Nick Girdler
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Nick Girdler is a freelance radio broadcaster who worked for BBC Radio Solent for 35 years from 1972 to 2006.
Nick surprised his listeners by announcing his retirement from Radio Solent on 28th February 2006. After 35 years of broadcasting, he retired on Friday 3rd March. He plans to spend the next few years sailing around the British Isles with his partner Sandi Jones (a former co-presenter).
He had an extremely loyal following among listeners, indeed the majority of his show involved audience participation - to a much greater extent than most radio programmes. The numbers of callers, texters and emailers on his last day broke all previous records as listeners flocked to express their appreciation for his programmes and to wish him well for his retirement.
Nick signed off his final broadcast with part of Macbeth's soliloquy – Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
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Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player |
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[edit] Competitions
Every day Nick had 2 or 3 competitions to which listeners were invited to phone, email or text their guesses. The answers were often obscure and the competitions were rarely completed. Nick gave the remaining answers at the end of the show.
Popular competitions were:
- Sod-u-ko - based on the popular new numbers game. If the listeners guess the correct number in the correct place, they are asked a general knowledge question. If they can't give the correct answer, it goes out for any listener to answer.
- Crossbar (or Son-of-Crossbar) - Nick gives clues to 5 words or phrases which intersect like a crossword, one word crossing the other four.
- Famous Five - clues are given for 5 words, one in each of 5 'drawers'; Julian, Dick, George, Ann and Timmy. Answers will either start or end with one of the letters in the name of its 'drawer'.
- Top 10 - this began when listeners completed a competition very quickly, so Nick invited them to guess his top 10 James Bond films. The top 10s have moved from being simply a factual list, to one involving wordplay and obscure information.
- The Hard One - a very hard question for which very little information is given initially. Further clues are given as time passes. 'The Hard One' originally ran until it was solved - often several weeks. Recently the 'Well-Hard One' has lasted only a week before the answer is revealed.
[edit] Catchphrases
Over the years Nick developed a set of stock phrases which he used regularly
- Gordon Bennett - in place of any expletive
- Love this job - usually after a song Nick likes
- A bit whizzy - to describe anything remotely modern or impressive
- You're not listening fast enough - when a listener guesses an answer already given
[edit] Regular Features
- The Girdler Line - listeners phone Nick with requests for help after 10.30. Often Nick will provide an answer, or if not a listener will usually provide one swiftly.
- The Newsdog - Nick interviews a local person (usually with something to promote) at 10.00 every day, the second half of the interview is devoted to a review of the daily newspapers.
[edit] Interests
Nick is a keen sailor (his boat is called Seesaw) and sails in the Solent most weeks (usually on a Thursday). Nick plays squash with his friend Peter on a Tuesday. Whenever Nick embarked on a DIY project, listeners were usually informed.
Nick had demonstrated an interest in underwater broadcasting for decades, and so on 4th November 2005 attempted a World record for sub-aqua radio broadcasting. Unfortunately Nick's attempt failed after 90 minutes. He holds the UK record however.
[edit] External links
- BBC Radio Player Listen to BBC Radio Solent live online.
- Nick Girdler Has Left The Building A new site for fans of Nick (Nick has also posted here)
