19 November 2024
Our final meeting of 2024 began with a short AGM, at which we looked back on a successful year with a diverse range of events, a modest increase in membership and a large increase in the number of visitors, resulting in a healthy surplus in the accounts. The existing members of the committee were re-appointed.
As our speaker, we welcomed a much-loved broadcaster who has recently retired after a 25-year career at the BBC. No, Gary Lineker is still under contract: in fact, our guest was Dave Andrews, who has been a stalwart of the Radio Leicester schedules since the early 1990s. He began by recalling three chance incidents that led to his broadcasting career. As a child at a new school, he sat in the wrong class and found a teacher who instilled a love of history that has stayed with him ever since. Later, after taking a history degree, Dave decided to become a teacher himself and, unable to settle on which training college to apply to, he drew the name “Leicester” at random out of a hat. He stayed in this area and went on to become deputy head of Anstey Martin School but then, ready for a change, he began volunteering at Radio Leicester. The third incident was on Dave’s first outing with a reporter to a crime scene, when the colleague was suddenly taken ill and thrust the microphone into Dave’s hands to record the item. It went well enough for him to be offered a post, which eventually became a full-time job.
An early challenge related to the death of Princess Diana. Strict protocols meant that local radio was not permitted to announce the death but, because it had happened so unexpectedly, Dave and his colleagues had to scramble to fill the schedule with appropriate content. His time at the station also covered two events when Leicester became the focus of international attention: Leicester City’s victory in the Premier League, and the rediscovery and subsequent reinterment of the body of Richard III. He was also chosen to present the live coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s visit to the city for the Maundy service in 2017. From his vantage point in the gallery, he had to fill the considerable time while she distributed coins to 91 men and 91 women (the number being equal to the monarch’s age).
Dave reminded us that Radio Leicester was the UK’s first local radio station, having been founded in 1967 at about the same time as the Home Service and the Light Programme were replaced by Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4. A highlight of his career was the station’s 40th anniversary, when he led fund-raising for an extension of Rainbows Hospice. Drawing on their shared love of theatre, Dave and two colleagues put together a stage show of words and music from WWI, which was so successful that they repeated it for WWII the following year.
He interviewed many celebrities over the years – most often when they were appearing at the De Montfort Hall – but he gained as much pleasure from his conversations with local people. Dave is now one of the Deputy Lieutenants of Leicestershire, in which role he represents the King at events such as citizenship ceremonies.