GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

I studied history at Oxford, which is where I met Doug, and I suppose you

would call he and I unconventional in the context of what Oxford is usually

recognised for. Sadly, neither of us was invited to join the Bullingdon Club

(Laughter) , although there is one institution I am very proud of chairing. I was

President of the Oxford University Albania Society 1977 to 1979, so while they

were drinking champagne and allegedly mutilating dead animals, I was reading

about Enver Hoxhas’s struggles against King Zog. You work out who got the

better deal there!

After college I became a social worker, properly qualified, John. The union did

not exist then, I was in NALGO, but I have got the certificate. I had done some

radio work as a football commentator covering the mighty Oxford United. They

were owned by Robert Maxwell who now, with hindsight, we can see was the

first forerunner of wealthy and dodgy owners of football clubs playing fast and

loose with community traditions and local roots, but he was good for my career,

because I got great copy from interviewing him, because he was a maniac.

Eventually I became a radio DJ and started running radio businesses which is a career now in its 32 nd year. I ran Classic FM, I launched Planet Rock, which

is based on my record collection as a 15 year old and essentially Planet Rock

is for all those people who are convinced that nothing ever good came out of

music since Led Zeppelin’s fourth album. It is an unshakeable principle.

I have developed and coached household names, so the presenters who are

now on Radio 1 and Radio 2 and I gave Jeremy Kyle his first job in

broadcasting for which I can now only apologise. (Laughter) One of my radio

stations is here in this area, it is on 102 FM. Please do try and tune in if you

get the chance. From time to time I present a Friday night show called Cortina

Nights, which only plays music from the era of the Ford Cortina.

A DELEGATE: I remember it!

BRO STEVE ORCHARD: Thank you. There is now a generational gap in the room,

half of the room fondly remembering adventures in a Ford Cortina, the other

half of the room saying, “What is a Ford Cortina?”

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