If you grew up in the English Midlands, you or your parents might have listened to Ed Doolan, a radio presenter who came from Australia to join the big Birmingham independent station BRMB in 1974. Some years later, when independent radio was changing its tactics, he was recruited by, and became popular on, the BBC station in the same city.
His programmes contained plenty of campaigning, endless local relevance, and listener involvement in countless forms. Ed Doolan’s voice, opinions and style have become very familiar to me over the last forty years and clearly influenced my own much smaller and less successful career in front of radio microphones.
I no longer live in the Midlands, but always tuned the car radio to BBC WM when in the area to hear his conversations.
Lately, Ed Doolan has gradually reduced his radio workload. He went on air on BBC WM the other day to explain to the station’s host Caroline Martin why he had retired from live broadcasting.
To hear this fellow, only 23 years older than me, and familiar over four decades, say “I’ve got dementia” simply halted all I was doing this afternoon. His full interview is here: