Talk:Tony Blackburn

Christmas lights...

Is the fact that he is switching on the folkstone xmas lights actually a piece of info that everyone wants to know about? Fair enough that the people of Folkstone & surrounding areas may be interested, this is a world wide encyclopaedia, so someone in Vancouver for instance may not really care about that. Just my view. 88.108.170.60 (talk) 22:53, 16 November 2007 (UTC) (infernoradio)

Well spotted, I have removed. Thanks, SqueakBox 22:56, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

TV career

Maybe the article should mention his appearances as presenter of the BBC TV "Top of the Pops" show in the 70s and 80s. I also remember him having his own TV Chat show (It might have been daily) on the original Sky Television channel in the 1980s. Can anyone verify this and add it in properly? 82.152.44.250 (talk) 23:28, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

BBC London 94.9

He is Currently presenter of BBC London 94.9 'Soul on Sunday' 12pm-3pm Sundays. This needs to be added to the to the 'Media offices' table on the main page but I don't know how to. Can someone please do it? 212.159.79.211 (talk) 16:42, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

References

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"Committed suicide"

I dislike this term as it is a euphemism and moreover one which carries an outdated implication that it describes an illegal act (cf. "committed murder", "committed arson" etc). I had a wider discussion a year or two ago about this in which I was initially against bluntly saying "killed herself" but came around to the view I now hold. At that time it was demonstrated to me that the older term is deprecated by modern professionals in the relevant fields. I am not sure I could now find that discussion but I would plead with others not to simply revert changes like this out of hand. --John (talk) 23:18, 29 February 2016 (UTC)

It is generally known that committing suicide is not an illegal act. It was before 1961 in the UK, and it is unfortunate that the construction gives that impression, but "committed suicide" is still standard usage. Sorry, but your reference to "modern professionals" reads like original research.

While subtly is not a policy requirement, avoiding sensationalist language (which is used mainly by the tabloids) is a condition editors are supposed to observe. Unfortunately, I inaccurately interpreted the reference to an overdose in the source as suicide, as McAlpine's end is almost universally described elsewhere, though of course such a cause could interrupted as an accidental death. But giving the impression she died accidentally is out of place in the context when sources do not sustain it. My main reason for adding the source which mentions her overdose was the month, which was previously elusive in reliable sources. So I forgot I was making an interpretation. Philip Cross (talk) 14:54, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Tastes differ. I regard "committed suicide" as pretty awful language now, and prefer the plain-spoken term. On Wikipedia we eschew euphemism; cf. "passed away" vs. "died". I have implemented a compromise which I hope we can both live with. Now, a far greater problem. Blackburn is a living person and the current state of the article gives far too much weight to his recent problems. There are also far too many quotations. If we can agree on this I can take a shot at cleaning it up. It can't stay as it is.--John (talk) 17:54, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

While the issue is still news, is it being recent-heavy a problem at the moment? Especially as some of the media are intentionally reporting this in a misleading way ("She spent the night with a singer. Tony Blackburn released songs.") Also, I have seen at least two local newspapers reporting the story almost verbatim from this Wikipedia article, so some are finding it professionally useful as it is! SandJ-on-WP (talk) 18:11, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

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Crying on air

After his wife left him in the mid-70s, Tony Blackburn famously spent his whole show crying on air and playing "If You Leave Me Now" over and over - is this something that should be mentioned in the article? It seems fairly noteworthy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.150.173.71 (talk) 09:05, 8 April 2017 (UTC)

Tony's work at BFBS...

I just have one question.

Why is nothing written in the article about Tony Blackburn about his work at BFBS?

After all, Tony presented the show "Soulstation" there in the middle of the 80s.

Should the article be revised in this regard? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.187.120.173 (talk) 10:43, 6 September 2019 (UTC)

Date of birth

Somewhat surprising this article has survived so long with no source for his date of birth. BBC here has 1943. Martinevans123 (talk) 21:41, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

Here are a couple of book sources: Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations and Historical Dictionary of British Radio Martinevans123 (talk) 10:57, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

A search at FreeBMD for any Blackburn born between 1939 and 1945 reveals none with middle initial K, none with mother's name of Cubitt or Stone, and none born anywhere near Surrey. This seems a bit odd. Martinevans123 (talk) 10:01, 5 August 2021 (UTC) p.s. it was there on 6 February 2021, when I found it with no problem (see "Birth name" below).

Here's a blog source (so not reliable) but looks very well-researched: [1]. Martinevans123 (talk) 10:33, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Birth name

His birth name is Anthony Kenneth Blackburn. That is clear from primary sources such as the GRO Civil Registration Birth Index, and is also the name under which he was married in 1972. (These are public documents, available from subscription-based sites like Ancestry.com.) However, the Oxford Reference here does give his name as simply Kenneth Blackburn. It is a so-called "reliable source" - but it's clearly wrong on this occasion. We shouldn't base the opening sentence of the article, especially one about a notable living person, on a single, wrong, source - but what alternative, accurate, secondary sources would editors suggest? Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:23, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

GoogleSearchBooks suggests his autobiography, but there is no snippet view for me. Does anyone have a copy? (Might also be good idea to mention those book on the article!) Martinevans123 (talk) 13:55, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Not sure autobiographies are necessarily reliable though... Ghmyrtle (talk) 14:46, 6 February 2021 (UTC) PS: Just corrected myself - his name is spelled Antony - no h - if that makes a difference on searches. Ghmyrtle (talk) 14:49, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Oh no. I've heard that somewhere before. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:53, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Maybe the spelling correction does make a difference. Here's the BBC - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04cppr1 - and here's the National Portrait Gallery - https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp84181/antony-kenneth-tony-blackburn. Ghmyrtle (talk) 14:53, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Yes, here he is at FreeBMD: [2]. That NPG source looks good enough to me. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:58, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Note: this source has now disappeared. Martinevans123 (talk) 10:34, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Images

We have only the currently used two at Commons. While the lead image is quite good, there is that awkward hand clashing thing going on. Here are two possible flickr candidates, copyright permitting: [3] and [4]. Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 09:51, 5 August 2021 (UTC)