Pictured with Norman Lloyd (Image: Lucy Taylor)\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Foster said: “I listened to Radio Orwell’s first day 50 years ago with a transistor radio against my ear walking to school.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I’d just done my paper round and I decided I couldn’t miss Keith Rogers on the very first breakfast show.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I took my radio to school with me and then listened to Andy Archer on the way home. I did that for several weeks. I was absolutely radio mad and have been ever since.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary presenters from the past and present and fans met at The Hold in Ipswich to celebrate 50…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-108865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}