BBC Says Goodbye to Bush House

On July 12th 2012, the BBC leaves Bush House for the last time, with a world news bulletin at 11 hrs GMT. That iconic building on the Strand has been the home of the World Service since 1941. There have been various tributes in BBC programmes on the network in the last few months. As a World Service listener since 1969, I watched this organisation for the outside looking in. I was pleased that Newshour honoured the late Pete Myers by including his famous "Goooooood Morning Africa" call in their sign-off piece. I often thought he must have inspired Adrian Cronauer's famous call in Good Morning Vietnam, although,the film was largely fictitious. Pete later came to Radio Netherlands to start Afroscene and Mainstream Asia. I remember him showing me his scrapbook of newspaper cuttings compiled during his days in Ghana and at the BBC African Service. My fear is that these great stories of an intriguing building will get lost and separated in cyberspace as they move down the vast archiving system. It's already happening as BBC World Service moves on to a new life and purpose in New Broadcasting House at the Langham, just by Oxford Circus. So I've simply combined what I've heard into one compilation in the hope that by putting it together, the context of these stories won't disappear. The photo is of well-known presenter John Tidmarsh, a voice inseperable from BBC World Service in the 70's and 80's.