Request Chart Celebrates 40 Years in 2025

Radio Brockley will be marking a special anniversary in 2025, as it will be 40 years since the launch of the annual request chart – an annual chart compiled using the songs and artists requested by patients across the wards in each year.

The idea came about from former member Steph Farley and, together with long-serving member Keith Reeve, they first introduced the chart at the end of 1985. That year Madonna was the most requested artist, and “Frankie” by Sister Sledge was the top song. Keith continued to look after the chart for the next few years before briefly handing over to Judith Gamse and Dave Mason.

In 1993, Alan Joyce took over the annual chart countdown, along with the counting of the requests (which was also briefly covered by Gemma Robinson and Mandy Lester), and has looked after it ever since. Between 1994 and 1998 the chartshow was co-hosted by Alan Joyce and Mandy Lester.

The annual chart has seen through the invasion of Girl Power and Britpop, the birth of downloads and streaming, and a change from listening on cassette players to smart speakers! Some artists have remained popular for a large chunk of that time – such as Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, The Beatles and Frank Sinatra. The “golden oldie” hits from 40 years ago would often include wartime artists such as Vera Lynn and Max Bygraves, whilst these days the equivalent artists would be Queen or Abba!

Other artists have had their relatively brief moments of request chart domination – with Michael Jackson in the 80s, the Spice Girls and Oasis in the 90s, and Rihanna in the 00s.

On Sunday 5th January 2025, Alan Joyce will count down the 40th Annual Request Chart, and later in month we will count down the all-time request chart.

Also, over the coming weeks, we will be doing some special online features, as well as broadcasting a special programme on the history of the chart.