Beverley Man In Champions League Of Radio 2 Pop Quiz

A Beverley man is in the running for radio’s most coveted pop quiz title.

Wayne Dewsbury has qualified for the Champions League of the PopMaster quiz on Radio 2’s Ken Bruce show.

He qualified for the finals of the competition by recording one of the highest scores over the past year.

Mr Dewsbury, who is a business development manager for TIR Training in Beverley, admits he is nervous about having his music knowledge tested live on the radio.

He said: “I’m not what you would call a pop music anorak. I just have what I would describe as a general interest in music.

“Like a lot of people, I get reasonable scores when I am listening to the show but it’s very different when you are being asked the questions live on air.

“I had a really good day the first time. The questions fell right and I seemed to be able to pluck the answers from somewhere.

“I just hope I can do the same again and avoid making a fool of myself!”

Mr Dewsbury said his interest in music stems from his childhood when he listened to the juke box in his Dad’s pub.

He said: “Every week my Dad got sent four new singles to put on the juke box, so I listened to a lot of pop music as I was growing up.

“I’ve never been a big album buyer but I do like listening to the radio and that’s where I’ve picked up my music knowledge.”
Mr Dewsbury, 50, said his favourite music era is the 1980s and his favourite group is The Beatles.

He said: “I was born in 1963 and I’m told my first words were yeah, yeah, yeah! The 1980s are also a favourite of mine because it coincided with the time in life when I was going to nightclubs. Once you get past the 1980s, my pop music knowledge gets a bit thin.”

PopMaster, which is one of the most famous music quizzes on radio, usually takes place around 10.30am on weekday mornings.
Two contestants go head to head and are given questions based on popular music from the 1950s onwards with the winner the one who scores the most points out of a maximum of 39.

At the end of the year, the highest scorers compete again in the Champions League PopMaster.

Wayne won his heat on his 50th birthday in August with a score of 36 points. He also successfully answered “3 in 10” – in which contestants have 10 seconds to name three UK singles chart hits for a particular artist or group named by Ken Bruce – to win a DAB Radio.

He added: “I was on holiday and I had nothing else planned so I thought I’d give the show a ring. We have the radio on at work and I’d been joking with my colleagues about going on. After I won, the radio staff told me straight away that I would have a good chance of being in the final.”

Wayne will be competing in the Champions League on Thursday, December 19th. He added: “I will be chuffed to bits if I win – but don’t hold your breath!”