Johnnie Walker: Former pirate radio DJ who spent over five decades at the BBC
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Former pirate radio DJ Johnnie Walker joined the mainstream, soon becoming a successful BBC presenter and later veteran with a career spanning more than half of a century. The radio presenter, 79, hosted Sounds Of The 70s and The Rock Show on BBC Radio 2, and had recently been battling health issues.
Walker had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPS), a terminal condition which causes the lungs to become scarred and makes breathing increasingly more difficult, according to the NHS. The NHS website says it is not clear what causes the condition and that treatments can reduce the rate at which it worsens, but that there is “currently no treatment that can stop or reverse the scarring of the lungs”.
Born in Birmingham in March 1945, he left school at the age of 15, training to be a mechanic and was a car salesman before finding his passion for music with a Friday night slot as a disco DJ under the name Peter Dee. After spotting an article about a new pirate station Radio England, he quit his job in 1965 and spent six months at the station.
Walker departed for the pirate radio ship Radio Caroline, which was located off the coast of Essex, where he made his name and continued to broadcast in defiance of Government legislation against broadcasters without licences in 1967. Speaking about being on the MV Mi Amigo when the law came into force, he told the Radio Times: “It was such an emotional time… I was frightened to death.
“I was exhilarated, excited. It was just incredible. I knew the moment that the second hand swept past the 12, that if I said a word I’d be a criminal, liable for prosecution for the next two years, living in exile in Holland. It was a huge moment.”.
