Who am I?

This is as near an autobiography of me as you'll get! My name is Michael Todd, although most people call me Mike, and one or two call me Mickey. And, no, I was never married to Elizabeth Taylor!

My Family
I was born in Salmon Street, South Shields, in the north east of England, in 1951. Mum and Dad in June 1985 My father, Bob Todd, was a butcher and musician, as was his father. Indeed, my grandfather was director of the orchestra at the Queen's Theatre in South Shields, where he played and conducted for many world-famous music hall acts.

My mother, Minnie, was with the WAAF during the war, and a very busy butcher's wife after that. Her father was manager of a grocery store, and then became area manager for a chain of grocery stores in the south, based in Bedford.

I had a younger brother, James, who was quite different to me in personality. Sadly, he died in a car accident at the age of 17 - the picture My brother, James - 4 weeks before he died on the right was taken only a couple of weeks before the accident in 1972.

In 1985, my parents moved down to Welwyn Garden City, where I have lived since the mid 70s. The picture above was taken just before they moved. After a long illness, my father died in 1990 - my mother died in March 1999.

School and work
I went to the South Shields Grammar Technical School for Boys between 1962 and 1969, and I first got my hands on a computer in about 1966 when the school acquired an old Ferranti Pegasus - only the second school in the country to have its own computer. It was full of valves, took up a whole classroom (and more!) and needed its own power alternator to keep it going.

I left school the same week that Armstrong walked on the moon, heading towards my childhood ambition of becoming a television cameraman. I joined the BBC in September 1969 on a course at their Wood Norton Hall training centre, just outside Evesham, in Warwickshire. After a spell as a trainee, I became a cameraman for BBC Television working on a wide range of programmes. As part of the training, I spent time on TV sound and on "electronic effects" (including very brief spells on Doctor Who and Top of the Pops), and did a lot of swinging and driving of camera cranes.

Although most of my friends from school had gone to university, I did not. However, the Open University was founded soon after I left school and in my early days in TV I also studied with the Open University. Although the degree was broad-based, the major subject was psychology, and I now have a BA(Hons) which is recognised by the British Psychological Society.

In the mid-70s, I decided that the pictures were better on the radio, and so were the people. I moved to BBC Radio, based in Broadcasting House, and became a Technical Operator in the main Control Room. Here we switched audio circuits, tested outside-broadcast lines, managed the transmission distribution, did the technical operation of all of the BBC's national radio networks and balanced DJ programmes.

We got involved in many big events, and during that time I worked as the International Technical Co-ordinator at Broadcasting House for the Pope's visit to the UK, and during the wedding of Charles and Diana I worked with a colleague in the Control Room setting up and feeding the radio and television audio around the world.

I was then promoted to supervisor and, following a major reorganisation within BBC Radio, I was appointed to be one of the newly-formed team of Broadcast Duty Managers in 1988, and took up the post in early 1989.

Me and computers
My first introduction to computers was at school, and as part of my Open University course I used a teletype terminal at the local college to run programmes on the OU's main computer system.

Then, in 1978 I bought one of the first Commodore PETs in the UK (it cost £695). It was serial number 1000013, which brought with it many interesting problems. Through it I learned a great deal more about computing, and soon joined IPUG (the Independent PET User Group, later to become ICPUG, Independent Commodore Products User Group, as Commodore introduced their newer machines). I wrote for their bi-monthly journal, and then became Vice-Chairman. Later, I rose to be the Chairman for a short while, and saw the incorporation of the group as a "cooperative", but trying to do this and have a difficult shift job and a life proved too difficult, and I had to stand down.

While I was writing, I investigated just how Commodore's floppy disk technology worked and unwittingly became something of an "expert" on it (even people in Commodore UK contacted me to find out how it worked!). As a result, in 1984 I was invited to a computer Summer School at Brandon University, Manitoba, to talk about Commodore disk drives. This was about the time that the Commodore-64 was at its most popular, and the 1541 disk drive the height of the technology.

This Summer School was very significant because there I met Commodore "guru", Jim Butterfield, who I'd corresponded with but never met. I also met a Texas schoolteacher, Betty Clay and her husband, Richard. Betty was in my classes and when I was invited to go the following week to Lincoln, Illinois, to give classes on machine code programming, there she was again.

I joined CompuServe very shortly afterwards, and was using email from around 1985 to keep in touch with Betty and others. We've kept in touch ever since, and I've been privileged to visit her and her family several times in Arlington, Texas, and it is through Betty and her family that my love affair with the USA has been nurtured.

After that Summer School, along came Commodore's Amiga. While I was still Vice Chairman of ICPUG, I remember being taken to lunch by Commodore and being told, in the strictest of confidence, of their acquisition of this brand new technology. Just what did we think it should be used for? The sky, supposedly, was the limit.

Needless to say I got an Amiga, and learnt and wrote about it over the years, becoming very attached to the superb technology. After a while I became UK editor of the Canadian Transactor for the Amiga, and then the overall editor when the Canadian magazine closed, editing and "typeseting" the magazine on an Amiga. It was a labour of love - I wasn't paid for the work, and it was all done in my spare time - eventually the magazine folded.

My attachment to the Amiga lasted for many years, but I was using PCs at work and I began to feel a need to have access to a PC at home - so I got a Texas Travelmate laptop. Whilst I was visiting Betty in Texas I decided to buy a CDROM drive for the laptop and very quickly got hooked on the reference technology (particularly DeLorme's Street Atlas program) that this gave access to. The limited range of CDROMs for the Amiga (despite its stunning abilities), and the wealth of material for the PC soon had me reconsidering my allegiance. Very reluctantly, I abandoned the Amiga for the PC, and at the same time gave up writing.

But I'm pleased to say that I never abandoned my friends in the US. I visit whenever I can, and have had some terrific times with Betty and her late husband, Richard. Betty's daughter, Laura Beth, often "lent" me her son, Bryan - we've had great times, including days out taking photos (we're both keen photographers), at an airshow in Fort Worth, at Six Flags Over Texas and the Texas State Fair (that's me and Bryan on the right, taken in 1998). There is no doubt that a theme park is far better enjoyed with a youngster by your side - you can make a fool of yourself with impunity!

After my father died, in 1990, I was able to take my mother to the US. We visited Betty in Texas a number of times, with side trips to Florida, Arizona and Oklahoma. In 1997 the two of us went with my cousin, Ginia (on my father's side of the family), to stay in rented houses in Florida, a trip we repeated several times. Sadly, my mother passed away in March, 1999, after a short but difficult illness, but Ginia and I have continued to take our trips to Florida.

We discovered a wonderful house in Englewood, Florida, and rented it for a couple of years. Then one day I had to go to a meeting in Easingwold, Yorkshire, at which (and by an amazing coincidence) the owner of this wonderful house was giving a presentation. The house is no longer on the rental market, but in 2003 I was able to take an extended leave from the BBC, and spent 8 weeks in the US seven of them "looking after" this house in Florida.

Although it nearly happened a couple of times, I never did get married and now I'm in my 50s I'm not sure it's going to happen now. So, with my brother, father and mother now gone, I spend time with my cousins and also with my friends in Texas, who have now become part of my family.

Mike on BBC2 Where am I now?
I continued to work as one of BBC Radio's Broadcast Duty Manager for nearly 16 years but, in 2005 decided that I had had enough, and took early retirement on 16th May.

The job itself was an interesting one in many ways and still exists, although it's not quite the same as it was. We were put together as a a team of five, providing "operational management" cover 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The role is to make sure that BBC Radio keeps broadcasting no matter what - fire, flood, terrorist attacks and war.

The BDMs were the central co-ordination point for just about any emergency, from an internal problem to a national emergency, and are the government's key operational point of contact. And when the rest of the BBC goes home, they manage BBC Radio's technical staff and studio facilities.

A few years ago, I was "invited" to be BBC Radio's spokesman on the Greenwich Time Signal in a tiny part of a major BBC2 TV programme for Arena (called Radio Nights). As it happens, it was very tongue-in-cheek and, at the end of a long filming session, they used only the most embarrassing bit!

Each of the Broadcast Duty Managers has his own specialisation - mine was emergency & contingency planning. Whether it's local emergencies, civil emergencies or national emergencies, the BBC has an important role to play, and I've done some interesting training courses as a result (but if I told you about them I'd have to shoot you!)

In 1999 I was part of the BBC's team setting up the contingency arrangements to see the BBC and the British Government through whatever Y2K would present us with. And where did I spend the 2000 New Year? In a nuclear bunker, helping lead a small team ... "just in case".

Greg Dyke presents the award for Outstanding Contribution In December, 2003, the Broadcast Duty Managers were awarded BBC Radio & Music's highest honour - the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Radio and Music. I accepted the award (see the photo on the right) which was presented by Greg Dyke, the then BBC's Director General, at the Radio & Music Festival dinner at the Science Museum in London.

The start of the 21st century saw massive changes in BBC Radio. The old Broadcasting House was stripped out and almost rebuilt on the inside - two nearby buildings were demolished and a new building constructed. The main core of BBC Radio, which has been located in the extension to Broadcasting House since 1962, has now moved into the refurbished old building and demolition has started on the site of the extension, wit the intention of building a brand new "live broadcasting centre" on the site.

As I approached my mid-50s, the options were to stay for a further few years and fight the new technology or to leave - so, at the age of 54 I left the BBC after nearly 36 years (the last 16 of which I have been Broadcast Duty Manager).

Having been born and brought up in the North East of England, I moved back there at the end of November, 2006, to be close to family and my old school. I'm currently living in Rothbury, a wonderful (and somewhat remote) small town on the edge of the Northumberland National Park.

Hobbies and Interests
Through a friendship with a well-known broadcaster I was encouraged to write a novel in the 90s. It was a difficult project as it dealt with child abuse and stereotypes. I made fair progress until the middle of 1999 when a series of computer disasters caused the manuscript to be lost - despite having backups! Maybe I'll start it again, I don't know.

I also love to play the piano. I started to learn when I was about 5 years old, and got up to Grade 7 with the Associated Board, but these days I cannot claim to be anywhere near as good. I'd love to move into a house big enough for a grand piano, but I have to make do with my Challen upright and a Yamaha Clavinova. The Clavinova isn't quite like the real thing, but it is amazingly close.

I continue to have a keen interest in computers, and I now run two Web sites. This one, which is a personal site and which (much to my surprise) has something like a million hits a year - pages on the site have been quoted in various publications (including in Lord Melvin Bragg's book, The Adventure of English), copied or quoted online as reference sources, and they even feature in at least two university theses.

The other site is one for those who went to my old school (South Shields Grammar-Technical School for Boys) which attracts over 2 million hits a year.

Since my mother passed away, I have also spent time working on the family tree, and my move back to the North East should allow more opportunity to access local records.

For the past 14 years I lived on my own in a 3-bedroom house in Welwyn Garden City, about 30 miles north of London, where I could sit at my computer and look out over the local grass airstrip and across the valley into English countryside. But in November, 2006, I moved to Rothbury, Northumberland.

I can still sit at my computer and look across a valley - this time it's the Coquet valley, and instead of small planes and helicopters on the local airstrip, I see low flying RAF jets passing by the window every now and again.

Life in Rothbury has proved to be better than I thought, with lots of new friends and interests. Perhaps the most significant (and unexpected) of these new interests is my decision to start learning the Northumbrian Pipes.

I was inspired by a talented 11-year-old piper called Tristan Selden. I met Tristan in the autumn of 2007 whilst he was on a return visit to the North-East from New Zealand, where he now lives, and in the short time I've known him we've become firm friends. Thanks, Tristan.

But if the pipes weren't enough, I've rekindled my interest in astronomy, taking advantage of the country-clear skies. And I'm trying to learn a bit about the archaeology of the area too.

So much to do, and so little time.