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Every so often, an agency comes along that shifts the landscape of the industry and paves the way for its future. In the early 1980s, when media planning and buying departments were full of ad agency rejects, Ray Morgan & Partners stood out like a beacon, raising the standards of media and producing some of the top talent in today's industry. From Eyre to Walker, they all worked there. It launched in 1985, but to understand its genesis - and the secret of its success - it is necessary to travel further back in time, to the '70s and early '80s, when Mercury Media - an embryonic media independent within Benton & Bowles and headed by the eponymous Ray Morgan - acquired some of the first centralised media accounts from blue-chip clients such as General Foods and Allied Domecq.

Media planning and buying at this time was confined to the basements of ad agencies and had a "wheeler-dealer" reputation, according to Peter Shaw, who worked at Benton & Bowles and is now the official archivist of the agency. "They had laddish contacts and did deals in strange pubs," he says of media buyers of the day - presumably in contrast to today.

Benton & Bowles, however, was the first agency to take media seriously, beginning with its recruitment policy.

Morgan allowed only graduates through its doors, and even had a list of preferred universities from which he chose his staff. Oxbridge was his preferred choice, and he picked Richard Eyre, Simon Marquis and Shaw himself from Oxford and Cambridge.

Each answered a tiny ad in The Telegraph, which asked "Are you numerate, articulate, interested in media and advertising?" and were then subjected to a tough entrance process.

It was Morgan himself who selected the applicants he wished to interview, Marquis remembers. Apart from having excellent academic credentials, Morgan also liked his staff to have interests outside of the workplace.

During Shaw's interview he was asked why he wanted to join B&B. Shaw, in a fit of honesty, told him it was because he had just bought a season ticket for the Proms, and the B&B office was 200 yards from Albert Hall - and believes this clinched his position. Those with more eccentric pastimes - such as Marquis's love of bird-watching - were also welcomed.

Once through the doors, however, its staff found there was little time for nurturing their passions. Training at B&B was rigorous, overseen by directors Christine Walker, Derrick Southon and Mike De Vere.

"You could tell a Ray Morgan-trained buyer as they were much more analytical," says Shaw.

Some remember the public schoolboy atmosphere, with Southon billed as the sergeant major cracking the whip. But De Vere says that Southon's unique style and the fact that the division was run so efficiently were key to the agency's success.

Sue Unerman, now chief strategy officer at MediaCom, was given a speech by Walker on her first day at B&B. "I was told it was my job to get to work before she did and not leave until she had left. She was in the office by 8.30 and left between 8 and 10 at night."

Despite the long hours, there was enormous respect for the bosses and a sense that they were part of something seminal. And there was as much hard-playing as working. Shaw can remember the entire office getting into cars on a Friday night and driving to the coast to spend the whole weekend together. Some of media's greatest friendships - and a few marriages - were born at B&B and its alumni still meet each year for their annual reunion.

As for Morgan himself, he has now turned his back on the BlackBerry media generation to grow the real thing in Herefordshire. "He always wanted to be a farmer." says Shaw. "He treated advertising as a business - he was never wedded to it."

But it was the forging of standards for media planning and buying, put in place by Morgan and his team, that are its true legacy.

At a time when most media was latched onto the bottom of creative briefs, B&B won its own media accounts from blue-chip clients. Morgan nurtured client contact and raised the standards of media, so that when the time came to go it alone, he was ready.

In 1985, B&B announced it was merging with D'Arcy Masius. As the merger plans unfolded, it became clear to the directors - many of whom had to re-apply for their own jobs - that the uniqueness of B&B's media department would be lost under its new US bosses.

Morgan, Walker, De Vere and Southon hatched a plan. They all announced their resignation on a single day and went on to pull the staff and most its clients from under the nose of their new owner.

They formed Ray Morgan & Partners and set up home in the basement of Leagas Delaney, where Jerry Fielder, a former B&B man, was now working. The agency was independent for three years until it became one of the agencies that formed Zenith Media.

During those three years it grew a reputation for media which led the way for the industry, as well as producing media stars of the future. Here some alumni pick up the tale.

MIKE DE VERE, MANAGING DIRECTOR, 2BONTVMEDIA

De Vere had spent 10 years at B&B, rising from graduate trainee to director level, when the merger with Masius was announced. "The UK was a relatively insignificant minnow in the world-wide scheme of things and Mercury Media just a blip on someone's spreadsheet in the US. We were concerned that with no clear management direction, Mercury's clients would be left with a potentially less than cutting edge service."

De Vere was on holiday in France when he received a call from Morgan telling him to get home as fast as possible. "In the days before mobile phones, communication, even in France, was not exactly state-of-the-art. I arrived for a meeting with my fellow directors to discuss the potential to break away and form a stand-alone media independent." Everyone readily agreed, he remembers, but the original business plan was heavy with management and expenses and no income or clients. They decided to go ahead anyway and, during the subsequent weeks, a trickle of clients confirmed a wish to move across to the new independent, "much to the relief of the would-be financial manager and our respective bank managers". By the time the company launched, it had £35m worth of business, primarily from blue-chip clients, and this rose to £100m during its three years of existence.

Remembering the early days, De Vere says: "I think that Health and Safety would have had a field day. Computers would regularly turn themselves off as the team either crossed their legs or stretched out, causing plugs to detach themselves from the wall."

But he says those early days were fun. The nature of the accounts especially records (Telstar) and alcohol (Hiram Walkers) meant that some 60% of the annually billing was spent in the run-up to Christmas. In effect, weekends simply did not exist for the first four months. "The team reacted brilliantly, with the basement lights burning brightly for many a night."

CHRISTINE WALKER, FOUNDER, WALKER MEDIA

Compared to the amount of money required to set up Walker Media, the launch budget for RMP was buttons, remembers Walker. "We set it up for £50,000. The difference now is that the cost of research is astronomic," she says. Walker was just 28 when she, Southon, Morgan and De Vere set up RMP. They had no guarantee of income and put everything on the line, including her own house. The four seized the opportunity to go it alone after witnessing the "appalling" way in which the merger was handled. "No one was talking to the clients," says Walker. "I think they thought it would be easy-peasy and were busy deciding who would be CEO. We literally walked out with 90% of the billings of B&B." To Walker, it was Morgan's vision which made the company successful. "He was a complete cold fish but very good." She had attracted his attention at her interview for B&B, as she played double bass in the Irish Youth Orchestra and was also a good hurdler. "He had a strong preference for anyone who showed musical or athletic capabilities and had something eccentric about them. He saw different things in people and nurtured their passions. Whether you could count or not was secondary." She remembers bizarre quizzes in the office, with questions like "What did Beethoven do on 15 July?"

She ran the General Foods business at RMP and worked closely with Southon. "He was my mentor. He was bloody brilliant. It was a fantastic time. It was ahead of its time." When the agency was approached by John Perriss in 1988, the directors were told that if they didn't sell up willingly, they would be taken over. Walker was the only director who didn't want to sell up, but the company's constitution needed 100% agreement, so she agreed and Walker became part of the management team that launched Zenith Media. She is still in touch with many ex-B&B and RMP alumni, including her husband Oliver Croom Johnson, and Shaw, who is godfather to her daughter. But she and Southon are no longer friends. When Walker left Zenith to set up Walker Media, Southon took her to the High Court to ensure she didn't take any Zenith clients with her. "I don't blame him for wanting to protect their business, but he wrote an affidavit against me and there was no need to do that.

"I'm not a believer in forgiveness. I won't breathe the same oxygen as him now."

CAROLINE SIMPSON, FOUNDER OF BRIDGE CONSULTANCY

Wednesday lunchtimes were spelling test time at RMP and the entire company was expected to join in. "Ray was a stickler for things like spelling. He'd reel off a number of words and the person who came bottom would be read out," Simpson remembers. One week, by bribing the secretary, Simpson and some colleagues fiddled it so that Morgan came last. "We had a laugh," she says. "It was a real sink or swim environment." Simpson joined B&B as a graduate trainee and was asked the famous "What's 70% of 7?" question in her interview. "I got it wrong," she says, "and Southon said 'if you were one of my media buyers that would have cost us lots of money'. So I said, 'If I was one of your media buyers, I'd have used a calculator.' I think the fact that I answered him back got me the job." She joined RMP as a planner/buyer and remembers moving-in day. "We moved ourselves. People gave up their weekends to grab desks and chairs and we were up and running on Monday." Having doubled in size within a few years, they moved to Holborn and Simpson was encouraged to play a key role in the company. "They encouraged you to really push yourself. They gave you the rope." This produced people with entrepreneurial spirits, Simpson believes. She was asked to be a director at Zenith, where she remained until recently and now runs her own training consultancy. "It was a great grounding for my career. You had direct contact with the clients and it would be difficult to get that sort of breadth now. The attitude and approach to work was good. It gave you the confidence to go with your beliefs and speak your mind."

NEIL HURMAN, STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, OMD

"Before B&B and RMP, you only ended up working in media if you failed as an account manager. You were the cast-offs," says Hurman who joined RMP in 1987 as a graduate trainee. But Hurman remembers the new agency receiving more phone calls and business than the more established Leagas Delaney, in whose basement it was based. "Leagas Delaney had forgotten to set up a way of charging for the phones," he says, so that the early phone bills were free. Most of the work in those days was TV buying and Hurman describes the atmosphere as "a bit like an overgrown primary school. It was quite paternalistic". Southon, he says, was misunderstood. "People think he didn't like people, but he had two passions - work and trains - and anything else was frivolous.

"If anyone dared to turn up late for work and blamed the trains, Southon would whip out his national rail timetable and tell you the alternative route you should have taken," Hurman says. It was at RMP that Hurman met his wife, Susannah Richmond, who later went on to edit Media Week. He remembers the formation of Zenith Media, the announcement of which was made by Mike De Vere. "Mike had a lisp and everyone thought the new agency was to be called Dennis Media."

Hurman is still grateful for getting his break in the industry at RMP.

"I count myself lucky to have worked with such fantastic people. You couldn't have picked a better place."

FAITH CARTHY, GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR, I-LEVEL

"There was a big glass cabinet in what passed for a reception," Carthy remembers. "We had no creative work to display so it was full of packets of Homepride Cook-in sauce and passbooks for Halifax Bank." She joined RMP in the last year before the formation of Zenith. It was her first job on the agency side and from the day of her interview she felt like she was joining an academy elite. "I was interviewed by Caroline Simpson and Southon and you felt like you'd passed some significant test. It didn't stop there though. Each day felt like a test." Training at the knees of Southon, Morgan and Walker taught her attention to detail and she picked up on their vast knowledge. There were also some mundane tasks, however. "Derrick would send me to the newsagents for his ciggies."

She remembers days of being squashed in the office, then going to the bar after work to get hammered. But there was no time for hangovers. "There was no tolerance. It was work hard, play hard or you were out." Compared to some of the other agencies on the scene at the time, RMP was she says, ground-breaking.

STUART NICHOLSON, NETWORK RESOURCES DIRECTOR, ZENITHOPTIMEDIA

Nicholson is one of the few to have travelled through the whole Ray Morgan timeline, through B&B to Ray Morgan & Partners to ZenithOptimedia, where he still works today. He says that the staff at B&B were initially resigned to "being swallowed by a full-service agency with no understanding of media. But the partners were having meetings and one day they all resigned", Three days later at RMP, many of the remaining staff resigned too and blue-chip clients were pulled from under the nose of the new company.

"No one believed a start-up could take those clients," he says. "It was amazing. We became the number seven agency almost from scratch." He remembers squeezing into the tiny room that was their first office. "We were so close together that if we moved our chairs we would disconnect computer."

But the entire team was committed to the success of the venture. "It was all hands to the pump. We worked incredibly long hours, but it was very democratic." Nicholson became a shareholder within six months. "I felt like part of the business, not just an employee."