Johnnie Walker (DJ)

Johnnie Walker, MBE (born Peter Waters Dingley; 30 March 1945) is an English radio disc jockey and broadcaster.

He began his career on pirate radio, most notably on Radio Caroline.

Walker's broadcasting began in May 1966 on offshore (pirate) radio station Swinging Radio England, before moving to Radio Caroline.

When government action forced the pirate stations to close in 1967, three presenters were still broadcasting: Walker, Robbie Dale and Ross Brown.

He joined BBC Radio 1 in 1969.

Walker joined BBC Radio 1 in April 1969, presenting a two-hour Saturday show from 2 to 4pm.

A year later, in 1970, Walker presented a one-hour weekday morning slot from 9 to 10am, moving to the weekday early afternoon show in 1971, from 1 to 3pm, which then went out from noon to 2pm in 1973.

The show featured the music quiz "Pop the Question" and the Tuesday chart rundown as the new weekly chart was published from the research figures provided by the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) on Tuesdays at this time.

In 1976, Walker had a dispute with station management over the music he played, and about how it was deemed to "not fit" the station's daytime music line-up.

He was also reprimanded for criticising The Bay City Rollers – then at the height of their popularity – on air, describing them as "musical garbage".

As a result, he left Radio 1 for a while and moved to the United States, where he stayed for five years.

Walker returned to the UK in the early 1980s and in 1982 presented Radio West's evening show The Modern World.

The show was later renamed The Saturday Sequence once Radio 1 began regular FM broadcasting in the late 1980s; the shows ran from 2pm to 7:30pm, before Roger Scott took over in mid-1988.

During his time in the states Walker worked for radio stations KSAN in San Francisco, KPFA in Berkeley, California, in January 1981, WHFS in Bethesda, Maryland, and also recorded some shows for Radio Luxembourg, until he taped a record at the wrong speed, while partying in the studio.

He was also involved in Deaf Club and Silicon Valley real estate.

In September 1983 he joined Wiltshire Radio, presenting the 11am – 2pm slot.

He was subsequently heard on GWR, which was formed out of the merger of Radio West and Wiltshire Radio.

On 17 January 1987, Walker re-joined Radio 1, presenting the Saturday afternoon show The Stereo Sequence (so named owing to the fact that at the time, Radios 1 and 2 shared the same FM frequencies, with much of Radio 1's output transmitted on medium wave only at times when Radio 2 were in occupation of the FM frequency).

In July 1988, he was briefly heard on Richard Branson's syndicated service The Superstation which provided overnight programming to some ILR stations.

In October 1988, Walker was one of the original presenters on the new BBC local station in London BBC GLR, as part of a lineup which included Nick Abbot, Emma Freud, Tommy Vance and Dave Pearce and was run by future Radio 1 controller Matthew Bannister.

Walker presented the weekday slot from noon to 3pm.

Then after a few months, he took over from Emma Freud from 10am to 1pm.

In 1990, Walker joined the newly-launched BBC Radio 5, presenting This Family Business three days a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11am to 12.30pm.

As a result, he took over the weekday show on BBC GLR from 7 to 9pm, where he remained until later that year, when he was dismissed from the station by Matthew Bannister after commenting that people would be "dancing in the streets" following the resignation of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister.

Following his dismissal from BBC GLR, he took the BBC Radio 5 show five days a week and his show was expanded to 9:30am to noon Mondays to Fridays and was rebranded as The AM Alternative.

In September 1991, as well as presenting for Radio 5, Walker returned to Radio 1, taking over from Richard Skinner on The Saturday Sequence every Saturday from 3 to 7pm.

He went out from 3 to 6pm in March 1992.

He remained until October 1993, moving to Saturday the 7 – 11pm slot, before moving back to Saturday afternoons in November 1994 from 2 to 5pm, where he remained until he left Radio 1 for good in October 1995.

He remained with Radio 5 until March 1994 when the station re-launched as BBC Radio 5 Live.

In early 1996, Walker joined London talk station LBC, presenting the weekend programme from 6 to 10am.

In addition, he was heard on Classic Gold stations around the UK on Saturday from noon to 2pm.

In 1997, in addition to his Classic Gold shows, Walker was on BBC Radio 2 presenting documentaries and filling in for presenters.

He joined BBC Radio 2 in 1998 and currently presents Sounds of the 70s on Sunday afternoons and The Radio 2 Rock Show on Friday nights.

Walker's father sold electroplating equipment for car parts, at W. Canning & Co. Johnnie Walker was educated at two independent schools in Solihull.

He attended Ruckleigh School until the age of eight and went on to Solihull School, where he enjoyed music lessons and playing rugby, but he failed his O-Level examinations.

He then was a garage manager apprentice, studied for a City and Guilds qualification in motor mechanics at Gloucester Technical College and aspired to be a car salesman, before becoming a DJ in bars and ballrooms.

In April 1998, Walker was offered his own weekly show on Radio 2, Saturday from 3:30 to 5:30pm, then six months later, as well as Saturday afternoons, Walker took over from John Dunn from 5 to 7pm Monday to Thursday.

Des Lynam presented Friday's edition.

In early 1999, Walker's show was temporarily suspended after he became the subject of a tabloid exposé over his cocaine use.

He was temporarily suspended by the BBC when the drug allegations were published in the News of the World in April 1999.