BBC Radio 4 needs your help
 

Hi my name's Howie Shannon and I'm making a show for BBC Radio Four all about public address announcements. What got me thinking about these sometimes wonderful and sometimes awful tannoy announcements was a train journey. I heard a truly weird station PA / Tannoy message at a station in the Midlands. The announcer made all the passengers laugh with his surreal way of talking !! I also noticed on board the train tat there are endless public address announcements about buying magazines and chocolates - one passenger joked they were unable to work because of the PA messages! SO I NEED YOUR HELP!! Have you come across any weird station PA announcements (or announcers) around the UK? I need to go to some stations and record them. Or have you got an amazing recording you've already done yourself (maybe on board a train) that I could broadcast? Is there anybody out there who perhaps has an archive collection of train announcements? My e-mail is: [email protected]
Thanks so much !!!!

Well I cant help you with your request, but hello and welcome to the Forum anyway.

About 20 years ago I used to do bingo calling in the workingmans club :D:D

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Well, the first thing you need to know is that the automated on train announcer is nicknamed "Digital Doris" or on some lines "Sonya" (because she gets sonya nerves);):)

My brother had a brief stint as station announcer at watford junction, may have been in the 80's... don't remember any funny incidents but I'll ask him. His job was curtailed after a somewhat violent moment with his boss... sad to say that wasn't broadcast over the tannoy to the public ;)

I was in York for a day out on the 3rd of January, and was standing on York Station waiting for my train back to Manchester in the evening. They had a lady there who seemed to be quite incapable of turning the microphone off after making announcements. Therefore, we where treated to hearing her ringing signalmen to discover the posistions of some trains, and also reprimanding her colleagues for breaking wind in the office.