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Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds
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TOPIC: Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds
#248945
Rich

Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 1 Month ago  
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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#249027
Simon

Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 1 Month ago  
I remember Johnnie having a very close shave 20 years ago with his cancer scare and coming off radio for a period of months which enabled an unexpected return to the national airwaves on peak time drive radio to Noel Edmonds on Radio 2 after he'd had many years away from BBC radio. I was surprised Noel didn't do more stand ins or proper radio on BBC after this.

It's the final curtain this time but I hope he has a long and happy retirement. I believe he holds some quite deep views on life after death and recent months on the show it's been an almost weekly obituary of music stars, such as his good friend Steve Harley to name one.
 
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#249053
Chris

Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 1 Month ago  
So few have got something to say about Johnnie Walker after so long on the air. He'll leave a big weekend gap, sad so soon after Steve Wright and I've read elsewhere that he's aware he hasn't got too much longer left to live. Desperately sad.

Surprised there's no comment from JK here about JW.
 
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#249283
Rick

Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 3 Weeks, 6 Days ago  
I remember him ranting about having to play an edited version of The Eagles' Lyin' Eyes during a chart run-down one lunchtime. I was sagging off school at the time. But his passion really connected. Can you imagine a non-niche radio DJ reacting with such emotion these days? He was a great DJ.
 
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#249306
Rich

Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 3 Weeks, 5 Days ago  
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.
 
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#249376
Phil

Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 3 Weeks, 4 Days ago  
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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#250142
Rich

Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 1 Week, 6 Days ago  
I felt sadness on Sunday afternoon listening to Johnnie Walker's final broadcast show on radio and the reason for it. He ended his broadcasting career with Amazing Grace by Judy Collins. What made it for me even sadder still was that it became clear the show was recorded and that Johnnie had not been able to do the show live for his final one like I anticipated he might. His voice and delivery was even weaker and he sounded like he had worsened noticeably even over the past few weeks and was struggling at times. We heard from Tiggy his wife that she thought he wasn't coming back in February this year after a few weeks off for new year but managed it and broadcast another eight months until now that they didn't expect back then. It looks increasingly like it might be an achievement for Johnnie Walker to make it to his 80th birthday at the end of next March, five months from now.
 
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#250146
Sean

Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 1 Week, 6 Days ago  
JW was the only thing I listened to on Radio 2, he's absolutely correct when he talks about the quality of BBC Radio presenters today.
That's the end of my Radio 2 days. I used to come home from school at lunchtimes to listen to Johnny count down the new chart on a Tuesday. That was 50 years ago. Today felt like saying goodbye to an old friend. Farewell Johnnie, and thank you. I will miss you. Great broadcaster who actually cared deeply about the music. His story about why he first left BBC radio in June 1976 was astonishing, such integrity.
 
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#250150
robbiex

Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 1 Week, 5 Days ago  
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.
 
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#250165
Rich

Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 1 Week, 5 Days ago  
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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#250192
robbiex

Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 1 Week, 5 Days ago  
They showed the Kenny Everett episode on bbc4 a couple of years ago, so its definitely available. You get paid a lot more for tv, so imagine that would have been a factor for Noel, not to do so much radio.
 
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#250601
Rich

Re:Johnnie Walker forced to retire from BBC radio on health grounds 6 Days, 5 Hours ago  
robbiex wrote:
They showed the Kenny Everett episode on bbc4 a couple of years ago, so its definitely available. You get paid a lot more for tv, so imagine that would have been a factor for Noel, not to do so much radio.

A shame they didn't keep it up on the BBC iPlayer with all the other shows they've broadcast again in recent years. If they can stick 800 archive episodes of Dr Who on the place for long term viewing I don't see why they can't do it with shows such as Top of the Pops. Unless there is some music rights and royalties payments nonsense about it all that prevents it or makes it too expensive.

I listened to Bob Harris do his first show replacing Johnnie Walker this afternoon. A very nice listen and lovely introduction. A shame he made a bit of a blunder when talking about Space Oddity by David Bowie being the No1 single in the United States this week back in 1975, not once but twice he said it, having said it had been a hit here earlier too. Yet it was the UK No1, not the USA and never was over there. Bowie had topped the charts a few weeks earlier Stateside with Fame and the No1 this week was Island Girl by Elton John which had just kicked Bad Blood by Neil Sedaka off the top spot. Let down by careless researchers I suspect and there are no excuses in this day and age for not getting info like that right when reand misinforming people.
 
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