Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> Notices, obituaries and tributes >> Cliff Wright http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1673449393 Message started by Mike78 on Jan 11^th, 2023, 3:04pm

Title: Cliff Wright
Post by Mike78 on Jan 11^th, 2023, 3:04pm

Cliff Wright, a much respected radio engineer throughout a long BBC career, has died aged 95. His son Graham has written this about his Dad.

Cliff Wright, who died on New Year’s Eve 2022, was a lifelong member of the BBC engineering establishment. Born in Caerwys, North Wales, Cliff joined the BBC as a youth in training in 1943. He completed his national service with the Royal Navy from 1946 to 1948, and was then taken onto the permanent staff of the BBC. After a long spell working at transmitters all around England and Wales, Cliff was seconded to the BFBS in Libya for two years in the mid-late 1950s, with a remit to help the locals establish their own radio service. He returned to transmitters in the UK in 1958, prior to a move to Radio Links and Telecine in Cardiff, in 1961.

In 1967, Cliff was instrumental, as Engineer in Charge, in setting up BBC Radio Merseyside, one of the first local radio stations. Three years later, he moved to Oxford to get Radio Oxford on the air, and remained as EiC in Oxford until his retirement in 1987. Following retirement, Cliff and his wife Mary moved to North Wales, where he enjoyed a long retirement. He loved his time at the BBC, though, and would probably have preferred to keep on working well beyond his 60th birthday!