BBC DJ Johnnie Walker blasts ‘age of movie star’ and radio bosses’ choice for inexperienced TV stars as terminally-ill music veteran, 79, indicators off from final present in his 58-year profession
BBC Radio 2 DJ Johnnie Walker blasted the ‘age of celebrity’ as he signed off his final show on the station.
The veteran broadcaster recorded the final episode of his Sounds of the 70s, ending a 58-year career in radio.
But in a parting message, the DJ slammed the number of TV stars who now take to the airwaves, at the expense of talent working its way up from local stations.
He told the Today programme on Radio 4: ‘It always used to be you learnt your radio craft.
‘Nowadays it seems the way to get a radio show is to get a television one first. Because you’re good on TV doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to be good on radio. But that’s the way it is. We’re in the age of celebrity.’
Johnnie Walker in 2004. The BBC DJ signed off his last Sounds of the 70s show on Radio 2, which will air on Sunday
Mr Walker with his wife Tiggy. The DJ, who is terminally ill, broadcast many of his recent shows from his home in Dorset
He added that he had ‘mixed emotions’ about closing his career, with the moment being ‘mostly one of sadness’.
He also paid tribute to his many fans, saying: ‘I get cards from people saying “You’re a friend I have never met”. It will be sad to say goodbye.’
The 79-year-old has just weeks to live, following a battle with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a rare and progressive illness that affects the respiratory system.
Mr Walker signed off his last episode of BBC Radio 2’s The Rock Show on Friday, in which he ‘favourite rock anthems’, opening with Sweet Jane from Steve Hunter, Dick Wagner and Lou Reed.
The Rock Show will be taken over by Shaun Keaveny from November 1.
For his last ever Sounds of the 70s show on Sunday, he has picked his favourite tracks instead of the usual listeners’ requests.
Born in Birmingham, the DJ began in pirate radio at Swinging Radio England in 1966, before moving to Radio Caroline.
He first joined the Corporation at BBC Radio 1 in 1969. In 1976 he moved to San Francisco to record a weekly broadcast on Radio Luxembourg.
He returned to the BBC in the early 1980s, where he remained until now. In the last few years he has broadcast shows from his home in Dorset.
Mr Walker also used his shows to play lesser known, more risque tracks, such as American singer Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side, which was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson and contains lyrics about gender switching.
The BBC host said he used to pick a record each week to challenge the radio narrative of the time.
Mr Walker started out on pirate radio before first joining the BBC in 1969
Walker at Buckingham Palace in 2006 to receive an MBE for services to broadcasting
He said: ‘Walk on the Wild Side was a perfect one. There wasn’t much gender swapping going on in Bromley where most producers seemed to live, so it kind of went right over their heads.
‘Years later it became a hit. It was just a brilliantly cool record.’
Reed would be a guest on Mr Walker’s drivetime show many years later.
The DJ recalled: ‘He [Reed] said “My career was in the dump. I had made a lousy album. Then I made another album and some DJ in Europe started playing Walk on the Wild Side over and over again”. I said that was me.
‘He said “Oh so it was you Johnnie Walker. You’re the one who’s being paying my rent after all these years”‘.
