This won't be of interest to everyone here, but some U.K. ex-pats may find it as strange as I do.  

I love it when old DJs and personalities come back to relive the glory days of their time on the radio. (One could argue that the new WECK line-up in Buffalo starting July 10th is something of a full time reunion.) But even though most of us have never heard of the people involved in an upcoming 50 year radio anniversary of BBC’s Radio 1 - the first Top 40 effort from the staid old broadcaster - this one baffles me.
 
One of the people they’re inviting back is a huge superstar in England named Tony Blackburn. He was the first voice ever on the station and according to what I’ve read, is like a Jay Nelson/Red Robinson-type over there. Fair enough. But what’s fascinating to me is that the BBC made him a scapegoat in a series of scandals that hit the place several years ago and summarily – and apparently unfairly – fired him for not being “forthcoming enough” about what was going on.
 
He later rejoined the BBC, proving, I suppose, that nothing is permanent. Other ex-jocks who are household names in England but not here will be back as well. But the strangeness doesn’t end there. The Beeb is the place where a pedophile ring apparently held sway undetected for many years and none of those famous personalities – most especially the late Jimmy Saville – will even be mentioned, get any airtime or replays.
 
And then there’s this – the reunion won’t even be officially broadcast on the station! The brass feels the format is aimed at younger audiences and figures no one in that age group would want to listen to some old fogies relive the past. So this huge reunion will only be broadcast on their DAB signal and over the web – and oddly, on Radio 2, which is not the place where it originated.  
 
Can’t say I’ve ever heard of anything quite so bizarre as to stage a huge, time consuming and expensive regrouping, only to make it so hard to hear.
 
And you thought North American radio was messed up!
 
Still, if you’re curious, Canadians can listen to Radio 1 over the web. The three-day event – complete with vintage airchecks, returning jocks, and old jingles recorded by the likes of the Who and ABBA - is scheduled to start on September 30th. I won’t know any of the participants. But my curiosity and love of radio history will force me to give it a listen anyway.  
 
BBC Radio 1 50th Anniversary Reunion
 
Radio 1 Live