Dann, Dann the Hatchet man
To the Radio Academy in Belfast last night. Host, UTV’s John Rosborough, introduced the man, once described by a UK tabloid as "Dann, Dann, the Hatchet man". Trevor Dann is possibly the man who saved Radio 1 to become what it is today, cutting back the "old guard" (who I once worked with) and starting anew as a radio station for people younger than 25.
Radio 1 had become an institution (parts of which the inmates had assumed control) and like an institution it had it’s own set of mores and traditions, it’s own passwords and secret handshakes. And it was very, very old. In what was seen in very negitive terms at the time, Dann and his colleague Matthew Bannister made the significant changes which probably stopped Radio 1 becoming privatised and rejuvenated the station to develop into a creative force that it is now.
