BBC Radio Leicester today (8th November) celebrates its 50th Anniversary on air. Leicester was the first region to get a radio station for the BBC and has been celebrating since Monday with a dedicated exhibition open to public.
The exhibition was opened by Leicester legend, Englebert Humperdinck who is also celebrating 50 years of being in the industry.
This special exhibition features the station’s biggest stories over the five decades It also showcases the past world of broadcasting with historical equipment including a MK 3 desk, Uher and a studer tape machine. As well as these, the exhibition takes the audience on an audio-visual tour through the decades with continuously running films and pictures from 50 years of news, themed editorial content and listeners’ memories, which includes iconic events that have happened in Leicestershire.
BBC Radio Leicester is also encouraging listeners to phone in and share their memories, memorabilia and stories from over the past five decades. As part of this Evie Woodhouse, a fictional Leicester local, shares her diary and gives listeners a unique take on local history.
Sophie Shardlow, editor at BBC Radio Leicester comments, “Leicester is such a brilliant city, it’s vibrant, multi-cultural and the 50th anniversary exhibition really captures the heart and soul of Leicester. The station was home to the Asian network which has gone on to become a massively successful outlet for the BBC.
“The listeners are at the heart of everything that we broadcast and we look forward to another 50 years of BBC Local Radio!”
For more information on the 50th Anniversary exhibition you can visit www.bbc.co.uk/radioleicester. And if you missed any of Evie’s diary entries you can listen via the BBC iPlayer www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05lxw71.
