Tony Butler

Tony Butler (born 15 May 1935) is a retired Birmingham based UK sports broadcaster and was one of the first stars of local radio in Britain, known for a distinctive local accent and sometimes controversial style. In 2007, he was honoured by the Sony Radio Academy with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tony Butler was born in Wolverhampton on 15 May 1935. He began his journalistic career in local papers in Birmingham before beginning to contribute to BBC national and regional radio in the 1960s. His strong regional accent caused problems at the staid BBC and he later recalled how he was encouraged to soften his natural accent. At one point the BBC even provided elocution lessons.

In 1974, he was hired to be the first sports editor at Birmingham's new independent (i.e. non-BBC) radio station BRMB, one of a handful of commercial stations to launch at that time. With BRMB striving to offer something different from the established BBC radio stations, Butler was encouraged to act naturally on the air, emphasising rather than hiding his accent.

After being sent on a tour of radio stations in Canada and the US, Butler noticed the success of the forthright North American broadcasters and, back in the UK, he began to develop a similar aggressive manner on the air, offering controversial opinions and arguing with callers to his shows. In another innovation imported from across the Atlantic, Butler began to offer sports fans the opportunity to call into his shows with their opinions of their teams' performances, giving birth to his boast that he was the inventor of the football phone-in.

Butler's much repeated catchphrase "On 'yer bike" was used to cut off callers whose opinions he disagreed with, whilst his competitions would tax listeners with questions such as "How many yards of elastic are there in a golf ball?". During live coverage of football games, fans were encouraged to "get those prayer mats out" to help their ailing teams. Similar encouragement was offered through frequent playing of "The Butler Theme Tune" (in reality Hurricane Smith's "Theme from an Unmade Silent Movie").

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