The World's most popular alpine radio show! All the secrets, all the backroom gossip! Mike's daily show which was broadcast
for over 23 years is, as Mike used to say, 'history!' But the show is still celebrated here!
As you may know Mike died in June 2016 a few days from his 70th birthday. I'm keeping these pages on my website as a bit of
a tribute to him with my lifelong thanks to a great broadcaster and friend. Some of the stories and articles are written in
the here and now, and that may make it seem that Mike is still with us.. but then I like that.. and I tink he would too.
It interesting to hear many comments from the old In-crowd team that 9-10 is still proving 'difficult' even
a month or so after Infotourist came to an end. For my part, I've tried putting Radio BeO on at that time just for old times
sake, but it's hardly the same. It's all been a bit of a wrench really. Breaking a routine of almost two decades is a hard
thing to do, and despite being heavilly engaged in making a welcome DVD for church, and edting last years summer holiday video
(about time!), the evenings are still a bit 'mucked up'. Anyway it's good to see so much Oberland type activity from the old
members of the In-crowd on websites and emails. Long may it continue. Lets all stay in touch!
Sadly Infotourist came to an end with Mike's retirement from the show at the end of 2010. It's was
a remarkable programme for so many reasons, not least that Mike presented every programme without fail, that's almost 7600
shows! Of course I was very sad to say goodbye to the programme, but I hope that as many of you as possible
will stay in touch through the website.
In an email Mike wrote 'well that's all folks!' Well not quite.. Adolf Ogi Former President of
Switzerland had a few words to say to our Mikeyboy!
As Mike also reminded me.. 'everything has an end, but a sausage has two!' (Well thats my translation of
the Swiss German!) Talking of Swiss German, if you missed the retirement tribute show to Mike, just like I did, here is the
complete 1 hour 20 minute programme, and my sincere thanks to Dave and Audrey for managing to get the 1.4 GB's of recording
to me. Anyway enjoy the show... below!
Saturday 31st October 2009 sadly saw Rosemarie's last programme, and also by the end of the year, Mike
announced shortly after that Infotourist would no longer broadcast on a Saturday morning, becoming a 5 week day evening show
only. I guess it was inevitable, and at least it meant we could have a lie in on Saturday mornings! Infotourist was originally
a morning show each day, and that move completed the shows move to the other end of the day!!
Here is a scan from the December BeO Zytig Magazine. CLICK IT to read the article.
The
village of Gstaad in the Bernese Oberland remains to this day a wonderful mountain resort, and in the luxury chalets that
surround the village, quite a number of stars of film, music, banking and commerce have chosen to make their homes and alpine
retreats. Probably the most amazing time was in the sixties when Gstaad was high on the list of the world’s most famous
jet-set resorts. And at it's centre, one hotel and one lady, the Hotel Olden, the meeting place of the stars, run by our friend
Hedi. She knew them all, from Frank Sinatra to Peter Sellers, David Niven to Richard Burton. If you've not heard Bob Zanotti's
excellent interview with Hedi..
Radio BeO's impressive main transmitter sits on top of the Niesen Mountain at the gateway to the Oberland. And
now there's a 360 degree webcam which is really well worth a look, so click here ,click the 360 logo or try some of the video links for some beautiful views across the Lake of Thun and up into the
4K giants! Magic!!
Will he shave for Spring? Mike refused to shave for the Swiss
Television. The cameras visited him in the studio for
the launch of the new CD "Cupid's arrow" by Ursprung Buam, an Austrian folk music trio from Zillertal, Tyrol. Watch the video evidence here ( you may have to scan down and look for the Mike, maybe click 'video ansehen'
as well to watch the feature) But the hairy man is worth it!
Caption Competition
Here's my effort;-
"There was an man with a beard, Who said, "It is just as I feared!-- Two owls and a hen, Four larks and a wren, Have
all built their nests in my beard."
Or how about
"You people don't understand, a beard keeps you warm in winter, and my beard provides nesting materials for many of Interlaken's
birds!"
It was sad that Rosemarie took her leave of presenting Infortourist from the Autumn, but those snowy
winter mornings coming down from Ringgenberg to do the broadcasts must have been a trial. Here's a recording
of Infotourist from Saturday 6th June when it was announced that she was to leave, which also happened to be Radio
Beo's 22nd birthday. Enjoy the programme again with no music I'm afraid (for copyright reasons).We love you Rosemarie and
thank you for all the times you have personally been responsible for getting us down from the mountains ten minutes before
the big storm! Click the play button to hear 30 mins of the shows links! Any problems please let me know!
.. and another beautiful lady found herself in the BeO studios recently. The lovely Francine Jordi
to promote her new CD. I'm going to buy TEN Francine!(Now why have I arranged it that you can click for an ENORMOUS scan
from the excellent BeO Magazine?!) I've worn those headphones! Ooohhh! Calm down Carl.
Mr P loves a porkie scratching... so do I but they are 300 calories a bag and very high in fat so that can't
be good.... can it?!!!!.. Well yes, and it's all down to Low Carb Dieting - Latest nutritional research is
indicating that we ought to be eating considerably less carbohydrate than we have in the Western world over the past few hundred
years. The scratching amazingly is included in the recommendations of many of the recently developed diet plans
- Atkins, The Zone, Carbohydrate Addicts Diet, etc. Intrigued? Take a look at the Low Carb Resources page or then what about..
The pork scratchings
diet!!
Weight watchers in the US have discovered a novel way to diet - by eating pork scratchings.
The fad has helped make scratchings, or pork rinds as Americans call them, the
country's fastest growing snack with sales up 18 per cent last year. One
weight-loss guru even recommends that the deep-fried pigskin can be dipped in sour cream as part of his controlled diet.The idea behind it is that cutting out carbohydrates lowers
blood sugar levels, thus triggering insulin production which burns fat for fuel.So pasta and bread have been binned in favour of weight-loss diets that include eggs, butter
and bacon.
However fans of the PS be warned! Nutritionists
are warning that an all-fat diet can lead to heart and kidney disease, but that isn't stopping the US sales of pork
scratchings - which topped $420 million (£280 million) in 1999.
2008 It seems incredible but
Infotourist, along with Radio BeO, is 21years old this year, with Mike clocking up in excess of an amazing 6300 editions of
the programme without missing a show! (Guinness Book of Records take note!)
With the numerous deep valleys, and millions of tonnes of mountains between
them, Radio Berner Oberland has quite a task on it's hands to provide excellent signals to all it's audience. Over ten transmitters
and as many cableways are used to achieve this as well as relays in the longer road tunnels.
This amazing FM transmitter mast recently came into service
on top of the Oberland's pyramid mountain Niesen, increasing the coverage of Radio BeO way up into the Capital Bern, even
as far as the Emmental!! It also improves reception in the Kander valley on 88.8 MHz.
Click to read!
The Niesen transmitter is a whopper I'm sure you'll agree, but
it's not quite as big or powerful as the International Deutsche Welle relay that I visited at Cyclops, where you could hear
the programmes in a metal bucket held in the direction of the transmitter. Think what it was doing to my brain cells!
What do you mean 'that explains a lot'?!
Click to read!
On Infotourist you'll hear Mike often refer to Fred. Not a real person,
but the excellent Radio Berner Oberland music computer that chooses records to play during the day, and runs the automated
service for Music Natur and Nacht programmes. Fred has the pick of the astonishing Radio Beo music library, which is
rated as one of the best in Europe. As well as an astounding amount of digital music, the vinyl collection of records
is legendary! Oh and Mike knows the entire collection even better than Fred!! STOP PRESS Following his retirement
from Infotourist Mike continues to maintain his famous Radio BeO library!
Ah summer nights in the garden listening to BeO. A little cold without
a cover though. Enjoy the programme and happy listening!!! Don't forget you can keep in touch when you go home...anywhere
in the world via www.radiobeo.ch
Why not send us some photos of you in the Oberland and join the
gang of the 'In'crowd.
Mike at work with a particularly tough interviewee.. Catherine!!
I received an email from a certain lady journalist who described the chap
pictured above as a 'gorgeous hunk'.. no not me.. our dear firend and popular Swiss musician and composer John Hanni.
John lives in Lenk in the Bernese Oberland and is a great supporter of the show. You can visit his website here.
Hannah's first radio appearance at BeO
The village of Wilderswil just outside Interlaken was once a very much noisier place!
Who is the guy in the Trabant?!!
Below Mike is looking.. well 'carnival - like' with his Mardi Gras beads kindly given by Pete Wilson and
his wife from Louisiana on a trip to the Radio BeO studios.
