Free Radio Campaigner David Prewett RIP

Free Radio Protest 8 Nov 1967 at opening of BBC Radio Leicester

David Prewett leading an FRA free radio protest on 8th November 1967 at the opening of BBC Radio Leicester

It is with deep sadness we report the death of leading UK free radio campaigner, David Prewett, who died on 27th August 2023 aged 87. David worked tirelessly in the 1960s and early 1970s for ending monopoly radio on the UK mainland.

Starting in 1965, David was the leader of a listeners organisation based in Oxford campaigning for the introduction of UK commercial and non-commercial radio in addition to the BBC. By early 1967, with the UK government poised to ban the very popular offshore “pirate” stations, David became a founder member and hon. Secretary & Public Relations officer for the Free Radio Association (FRA) and a year later, together with other FRA colleagues, David formed and was leader of the National Commercial Radio Movement (NCRM), later to become the Campaign for Independent Broadcasting (CIB).

David possessed both the technical radio knowledge and the skills for getting publicity combined with the mild-mannered knack of working well with colleagues and being tireless at parliamentary lobbying. In short he was an indefatigable campaigner.

It was David’s technical knowledge which enabled a practical plan setting out how radio stations in addition to the BBC could be established in Britain despite limited available medium wave frequencies as set out in CIB’s 1969 “Sound Broadcasting Study“.

This provided an invaluable argument for David, together with CIB’s Press & Public Relations colleague, Martin Rosen and others for gaining media publicity as well as for intensive lobbying of MP’s in the House of Commons after the government changed in 1970.

A few examples:

November 1967 : See photo above with David Prewett, centre, leading an FRA free radio protest on 8th November 1967 at the opening of Radio Leicester, the BBC’s very first local station. This protest was not only against BBC monopoly radio but also because the BBC had stated that their local stations would be financed out of the national license fee – clearly unfair because all listeners would pay even when located outside the range of any local station. Note: David’s wife, Jill, also in this photo.

August 1968 : Article in “The Times” newspaper re. Free Radio “Coffin Demonstration” at 10, Downing Street, London marking 1st anniversary of outlawing of offshore radio stations with amusing annotation by David P.

1968 : David Prewett’s “Sound Broadcasting Study” published by NCRM-CIB.

December 1968 : Article in “Record Retailer” magazine about proposals for commercial radio including the “Sound Broadcasting Study“.

May 1970 : Letter from David Prewett to Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, castigating his government for manipulating UK sound broadcasting policy with examples of their misleading statements.

14th June 1970 : David Prewett speaking at the Free Radio rally in London’s Hyde Park a few days before the 1970 General Election. Radio Caroline’s Ronan O’Rahilly and CIB’s Martin Rosen are also included in this recording.

July 1970 : Meeting with Chris Chataway – Minister Of Posts & Telecommunications

2013 : David Prewett remembers…

More examples

 

Restoring Soul Music Radio WAOK 1971 – A Day In The Life

Back in August 1971, CIB contacted several commercial radio stations in the US and other countries in order to better formulate its proposals to the UK government for the introduction of commercial radio on the UK mainland. CIB received several positive replies, including airchecks from WBZ in Boston Mass., WFIL in Philadelphia, WBAP in Dallas/Fort Worth, Radio Tarawa in the Gilbert & Ellice Islands and 2UE in Sydney Australia, to name a few.

CIB also received an aircheck tape from Ken Goldblatt, the Station Manager at WAOK in Atlanta GA – one of the very first U.S. radio stations to adopt an all R&B/Soul music format in 1956, thanks to DJ and part-owner, Zenus “Daddy” Sears.

This WAOK aircheck tape was a bit special for several reasons…

Zenas "Daddy" Sears

Zenas “Daddy” Sears

Zenas Sears (1914-1988) began his career as a disc jockey following his exposure to black music serving in the US Armed Forces Radio during World War II. When war ended in 1945, he worked at Atlanta GA radio WATL, pioneering African-American popular music broadcasting and in 1948 moved to radio WGST, where his show “The Blues Caravan” aired nightly.

In 1956 he became joint owner of radio WATL, changing the call-letters to WAOK and successfully pioneering the format to African-American popular music – Blues, Rhythm & Blues and Soul music. Zenas Sears also promoted and arranged live performances, featuring artists like Tommy Brown, Billy Wright, Chuck Willis and Little Richard.  Zenas Sears and WAOK were also responsible for the 1959 live recording of the best-selling album “Ray Charles in Person“. Last but not least, Sears was also an important supporter of the American civil rights movement.

In 1985 WAOK radio was sold and today it’s a News & Talk station.

So what about this 8 hour WAOK tape recording? …

Well, compared with other radio stations that sent us studio quality tapes recorded at 15 or 7-1/2 inches per second (ips), the tape from WAOK was recorded at only 1-7/8 ips – a low speed usually used only for speech recordings – on 4 tracks, so the sound quality is very poor … judge for yourself with this short extract

But if this WAOK tape lacks quality, it easily wins out on q-u-a-n-t-i-t-y, because the tape contains 8 complete, unedited hours of programming … all made on just one day …

So this memorable tape is like a day in the life of radio 1380 WAOK Atlanta … all recorded on Wednesday, 28th July 1971 and stretching into the early morning hours of the next day … here is the detailed program list as supplied by WAOK’s Ken Goldblatt.

Remastering & Digitizing …

Not having the know-how myself about how to rescue the recording quality, I asked my sound engineer and DJ friend in England, John Ker, for help. John, better known to many as John Harding from offshore pirate Radio Atlantis, achieved an excellent result – Thanks John 🙂 … and returned the tape to me, complete with 8 CD discs.
John says: “The tape quality is low, not Scotch brand although it is on a Scotch spool … the recording is at a low level on the tape causing the signal-to-noise ratio to be very low. The noise made the audio sound blurred. Initially I edited out clicks which were at a very high level compared to the programme material. Using Sound Forge I then sampled a fingerprint of what needed to be removed (in this case background hiss) taken from a short (less than a second) gap between commercials. Once the hiss was removed, a boost to the treble and then as they say in France “Voila”.”

I’m now in the process of uploading the contents of all 8 CDs so everyone can enjoy and re-live again the sound of Soul Music 1380 WAOK as it was back in July 1971.

Here are the details of these 8 CDs with links so you can listen online now …

Wednesday, 28th July 1971 …
Disc #1 07.00-08.00 hrs. “Wake Up Atlanta” with Burke Johnson standing in for Bob McKee.
Disc #2   11.00-12.00 hrs. The Jerry Thompson Show.
Disc #3   15.00-16.00 hrs. The Larry Tinsley Show.
Disc #4   16.00-17.00 hrs. The Duane Jones Show.
Disc #5   19.00-20.00 hrs. The Duane Jones Show.
Disc #6   20.00-21.00 hrs. The Doug Steele Show.
Disc #7   21.00-22.00 hrs. The Doug Steele Show.
Thursday, 29th July 1971 …
Disc #8   01.00-02.00 hrs. The Dream Girl (Zilla Mays).

And here is a copy of WAOK’s full programme schedule as it was in July 1971:

And finally, here’s the answer to the question:
How did Zenas Sears gain the “Daddy” nickname?
Well, the story goes that one evening, Sears was on the air at WGST, when a local hospital called to inform him that his wife had gone into labor.
Sears rushed off to the hospital with a disc still playing on the turntable. After it finished, all the listeners heard was the repetitive sound of a needle in an empty record groove for the rest of the night.
When word got around that Zenas Sears had abandoned his show to witness the birth of his twin baby boys, his Atlanta audience began calling him “Big Daddy” – later shortened to just “Daddy”.

P.S. These WAOK radio classic soul music recordings have been independently reviewed by the Stepfather Of Soul.

Can’t find what you are looking for?
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
post