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Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds
TOPIC: Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds
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Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 1 Month ago
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Johnnie Walker will be leaving BBC Radio 2 at the end of October after a BBC Radio career spanning more than 55 years due to ill health.
Really sad news this. He announced it on his Sounds Of The 70's show this afternoon.
I'm not old enough to remember him on Radio 1 in the 1970's and doing the chart reveal but I did start listening to him when he returned to Radio 1 in early 1987 on weekends with the Stereo Sequence and was aware he was a legendary DJ even then and knew of him.
It has been noticeable over the last year or so that Johnnie's voice has been sounding older and a bit weaker on radio compared to not so long ago and I recently discovered why this was. He has pulmonary fibrosis of the lungs making breathing difficult.
It's time to show some appreciation for Johnnie Walker as declining health removes a still enthusiastic broadcaster from the airwaves, a few months before his 80th birthday next March.
Reported by BBC News this evening - youtu.be/9FWyi7TGYw0?si=L_fLMkgWzjSRvf8O&t=182
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Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 3 Weeks, 4 Days ago
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Rich wrote:
Here's an interesting fact about Johnnie Walker.
He only ever presented one edition of Top Of The Pops, the one from 10th January 1974, and no others. I don't know whether that makes him unique as a major Radio 1 presenter/DJ to do just a single edition of that show, or why he didn't do more. It was also a notable edition for being the last one where Slade topped the charts. A couple of years ago I did see a grainy old brief clip of this edition with him presenting but can no longer find it. Officially this show was wiped by the BBC, what a great shame that is.
Keep a look out. A lot of previously thought wiped editions are still showing up online. Trevor May is one to watch, look what he has posted up only a couple of days ago, 25 minutes of a TOTP from 1st Feb 1973 during the early seventies wiped period, still excellent even though it's sadly only in black and white. The download is actually over 40 minutes but the show repeats again after 25 minutes. Some cracking music on it.
Top of the Pops 01-02-1973 Presenter Noel Edmonds youtu.be/xE4h6H2wAmU?si=0qfWJaLSUx4K7Xqt
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Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 1 Week, 5 Days ago
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robbiex wrote:
I think Kenny Everett only did 2 or 3 episodes, which I believe have not all been wiped, and John Peel had about 14 years between episodes, when he returned in the early 80s.
Johnnie Walker showing a lot of courage carrying on with his show despite the terminal diagnosis. He's been replaced by Bob Harris, who is only a year younger than Johnny. I think they should have given Gambo the position. He deserves to be hosting one of the main programmes in the schedule.
Noel Edmonds is technically one of the best DJs around, but his personality is a bit diversive, with all his comments on positive energy and hating wind turbines.
Was Noel saying things like that on radio back in the 1970's then? I thought that was more of a modern thing of his. Johnnie has of course come back from serious illness before with cancer back in 2003, when Noel Edmonds was his surprising stand in at the time for a couple of months, not having done radio for years and going back to primetime evening. After getting back in the door with BBC radio at the time I was a bit surprised Noel never did anything like that again on the schedule but maybe he was seen as too bigger name for being a mere stand in to others. He may have had the massive TV career but I think his real love remained radio. That he stood in for Johnnie obviously shows the level of respect he had for him.
I did email him early last week wishing him well and showing appreciation, not the kind of thing I would normally do, as Noel had said earlier in the year on the death of Steve Wright that we must appreciate the old timers while they are still with us and before we lose them. Wise words heeded. I asked if he could spare an anecdote about his one time only appearance presenting TOTP in 1974 but alas it seems the show might have already been recorded. I should have done it a few weeks ago.
I've seen the Kenny Everett show he did from 11th October 1973 which was out there somewhere. That presentation seemed so ahead of its time and out of left field for the period and seemed more 90's in style. Just three months later was Johnnnie's sole appearance. It seems producers then just reverted back to the safe (excluding Savile) and familiar for the rest of that decade again.
Here's an edition of Kenny's with a narration by someone, can't find the full show without it. There was a poor quality snippet of Johnnie Walker I had seen previously going into or out of the Sweet's Teenage Rampage. Not re-found it though.
youtu.be/ljapBnYfUNE?si=YNwY9AFQoTrHDotI
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