Kenny Everett Radio Show

Even today there is not, and never has been, a DJ who comes anywhere close to the sound of Kenny Everett. He was the radio DJ equivalent of the Beatles. Groundbreaking, Weird and very funny.

 

A genius as far as i am concerned, so lets take a trip down memory lane to a time when DJs used to be able to do whole 3 hour shows on their own without a 'Posse' of people in the background to laugh at their jokes.

They even managed to read their own weather & traffic reports as well from what i remember. God knows how they managed it !.

But seriously, in Kenny's case, everything you hear is put together by him in a little room with tape, vinyl records and a microphone . No computers. No editing machines, Just him a pair of scissors and a reel to reel tape.

Brilliant stuff.

Alan 'Fluff' Freeman

When you consider how old this guy was when he was still broadcasting in the UK on it's trendy BBC pop station it's hardly any wonder that Radio One needed a revamp. But it's amusing to note that he still ended his days playing heavy rock with a bit of classical to boot.

A weird combination that seemed to work perfectly. But can you image the equivalent nowadays ?  A DJ playing Trance dance music and throwing in a few clips of Brass Bands perhaps? They would probably laugh him off the airwaves.

Anyway this is how to open a radio show. One and a half minutes before the first track kicks in but a spectacular opener that still sounds good today.

Bless him. Gone but not forgotten.

Alan Freeman Rock DJ

Emperor Rosko

I seem to have an alarming amount of records made by Deejays.
Most of them are comedy or novelty records of course, but not all.
If you are under 30 this post will probably mean nothing to you because you may not know who I’m talking about.

For the rest of you Emperor Rosko (real name Mike Pasternak)was a DJ who Broadcast on BBC Radio one in the 70`s and based his presentation style of Wolfman Jack.

I can’t think of any other presenter who sounded like him on mainstream UK radio back then, so he was like a breath of fresh air to me. I loved his delivery and American style Jingles and whilst others were spinning Gary Glitter and the Osmonds, his playlist  seemed to include far more “hip” and trendy soul classics.
With the possible exception of Friday night when he hosted Roskos Round Table. A weekly review of new releases with famous guests spouting their opinion on forthcoming releases.

He released several Atlantic Souls Classic compilation albums and the track listings included some of the greatest records ever made with such artists as Aretha Franklin to Otis Redding.
They were segued together like a radio show & presented by Rosko himself complete with Jingles and all.

I’m not sure his style has stood the test of time, to be honest I think I would find him slightly annoying nowadays, but it does bring back good memories and the music included on these albums are still stunning to this day.

A sample of his presentation style from the albums is included below.

60s Radio Jingles

Radio Jingles have changed quite a lot over the years, nowadays all you get is the station indent repeated over and over by voices that range from a Barry White sound alike to a small choir boy on helium.

But in the 60s and 70s you got a full American Barber shop quartet singing the introduction to the weather report in what now sounds quite kitsch. The only thing that ever came close to those over the top produced jingles from the past were the home made ones by Kenny Everett. I have some of those on tape somewhere as well and if i get chance to transfer them over onto MP3 i'll bore you all with them.

I have no idea where this record came from (honest) or why I have it in my collection, but these classic jingles crack me up.

They remind me of Radio One, Radio Caroline, Radio Luxembourg, and many other 60`s and 70`s radio stations of this era
Favourite of the bunch “Drive carefully, ‘cause we love you”
Bring back jingles like this, that’s what I say, they jolt as many memories as the records played between them.

1980s Radio, 25 Years of Rock

I nearly threw a huge pile of old cassettes out the other day.
I was never the type to buy many pre recorded tapes, so most of my collection are blanks that I recorded my own compilations onto, subsequently i expect any music on these tapes to be bad quality audio of music I already have on record or CD.

However I did notice a few that actually contain recordings of old TV or radio programs long lost & forgotten.There’s lots of garbage, but amongst the rubbish there are some memorable moments worth listening to again, Old Kenny Everett Radio Shows, Diddy David Hamilton 'everything stops for tea', Steve Wright in the afternoon (on Radio One) and other stuff.
If you live outside the UK a lot of it will mean nothing to you but if you are over 40 you might

In the early 80`s the BBC broadcast a weekly radio show called 25 years of Rock.

This almost documentary style 25 week program starting in the mid 50`s and ending in 1979 highlighted a different week of music and news for each year.
This is a common theme on all radio stations nowadays but seemed new to me at the time.

Interestingly this series had no DJ talk in between the records. Instead using actual Archive radio news broadcasts as well as old newspaper clips being read in newsreader style for that particular year, sandwiched between the records played.

I do remember I enjoyed listening each week and i seem to remember it spawned a TV version for a while, i think it was broadcast after the chart show on a Sunday night (about 7pm). Anyhow, imagine my surprise at finding a copy of the final show on an old cassette.

UPDATE : FOR MORE INFO ON THIS SERIES TRY HERE