Brian Matthew (17 September 1928 – 8 April 2017)[1][2] was an English broadcaster who worked for the BBC for 63 years from 1954 until 2017.
He was the host of Saturday Club, among other programmes, and began presenting Sounds of the 60s in March 1990, often employing the same vocabulary and the same measured delivery he had used in previous decades.
On the BBC Light Programme, as a staff announcer, he introduced numerous programmes including Take It From Here and Saturday Club[5] (originally called Saturday Skiffle Club, starting in 1957 and changing to its more familiar name in 1958) and Easy Beat (starting in 1960).
At the time, airtime for pop music on BBC Radio was limited, and the demand for it among young people meant the shows attracted large audiences.
[12] Matthew won a Sony Gold Award in 2008: "To celebrate an impressive record of more than 50 years of national and international radio broadcasting.
"[10] On 29 October 2016 Matthew became the oldest regular broadcaster on BBC Radio, following Desmond Carrington's retirement.
"[16] The BBC's off-hand treatment led to an e-petition signed by thousands of "avids" demanding his return but failed.
[13] A week later, Sounds Of The 60s became a live show, hosted by Tony Blackburn, moving to an earlier slot between 6am and 8am on Saturday mornings.
[13] However, a show from January 2015 was broadcast in an early morning repeat slot on 6 March 2017, with new links recorded by Matthew.
[19] He built a theatre in his Chelsfield home and formed his own dramatic society called the Pilgrim Players.