“Proudly we announce…a new young ornithologist club is opening at Fakenham. Radio Norfolk Birdman himself, Chris Durden, is going there to give them a flying start.” Any relation to Tyler, I wonder?

Derek B.—Britain’s answer to LL Cool J., I suppose. I remember seeing him open for Public Enemy at the UEA auditorium. At the end, Chuck D. called him out to do a free-style, but he just sang the first couple of lines of his one hit. You’ve heard of “in the mix?” Well, that was “in the wack.”

I like what it says about British radio at the time, that with a few twists of the dial I could go from a community announcement of a bird watching club to Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin singing “Je T’aime (Me Non Plus).”

Love the static between stations. There was no Internet streaming at the time (effectively no Internet at all), so you had to fight a little to hear what you wanted.

Well, I’ll be going home now to have my dinner: chicken-in-his-juices and mussels in a seaman-like manner.

(Originally posted on the Audiowaves tumblr on October 29, 2009)