Gerry Anderson (broadcaster)

Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Born	October 28, 1944 (1944-10-28)

Gerald Michael Anderson, known professionally as Gerry Anderson (born 28 October 1944), is a Sony Award-winning radio and television broadcaster from Derry, Northern Ireland who works for BBC Northern Ireland, and is a member of the Radio Academy Hall of fame. He refers to himself on his show as 'Turkey Neck', 'Puppet Chin' or 'Golf Mike Alpha'.

Career in Music

Anderson taught himself guitar and in 1963 relocated to Manchester where he worked in clubs, and eventually toured in Scotland, England and Canada with a showband called The Chessmen, and, from 1972, with a band called Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks.

Broadcasting in Northern Ireland

Originally a touring rock musician in Ireland, he started in radio at BBC Radio Foyle in 1985, the local station in his home city which he usually calls ‘Stroke City’ to reflect the difficulty regarding broadcasting the name of Derry/Londonderry (each name is preferred by a different part of the local community). Starting with Making the Tea, on with music but then also moving on to talk shows. His programme was picked up by BBC Radio Ulster and given a wider audience. The Gerry Anderson Show is currently broadcast daily on BBC Radio Ulster from 10.30 am to 11.55am, and calls made to the show form the basis of BBC NI's animated TV comedy series On The Air. Show regulars include Geordie Tuft a farmer from Loughbrickland, who often offers advice to listeners on issues regarding farm animals (particularly goats), using Jeyes fluid as a shampoo for dogs, and how to 'dung out a bed'. On the BBC Radio Ulster show, referring to his earlier career in music, he claims to have met Elvis Presley and touring with Kris Kristofferson, including innuendoes about Rita Coolidge which he refuses to expand upon.

Anderson's co-presenter on the show is Sean Coyle who has his own Wee Show on BBC Radio Foyle. In addition, he presents television series for BBC Northern Ireland.

Stroke City

His contribution to solving the Derry/Londonderry name dispute was to popularise the jocular name "Stroke City" (from the "/" in the city's neutral designation), which became the title of one of his radio programmes from 1992 leading some of his friends to rename him "Gerry/Londongerry". The programmes were broadcast nationally on Radio 4.

Radio 4

In 1994 BBC Radio 4 contracted the broadcaster to present an afternoon magazine programme running from 2 to 3 pm. The audience reaction to Anderson Country was polarised with listeners divided over its shift in tone from the rest of Radio 4. After a year Anderson Country was dropped, though the programme basically continued as The Afternoon Shift for another three years. Anderson returned to Northern Ireland where he remained popular, sometimes presenting television as well as radio, and continued to make new programmes for Radio 4 such as Gerry's Bar.

Awards

• Gold Sony Award 1990 for Best Regional Broadcaster
• Broadcaster of the Year at the Entertainment and Media Awards, 1991, 1992 and 1993
• Radio Academy Hall of Fame
• Royal Television Society Regional Presenter of the Year 2004

Publications

• Autobiography: Surviving Stroke City (Hutchinson, 1999).
• Memoir: 'HEADS - A Day in the Life' (Gill & Macmillan, 2008).

HEADS is a memoir not like others. It is no ordinary good-time showband tales filled with bonhomie, lies, warm stories about likeable characters and wholesome craic. This is the way it was, with harsh behaviour, singing dwarves, whip-wielding landladies, psychotic saxophonists, predatory trumpeters and chemically-enhanced drummers.

'Gerry Anderson is as darkly talented a writer as Pat McCabe, as saucy as Russell Brand, as irreverent and intellectual as Jimmy Carr.' [***** Stars] Belfast Telegraph

'Gerry Anderson has written a serious yet laugh-out-loud book about one of the few cultural phenomena that straddled the border'. Irish Independent

Working Life in Brief

• 1963-1963: Guitarist in various clubs, Manchester, and with The Chessmen
• 1972-1972: Guitarist with Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks
• 1974-1978: Student, University of Ulster
• 1978-1984: Teacher, assistant social worker (Bowling Green, Strabane), community magazine writer and editor, occasional broadcasting.
• 1985–present: Daily radio show presenter, BBC Radio Foyle / BBC Radio Ulster.
• 2008: Published critically acclaimed memoir of his career as a bass player with the showbands of the 1960s - 1970's

External links

• Radio Foyle biography
• The Gerry Anderson Show webpage
• HEADS - A Day in the Life. More information