Tom Browne (broadcaster)
| Tom Browne | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 11, 1945 Lymington, Hampshire, England |
| Occupation | Actor, DJ |
| Years active | 1965-2003 |
Tom Browne (born 11 November 1945) is a British broadcaster and actor, born in Lymington, Hampshire, and educated at King's College School, Wimbledon.
[edit] Radio and acting career
As an actor, he graduated from RADA. He appeared very briefly in the second series (set in 1945, the first series being set in 1928) of The Flaxton Boys playing the part of Captain Ewing in the episode called, "Is your journey really necessary?" shown on television on 25 March 1973.
He began his radio broadcasting career in Denmark in 1965. He married a Danish girl and moved to Chiswick in west London and in 1972 was unexpectedly chosen by BBC producer Johnny Beerling to succeed Alan Freeman as presenter of the BBC Radio 1 Sunday afternoon chart show. He presented this show from October 1, 1972 to March 26, 1978 - initially it was a three-hour show from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. each Sunday called "Solid Gold Sixty" selecting hits which were becoming popular (not necessarily in numerical order including those that were 'bubbling under' between 60 and 21) and was broadcast on Radio 1 (247 metres medium wave).
From January 1, 1973, the top 20 hit numbers running from 20 to 1 were also broadcast simultaneously on the BBC Radio 2 VHF/FM transmitters in stereophonic sound (88-91 MHz) and on long wave at exactly 6 p.m. each Sunday evening for one hour after which, at 7 p.m., the transmitters reverted back to BBC Radio 2. The programme was listened to by millions and started with the sound of the Apollo mission's 'we have lift-off!' words. Sound effects amongst many included a racing car indicated a record was rapidly moving up the top 20. Another example was the female vocal group sound of 'IT'S A TOP TWENTY ENTRY - RIGHT!!' which was used regularly on the programme. After the number 2 hit had finished playing, a further vocal run-down by Browne of numbers 20 down to 2 followed (with Tom's choice of background music) and then the number one record was announced and played which completed the programme. The chart was first broadcast (compiled by the British Market Research Bureau) on Johnnie Walker's programme the previous Tuesday (247 metres MW only) and played by Walker at that time. The music used for that rundown was Booker T and the MG's track entitled, "Time is Tight".
The Sunday chart show would be the only show Browne ever presented on Radio 1, but he did present occasional music documentaries on the station, notably on Abba, Queen and The Stylistics, and he never showed any sign of crossing over to television (except for his brief appearance in 1973 mentioned earlier), for example via Top of the Pops. His smooth style and Received Pronunciation James Mason-like voice (becoming more noticeable in later years; initially he had tried to sound more like a 1970s pop radio DJ) were unusual for Radio 1 even then, and would be utterly unthinkable now.[1]
After leaving Radio 1 he broadcast for BBC Radio 2 in the early 1980s, provided the voiceover for many TV and radio adverts, and continued his acting career, notably appearing in Yorkshire Television's Emmerdale Farm (as it was then called) playing the character Dryden.
He subsequently became a newsreader for BBC World television and then moved to Hong Kong, where he became a popular broadcaster on the British Armed Forces radio service in the final years of British rule. His final appearance on national BBC radio came at the very end of 1991, when he presented "The Million Selling Singles of the 60s and 70s" on BBC Radio 2, although he was a contributor to Radio 1's "25 Years of the UK Top 40", which aired in September 1992.
He fronted BFBS Radio Hong Kong's weekday breakfast show until the territory reverted to the Chinese in 1997 and continued working in radio, as well as a commercial voice-over artist and freelance video presenter until 2005, thereafter retiring to live in Thailand with his Thai wife. He currently owns a farm where they grow rice and mushrooms with the mountains of North Central Thailand in the distance. In 2003 he recorded linking vocals for Shaun Tilley's UK Rewind Top Twenty Show.
[edit] References
| Preceded by Alan Freeman |
BBC Radio One chart show presenter 1972 - 1978 |
Succeeded by Simon Bates |
