Other Announcers 

24 March 2005 tbs.pm/3476

Over the years Tyne Tees employed a large number of announcers.

Andy Archer

Known mostly for his days as a pirate radio disc jockey, Andy joined Tyne Tees after leaving Radio Caroline in the 1970s. He worked at the station whilst they sought a new female announcer – a process which took some time.

After the announcer had been appointed, he moved to Radio Orwell in Ipswich, and has worked at a number of commercial stations, lately appearing on BBC Radio Norfolk, before moving to present a show on North Norfolk Radio.

Adrian Cairns

Adrian worked at Tyne Tees from 1959 when the station started, making the very first announcement as well as the Tyne Tees Television on Channel 8 messages. He worked as an announcer until 1962 when he moved to the news department.

It was Adrian on that first night that inspired a young Bill Steel to follow in Adrian’s footsteps.

Adrian passed away in March 2003, aged 78.

Allan Cartner

Allan worked for Tyne Tees for most of the 1970s, moving to Border but returned to Tyne Tees in 1988 following a disagreement at Border. He left Tyne Tees in 1996 when the continuity department moved to Leeds. He had the honour of being the person who broadcast the last ever continuity announcement from Studio 4 in Newcastle. He died in late 1997.

Andy Craig

Andy got his big break in television at Tyne Tees, applying for the job of ‘In-vision Continuity Announcer’ despite not even knowing what that was. He worked at the station for three years, between 1975 and 1978, later moving to run his own production company, and presented on the BBC’s Daytime Live and ITV’s The TIme and The Place, and This Morning. He last worked at Tyne Tees in 1992 when he presented ‘Late And Live’ on Friday nights.

Andy joined Meridian Tonight when the station opened in January 1993, and currently presents the West version of the programme.

Pat Doody

Pat worked at Tyne Tees for some years before moving to Border where he featured prominently until February 1990 when he committed suicide at the age of 52. He apparently had a string of cash-flow problems at the time.

Besides doing announcements at Border, Pat also did the voice-over for the intro to Mr And Mrs, saying the immortal line “It’s Mr and Mrs, and here’s your host…. Derek Batey!”

Tom Edwards

Another pirate radio DJ in the 1960s, Tom has worked for Border and Thames, as well as doing a brief stint at Tyne Tees in 1979.

Jane Jermyn

Turning down a place at the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, Jane opted instead to study Drama at Leeds, and began her career in the theatre in 1980, moving on to work in television and radio.

She worked at Tyne Tees between May 1985 and 1988 and had a great voice and screen personality for the job. Her other roles have included working for a huge range of radio stations as well as appearing in Byker Grove, Coronation Street and The Clothes Show. Jane now does voice overs on a variety of projects.

Judi Lines

We’re not exactly sure what Judi did before joining Tyne Tees. We believe she may have worked for Westward, and heard reports that she was a news-reader on the BBC’s Look East in the 1970s, as well as working on the region’s BBC Radio 4 VHF For The Eastern Counties – at the time, South Lincs had no local radio services from the BBC.

Judi however moved north to Tyne Tees in 1984, replacing Kathy Secker who was leaving the station at the time.

With an authoritarian tone, Judi had a tendency to sound like Peter Sissons introducing Animal Hospital. She was dropped in 1991 by the new management, but went on to join the new (and now defunct) GNR radio station, before taking a break from broadcasting. She took two years out, doing some free-lance broadcasting, before deciding that what she actually wanted to do was move into fashion.

Judi now works as the sales under-buyer in the French Salon at Fenwick of Newcastle, often organising in-store fashion events, as well as occasionally been seen behind the counters in store. According to one interview in the Northern Echo, she has no regrets and does not miss the high profile and the pressure, claiming that her current job is much more fun.

Lesley Manners

Lesley started as trainee announcer at Border around 1985 under the name Lesley Cairney, losing her trainee status the following year. She joined Tyne Tees around 1987-1988, leaving in 1992. She joined radio station, Metro FM in 1995.

Her current wherabouts are unknown.

Karen Petch

Now a presenter on Yorkshire’s Calendar news program, Karen was an announcer at Yorkshire in the early 1990s, after the takeover of Tyne Tees.

Annie St John

Annie worked at Tyne Tees between 1981 and 1986, being one of many young female presenters brought in at the time.

She later moved to HTV, again as a continuity announcer, in the late 1980s, but tragically died of a drug overdose in late 1990, aged 32.

Clem Shaw

Clem joined Tyne Tees from Border in 1991, leaving again in 1992. During his time at Border he wrote a book of poems, as well as scripting and directing the odd small documentary. His current whereabouts are unknown, but there is actually a Clem Shaw writing theatre and opera reviews in the Oxford area. Well you never know…

Lyn Spencer

Lyn started working at Tyne Tees as a continuity announcer in 1975. Within a year she was presenting, researching and producing Saturday morning kids programme Lyn’s Look In for Tyne Tees.

By 1979, she was working on the teenage magazine programme, Check It Out, alongside Chris Cowey (now at the BBC, working on Top Of The Pops.) Lyn then worked on two series of the network kids music show, Razmattaz until 1982, when she moved to local radio station Metro FM, where she stayed until 1985.

Her next job saw different challenges away from television, as she worked setting up a Performing Arts Department at a local comprehensive school.

However she was back at Tyne Tees in 1988, again working as a continuity announcer and in 1989 was presenting with Andrew O’Conner on the series The End of The Eighties.

Lyn can also boast a famous clip on It’ll Be Alright On The Night involving her dog during her time working on the consumer programme, The Really Useful Guide. Lyn’s other roles have included controlling ‘Ted’, the naughty bear who used to jump around and fire party poppers during the progette, The Birthday Spot…

Predicting the cull of announcers following the Yorkshire TV takeover, Lyn left Tyne Tees in 1993 and worked as a fund raiser for a local charity. She was then poached by an advertising agency before going it alone doing Public Relations and working as the breakfast presenter for the now defunct GNR radio station. Lyn now has her own events company, Event Wyze.

Colin Weston

Colin started working in TV for ABC in Teddington, in the post-room but later gained a job as a trainee announcer for Granada, at the end of the 1960s. After his contract was not renewed, he started free-lancing at several regional companies including Anglia, before being taken on again by Granada when the station started doing invision continuity.

Whilst at Granada, he also continued to free-lance at stations including Yorkshire, TVS, Border and LWT as well as a number of stints at Tyne Tees – popping up so regularly that he even had his own Tyne Tees publicity photgraphs.

With a bubbly personality, he quickly became a popular announcer on all the stations he worked at.

Colin stayed at the Manchester based station until 1998, leaving just as the Granada Continuity team was closed, and its operations moved to Leeds. He currently does voice-overs for commercials and videos, as well as working as a film extra.

Stephen Whitlock

Although a Yorkshire announcer, Stephen often took the trip up to the Newcastle studios to announce on Tyne Tees in 1993 and 1994, but later moved to live in New York, where he works writing articles for magazines.