Peter Woon

I hope you'll see thorough, properly-researched, obits of Peter Woon soon. He was Editor of BBC Radio News when I joined as a news trainee in 1973, and, as we were based largely in and around the news bits of Broadcasting House for the first nine months, a big figure in our horizons.

Tall, Home Counties posh and genial, he was probably the last news boss we would see who was entirely comfortable taking a half with subs and reporters, especially when the day had seen a big story well covered. He came from TV News reporting, after a start in Fleet Street - he was aviation correspondent for the Daily Express. He'd joined Auntie in 1962 - Reg Turnhill claimed he persuaded him to make the move.

In the 70s he set about much needed modernisation. Radio bulletins, up to then largely written essays, started including reports from correspondents in the field. He said racy things like "There are often arguments about whether broadcasting is in competition with papers. We have no doubt about it - we are".  He hired new, younger, correspondents - a 26-year-old John Sergeant became a radio reporter in 1970.  He argued there was a place for "human interest" stories, and was an early proponent of an all news-network.

In the 1980s Peter, after being tipped for Controller Radio 4 (which went to Monica Sims), moved to run TV News - increasingly under flak for not being as sharp as ITN - and took a number of radio staff, like Martin Bell and Keith Graves, with him. He retired from the BBC in 1988.