As his successor David Waine put it He had a deep belief in the importance of regional broadcasting being independent of London and he

As his successor, David Waine, put it, “He had a deep belief in the importance of regional broadcasting being independent of London and he pursued that belief with an acerbic and occasionally wounding wit.” It was Sidey’s defiant independence of London that led to his premature retirement in 1983.The Royal Television Society, founded in 1927, was originally a group of television enthusiasts intent on furthering this new scientific discovery It consisted entirely of engineers. Sidey’s appointment coincided with the Government’s de-restriction of broadcasting hours and he seized the opportunity of putting Pebble Mill on the broadcasting map by offering to mount a live daily magazine from the idle space in the glass foyer. But by the Seventies visitors mostly came by car and had to park at the back of the building. After Radio Leeds he worked as the Deputy Editor of Nationwide until 1972, when he became Head of the Network Production Centre at Birmingham.The Pebble Mill complex, newly opened but planned some 10 years earlier and built at a cost of pounds 8m, has a marble entrance hall with a vast glass foyer which is reached via a footbridge. He described in detail the work of creating cheap local radio. “The rediscovery of radio and the infliction of new communication ideas on to the city of Leeds,” he declared, “was surrounded by so much good-humour and lively, not to say outrageous, behaviour, that the station soon became dubbed ‘Radio Irreverent’.”Sidey’s own lively, not to say outrageous, behaviour caused him trouble with the authorities at Broadcasting House on various occasions.

Another was Teenage Week, presented entirely by schoolchildren, which caused Sidey to be dubbed “Fagin” and accused of exploiting cheap child labour.In 1969 Sidey wrote a memorable article for the New Statesman, then influential with Harold Wilson’s government, on making community radio effective. Listeners would telephone the studio and demand a favour, promising in exchange to pay a sum of money to any charity of their choice. This worried the authorities in Broadcasting House, who feared it might upset the central scheme that ensured fairness among charity appeals. Sidey was filmed outside the door of Radio Leeds urging passers-by to come in with their favourite discs. The film was shown on the day the station opened in June 1968.Sidey recruited a team of Yorkshire journalists to provide a valuable service of local news. The naive idea of the Government that provincial newspapers would gladly provide the new experimental radio stations with copies of the local news they had gathered for their own use had soon evaporated.One of his innovations was The Only BBC Programme the Money Can Buy.

One was a record request show called Bring-a-Disc in which, because his library was limited, listeners had to bring their own records to be played. 24 Hours, the television magazine of which Sidey had been the news producer before moving to Leeds, sent a camera team to make a sequence about the programmes he planned to introduce. In order to get the name of the experimental station regularly mentioned in the local press, albeit only on the sports page, he bought a greyhound and named it Radio Leeds. But he was ambitious to run his own operation and he feared he had made too many enemies in television news ever to reach its top position.Sidey had a great flair for publicity, including self- publicity. It had to be found from other local sources.In 1967 Sidey was selected to manage the new local radio station at Leeds. His application was a surprise, for many thought that he had abandoned radio for television, and he had no connections with the north of England. In 1963 he transferred to Television News, becoming a Duty Editor in 1964.
In 1966 Harold Wilson’s Labour government decided to inaugurate eight experimental local radio stations.