A brief history lesson of SUSY Radio’s past involvement with “The Variety Club Golf Society”.
SUSY Radio’s association with “The Variety Club Golf Society” spanned a number of years during the period of the station’s campaign for a full time broadcast license for the area.
As is the case now, individuals were permitted to apply to the regulator OFCOM for a temporary broadcast license for a period not exceeding 28 days, and for no more than two occasions in a 12 month period. These were issued under a “Restricted Service License” agreement by the regulator, abbreviated “RSL”.
A group of individuals in the area had already begun a series of “RSL’s” starting out as Jubilee FM in 1994, followed by Trust FM in 1995 before rebranding as SUSY Radio in 1996. A lot more information can be found in our “History” pages.
http://www.susyradio.com/history/
Over the years, during the station’s campaign for a full time license, an association was formed with the “Gatwick Airport Managers’ Association” based at the airport, which, as part of its activities, organised various fund raising events for charity. One of the major events of the year was the annual “Golf Classic” which was held traditionally each Spring Bank Holiday Monday at The Kingswood Golf Club near Tadworth, and organised in association with “The Variety Golf Club Society”.
http://www.varietygolf.org.uk/
The actual event was, and still is, hosted by comedian Russ Abbot and became known as the “Russ Abbot Golf Classic”, and the objective of the event was for golfing celebrities to enter various teams and be sponsored for entry. The golf day would end with a major “black tie” evening dinner event at The Copthorne Hotel, Effingham during which time additional fund raising events took place including a celebrity auction. Most of the competing celebrities who had played golf during the day would attend the dinner, as did some of the SUSY radio team on occasions.
As part of SUSY Radio’s involvement, the station would promote the event “on air” on the lead up to the day itself, and often feature a live outside broadcast from Kingswood on the day itself which was superbly engineered by John Stockley, ably supported by Colin Pearse which was no mean feat for a small temporary radio station in those days.
The purpose of the funds which were raised as result of the event was to be able to purchase as many specially adapted “Variety Club Sunshine Coaches” as possible for deserving organisations, and these would quite often be presented to representatives of successful organisations on the day itself.
SUSY presenter, the late Stephen Romaine was responsible for public relations during this period, and spent an enormous amount of time and energy in liaising with GAMA and the Variety Club organising the station’s participation in these events along with myself. As a result, we both got to know a number of the regularly appearing celebrities well over the years, who included individuals such as Russ Abbot, of course, Jimmy Tarbuck, Ronnie Corbett, Eric Sykes, Bernard Cribbens, Henry Cooper, John Lowe, Gareth Hunt, Ed Stewart and many more.
By the year 2000, SUSY Radio had taken the extremely brave step to try and raise enough money to be able to purchase and have presented a “Variety Club Sunshine Coach” of its own which we were eventually able to do, and were delighted that Russ Abbot agreed to present the coach on the station’s behalf. It was also during this time that we were fortunate to have the renowned ventriloquist, Ray Alan (along with Lord Charles) as our Chairman who was also extremely supportive of our campaign. Ray lived in Reigate at the time and was a regular visitor to the station when his schedule permitted.
The traditional “Russ Abbot Golf Classic” continues to be held at Kingswood Golf Club each Spring Bank Holiday Monday, and is next scheduled for Monday 2nd May, 2016.
Ian Rennison
These images are scanned from prints and therefore regretfully lacking in some detail.