The PPS has its origins in earlier times, and here's the history of how it all came about.

In 1988, collector Paul Jay (otherwise known as comedian Eugene Cheese) started a society with the intentions of forming a free tape-swapping circle which would help preserve those TV and radio shows that either would never see the light of day after their original transmission, or as in the case of older material, had been wiped since that showing, as has been highlighted more recently in the BBC's amnesties towards collectors and their 'Treasure Hunt' policy.

Thus he formed STARS - Savers of Television And Radio Shows. Aside from the trading between members, STARS also stood for the opening-up of the UK radio and television archives to the public, as is the case in parts of the USA and Canada and here in this country in a limited way with the National Sound Archive. It also maintained links with the archives concerned and any finds amongst collectors that were not held by the official bodies were made available to them.

The society flourished, gaining members, and when Paul left to devote his time to the Chuckle Club - you can find out more about that by clicking here - STARS was taken over by stalwart trader Malcolm Chapman, who ran the society brilliantly until 1996.

At this point, STARS had around 120 members, and when Malcolm decided he couldn't continue, he offered to hand the Secretarial baton on to someone else from within the membership. Nominations were taken and three candidates stepped forward. On the basis of their 'manifestos' a vote of the other members was taken and a new Secretary of STARS took over from Malcolm at the end of the year.

STARS 1996 Newsletter
(c) M.Chapman

Unfortunately, this signalled the death knell for STARS. The new Secretary - who we won't name for legal reasons - did not, in fact, keep to the aims and ambitions that he had put forward in his manifesto, which had basically been to expand and improve the already excellent society. Unlike the newsletters produced under Malcolm's reign, his were infrequent and/or rather short affairs, usually written totally by members (apart from the preface) rather than, had been the case previously, often mostly by the Secretary.
Membership started, unfortunately, to decline.

The new Secretary - sorry, the title changed to President when the subs increased! - then disappeared for some considerable time, which irritated many members who, as had always been the case, paid their subs to STARS on the condition that certain items would be provided i.e. a set number of membership lists and newsletters. When he did reappear, it was to say that the society would be reformed under a different name, that the newsletters would only feature articles from members - he wasn't going to write any - and would members like to continue in the 'new' society.

It was at this point, knowing that we weren't the only ones who had witnessed the deterioration of the society under the new President and its steady loss of members, that a few of us STARS members decided to get together and form another society, with the same basic aims as STARS under Malcolm and Paul's auspices, but with a committee structure to try and make sure that it would never grind completely to a halt if one man went down.

Hence, in April 1998, the original committee members all met for the first time in darkest Rotherham and set about forming the Programme Preservation Society.

In September that year, we finally launched PPS.
We may have had our own ups and downs since then, but we're still here - alive and kicking!

As of April 2006, the society has over 50 active members and the number is steadily increasing. Some of those members live outside the UK and we welcome new members from anywhere in the world!