Tony Butler RIP

Death of a radio pioneer

The sad death of broadcasting legend Tony Butler at the age of 88 gives an opportunity to reflect on a true pioneer who made local radio MATTER in a way that seems impossible to imagine today.

Butler was the man who invented the football phone in. He was also the first presenter I’d heard who, instead of a being ashamed of his West Midlands accent, positively revelled in it. A true trailblazer.

As a kid I’d spin the dial of my small transistor radio on Saturday afternoons, desperately looking for any kind of football coverage. At the time, even on national BBC, it was generally rationed to second half commentary and Sports Report.

We’re talking the early to mid 70s, an era when there were no podcasts, no social media, no round the clock transfer speculation.

Interviews were still polite and deferential. Not many years earlier, broadcasters still wore dinner jackets on air. Suddenly, here was this brash, upstart commercial station called BRMB, where a gruff Black Country voice came booming through the speakers, urging us to ‘get out your prayer mats’ to help secure a win for our team.

Once a week, on a Friday night, you could listen to an hour of raucous football debate where callers who annoyed Butler (ie those who disagreed with him) were told to get “on yer bike”.

This was a period when West Midlands football was in the ascendancy. Albion, Villa, Blues and Wolves all had decent teams, and supporters vied with each other for his attention.

Butler had spent a period in the States, and adopted some of the ‘shock jock’ tactics he’d heard over there. Although he was originally a speedway writer for the Daily Telegraph, his approach was unashamedly tabloid.

That abrasive, forthright presence you heard on air wasn’t an act he put on for the listeners. He was sacked by BRMB after roughing up Brian Savin, a disabled colleague who he pulled out his wheelchair in a row over an over-running programme.

He quickly found a new home at BBC Radio WM, which is where I first met him, cutting my teeth as a freelance. Fools like me were not suffered gladly.

One Bank Holiday when I was let loose on the sports bulletin, he gave me a rollocking for leading with a mundane football transfer story the morning after a local speedway rider became World Champion. He was right and I was wrong.

For all that, he could be a generous, supportive colleague, who liked a laugh and never carried grudges.

There were his legendary quizzes, too. A typical question would be, “what have I got in my hand?”. The phones would go into meltdown. Winners received an egg cup. Funnily enough, the listener with the right answer always got through a minute before the end of the programme.

Along with fellow BRMB star Ed Doolan who also migrated to the Beeb, Butler was a true original, helping to create a genre of bold, fearless radio journalism that simply has no equivalent today. It also paved the way for interactive speech stations like Talksport and 5 Live.

Rest In Peace, Tone.