Lord Gordon of Strathblane
Labour peer and former Classics teacher who founded the successful commercial station Radio Clyde
LORD GORDON OF STRATHBLANE, who has died aged 83 of Covid-19, was an exuberant Glaswegian Classics teacher turned businessman whose signal achievement was launching Radio Clyde and making it one of Britain’s most successful commercial stations.
Capitalising on Jimmy Gordon’s conviction that Glasgow was “the centre of the Universe”, Radio Clyde was the first commercial station to deliver audience figures advertisers could not ignore; the first to broadcast in stereo; the first seriously to challenge the BBC’S monopoly of football coverage; and the scheduler of talk shows running the gamut from Billy Connolly to Donald Dewar.
A pivotal figure in Scotland’s pre-snp establishment, Gordon began his career as STV’S political editor, ran Radio Clyde for 23 years, and – among other commitments – chaired the Scottish Tourist Board.
A staunch Labour man who once stood for Parliament, Gordon was close friends from Glasgow University days with Dewar, the future Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell and John Smith. At Smith’s funeral in Edinburgh after his sudden death in 1994, he raised a chuckle from the congregation by recalling that the Labour leader could “start a party in an empty room”.
For Smith’s interment on Iona – where Gordon had a home – his friend organised “operation Para Handy” to ferry mourners to the island; as a student, Smith had worked on a Firth of Clyde “puffer”. Gordon went on to be a trustee of the John Smith Memorial Trust.
He was a passionate Celtic supporter, and in 1966 was asked by the club’s board to put together a documentary about its origins. The timing was perfect: Gordon filmed the team winning the European Cup semi-final in Prague, and then the “Lisbon Lions’” 2-1 victory over Inter Milan to carry off the trophy.
“The night before the game, I told Mr Kelly [the Celtic chairman] we didn’t have passes for the camera crew, “Gordon recalled. “So he approached Hans Bangerter [general secretary of Uefa] and explained this was a film for Celtic supporters. He wrote two passes in the name of Cinema Celtic, and that’s what I called the company that did the film.”
For generations of fans, Gordon’s footage captured the atmosphere not only of the match, but of the pilgrimage to Lisbon undertaken by thousands of supporters, with and without tickets.
James Stuart Gordon was born at Maryhill in Glasgow on May 17 1936, the son of James Gordon, a shipyard clerk, and the former Elsie Riach, a teacher. A scholarship boy at St Aloysius’ College, Glasgow, he read Classics at Glasgow University, becoming president of the Union and winning the Observer mace for debating.
Graduating in 1958, Gordon went on a debating tour of Canada, then taught until STV began offering him work. Appointed their political editor in 1965, he covered Scottish politics for eight years as they began to develop a life of their own instead of simply being an adjunct to Westminster.
When Edward Heath’s government offered a handful of licences for commercial radio stations, the publisher Ian Chapman recruited Gordon to write Clyde’s successful bid, then get the station on the air.
Radio Clyde went live at 10.30pm on Hogmanay 1973 and was an immediate commercial success, Gordon winning over advertisers with an audience survey showing that 70 per cent of people in its catchment area were tuning in.
He moulded the station as “local but not parochial”, hired a promising stable of presenters and contributors, and raised millions for charity through its “Cash for Kids” appeals. From 1991 he was also chief executive of its owners, Scottish Radio Holdings, chairing it from 1996 until its acquisition by Emap in 2005.
Even a Conservative government was keen to harness Gordon’s talents. He chaired Glasgow’s SEC Centre for conferences and exhibitions in the 1980s, and was subsequently a member of the Scottish
Development Agency and BP’S Scottish advisory board. He was also chairman of the Active Capital Trust and a director of Clydeport Holdings and Johnston Press.
From 1998 to 2001 he chaired the STB (now Visit Scotland), and was a board member of the British Tourist Authority. He was a trustee of the National Galleries for Scotland, and served for 13 years on the Court of Glasgow University.
Gordon fought East Renfrewshire, then a safe Conservative seat, in 1964, but became too busy for active politics. After Tony Blair led Labour to power in 1997, however, he was created a life peer.
Soon afterwards, he served on the panel to determine which “crown jewel” sporting events should be reserved for terrestrial television, and on an independent review of the funding of the BBC. From 2003 he chaired Radio Audience Research (Rajar).
He made robust contributions to the Upper House, particularly on broadcasting issues, and was called in by ministers for advice. Until his death, Gordon was an active member of the Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee.
Gordon was appointed CBE in 1984. He was a Fellow of the Radio Academy, and the holder of a Sony Award for outstanding services to radio and the Lord Provost’s Award for Public Service in Glasgow. He held honorary doctorates from the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University.
Jimmy Gordon married Anne Stevenson in 1971. She survives him, with their daughter and two sons.
Lord Gordon of Strathblane, born May 17 1936, died March 31 2020