Austin Mitchell By James Collingwood
Baildon born Austin Mitchell was one of the most familiar faces in Yorkshire throughout the 1970’s. As one of the prominent personalities at the new Yorkshire TV and a regular presenter on Calendar he was a household name on a station that brought Yorkshire programmes to Yorkshire people. He was also one of the people that set up Pennine Radio, Bradford’s pioneering radio station. Austin was later an MP for Grimsby and his famous interview with Don Revie and Brian Clough in 1974 (on the night Clough was sacked from Leeds Utd after 44 days) was immortalised in the film and book the Damned United. Now living in Sowerby Bridge I talked to Austin about his life and future plans.
Pennine Radio (which later became the Pulse) was set up in 1975 as a genuine community radio station. I asked Austin about its early days. “It was really Steve Harris and Steve Whittaker that set it up” said Austin. “It was a great idea. We had the idea of a Bradford community radio station - involving people and paying a dividend to community groups that took part. That didn’t quite work out because you’ve got to raise the capital for various interested parties. We did raise the money though and we got lots of people to take part in it.” Austin was Programme Controller at Pennine and a presenter of various programmes such as Tops and Noils (about Yorkshire dialect and customs) and the Folk Show (for which he believes he annoyed a lot of folkies by just playing Bob Dylan and Joan Baez!) He was still presenting Calendar whilst at Pennine and in the 24
early days was a bit restricted due to “buggering his back” after doing a parachute jump on Calendar. The station itself had to eventually go more commercial and later became the “radio jukebox” the Pulse. The early days had interesting programming and presenters such as Peter Levy (who now does Hull Look North), Dorothy Box (originally Austin’s secretary at Calendar) and Julius K Scragg as well as later the impressionist Jon Culshaw and the radio bigwig Roger Mosey. “Things like the phone in’s - they worked very well” said Austin. “We had one with Arthur Scargill…. Also, I remember one time we couldn’t get in the studio because of protestors. I can’t remember what they were protesting about!” Austin joined Calendar in 1968 about two weeks after it went on air. After university he had gone to New Zealand as an academic and became a broadcaster whilst over there. He watched the first two weeks output then became a Calendar presenter. The station and the programme were at first mostly staffed by people from the South but eventually developed local Yorkshire talent such as Sid Waddell and Barry Cockcroft. Presenting along with fellow Baildon lad Richard Whiteley Austin became a household name. He was also involved with other programmes such as the political programme Yorkshire Matters which among other things Austin believes “made” regular participant Arthur Scargill. The political big hitters at the time – people like Harold Wilson and Dennis Healey were from Yorkshire so they could get access to them. For Austin it is sad that Yorkshire television is