Saturday Night for Saturday 5 July 2014
Peter Fry - the advert that brought him to us, early publicity photo, recent publicity photo. Images RNZ/supplied.
Much loved broadcaster Peter Fry is retiring this week. Here is his farewell message:
Greetings everyone,
I’ve been amazed and overcome at the goodwill messages that have flooded in from all parts of the country, as well as overseas since I first mentioned my retirement on air. They’ve been mostly from my ‘Saturday Nighters’ and ‘Cadenza’ fans but it’s been great to hear, too, from colleagues, past and present, and thank you all very sincerely.
It’s been a privilege to have spent so much of my life in broadcasting, working among top professionals many of whom became more than colleagues and I’ll remember my time in radio and TV news with gratitude and enormous satisfaction. However, I have to say that in many ways my last fifteen years that have been the most rewarding. I’ve come to regard ‘ them out there’ as friends and from the tone of their emails, cards and letters, It seems they feel the same. I won’t pretend it hasn’t been a challenge trying to keep Saturday Nights sounding fresh, and there has been the odd time when I’ve wondered why I was still hard at it in my seventies…..but there’s nothing like a supportive letter for re-charging the elderly batteries.
Peter Fry in the studio, and a small selection of request letters sent in by listeners.
My decision to hang up my cans has less to do with age and decrepitude than with the current change of style in radio and what I see as a tendency to embrace a commercial philosophy; more to the point though, after fifteen years I feel ( and so does my beloved) it’s high time we had our weekends to ourselves. Ideally, retirement should be about doing what you want, when you want and for whom you want. We’re going to give that a go, but don’t be too surprised to hear from me again now and then.
It’s all been rather wonderful and I feel very humble!
Happy Days!
Peter Fry
To mark Peter's retirement, Radio New Zealand is providing the final programme here so people can listen again:
Shortwave radio website SWLing pays tribute to Peter Fry.
Music Details for Peter Fry's final programme:
7pm – 8pm
We’ll Meet Again - Vera Lynn [Parker/Charles]
Opo The Crazy Dolphin - Pat McMinn Stardusters & Crombie Murdoch [Murdoch]
Black Out Stroll - Chick Henderson [Connor]
Music Of The Night - Michael Crawford [Lloyd Webber]
Top Of The World – Carpenters [Carpenter/Bettis]
La Mer - Charles Trenet [Trenet]
Sussex By The Sea - Band & Chorus of HM RAF [Higgs]
Poem: To A Mouse by Robert Burns
Captian Stratton’s Fancy - Oscar Natzka [Warlock]
Vissi D’arte - Maria Callas & La Scala Theatre Orchestra, Milan/De Sabata [Puccini]
Hear My Song Violetta - Josef Locke [Lukech/Klose/Pepper]
On Llkla Moor Baht’at - Leslie Sarony [Trad]
Komm Zigany - Fritz Wunderlcih [Kalman]
Now Is the Hour - Anne Holmes [Scott/Kaihau]
8pm – 9pm
Little Betty Bouncer - Flotsam & Jetsam [Hilliam]
Theme (Allegro) Vairiations On A Nursery Song - Erno Dohnanyi with London Symphony Orchestra [Dohnanyi]
Let A Smile Be Your Umbrella - The Andrews Sisters [Kabal/Wheeler]
Begin The Beguine - Artie Shaw [Porter]
If You Go In You’re Sure To Win - John Reed, Donald Adams, Thomas Round & The D’oyly Carte Opera Company [Gilbert/Sullivan]
Heykens Serenade - Royal Scots Dragoon Guard [Heyken]
Un Di All’azzuro Spazio - Mario Lanza [Giordiano]
Melody In F - Bernard Gregor Smith & Yolande Wrigley [Rubinstein]
No Je Ne Regrette - Edith Paif [Dumont/Vaucaire]
Don’t Fence Me In - Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters [Burke/Van Heusen]
Bells Across The Meadow - Ronnie Ronalde [Ketelbey]
An Old Violin - Gracie Fields [Taylor/Fisher]
Oh No John - Inia Te Wiata [Trad]
Falling In Love - Marlene Dietrich [Hoelleander/Connelly]
Tristesse (Etude In E Major) - Vladimir Ashkenazy [Chopin]
9pm – 10pm
Isa Lei - The Seekers [Trad]
Lucevan Le Stelle - Petre Munteanu [Puccini]
Don’t Laugh At Me (Cause I’m A Fool) - Norman Wisdom [Wisdom/Tremayne]
Get Out Those Old Records - Guy Lombardo [Loeb/Lombardo]
Music, Music, Music - Ray Ventura Orchestra [Weiss/Baum/Hornez]
I Got Rhythm - Metronomen All-Star Leaders [Gershwin]
After Tonight We Say Goodbye - Savoy Hotel Orpheans [Leon/Towers]
Everybody Loves Saturday Night - The Martin Slavin Marimba Sextet [Trad]
Tales From The Vienna Woods - Miliza Korjus [Strauss]
Stand By - Frank Mantis [Mantis]
I Remember It Well - Maurice Chevalier & Hermione Gingold [Lerner]
Je Cois En Entendre - Vernon Midgley [Bizet]
Look To Your Heart - Frank Sinatra [Cahn/Van Heusen]
Grand March (Aida) - Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra/James Levine [Verdi]
10pm – 11pm
Carnival Overture - Philharmonia Orchestra/Carlo Maria Giulini [Dvorak]
Basin Street Blues - Fats Waller & his piano [Spencer Williams]
At Seventy-Eight - William Main & Roger Hart [Offenbach/Main]
Kalinka - Soviet Army Ensemble/Boris Alexandrov Solo: Evgeni Belyayev [Trad]
Design For Living - Flanders & Swann [Flanders/Swann]
I Wish I'd Looked After Me Teeth - Pam Ayres [Ayres]
Room Five Hundred And Four - Vera Lynn [Maschwitz/Ponsford]
Medley: My Blue Heaven,Body & Soul, Rock Around the Clock Joseph Seal - Theatre Organ
Goodbye-ee - Peter Cook & Dudley Moore [Moore]
