Tom Crowe (5 July 1922 – 6 December 2010) was an announcer on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

. Raised in County Clare, Ireland and educated at St Columba's College, near Dublin, his studies for a degree at

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, where he read French and German Literature, were interrupted by joining the British Army and serving in the Irish Guards between 1944 and 1948. He first joined the BBC's Third Programme in 1952 discovering his job was "simply a mouth opening and shutting in this tiny little studio in the double basement of Broadcasting House". He left in 1960, but returned in 1964 when attitudes were changing; the Third's announcers were now sharing office space with broadcasters from the

Light Programme The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...

. He wrote the biography of the Arabist Owen Tweedy ''Gathering Moss'' (1967).Humphrey Carpenter ''The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3'', London: Phoenix, 1997

996 Year 996 ( CMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * February - Chotoku Incident: Fujiwara no Korechika and Takaie shoot an arrow at Retired Em ...

p.274 During the 1970s he became one of the most familiar voices on Radio 3, and "an accident-prone but haughtily unflappable persona" evolved. Hans Keller recalled Crowe's "inspired" opening of the network in June 1971 with the words: "Good morning to you. It's seven O'clock I'm afraid". On another occasion, when the

Greenwich Time Signal The Greenwich Time Signal (GTS), popularly known as the pips, is a series of six short tones (or "pips") broadcast at one-second intervals by many BBC Radio stations. The pips were introduced in 1924 and have been generated by the BBC since 199 ...

was accidentally heard over ''

The Hebrides The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebride ...

'' overture (aka, ''Fingal's Cave'') he commented: "I do hope the Mendelssohn didn't spoil your enjoyment of the pips". Crowe retired from the BBC in 1982. Later he worked for the South African Broadcasting Corporation where he presented a classical music programme for three months each year. He died at his home in Pickering, North Yorkshire where he lived with his second wife, Elizabeth Cooper.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowe, Tom 1922 births 2010 deaths BBC Radio 3 presenters Irish emigrants to the United Kingdom