RADIO

Video didn't kill the radio star!

Radio has always been special to me, growing up in Britain, listening to BBC Radio One and dreaming of becoming a DJ and then actually doing it and being on the air at some of the world's great radio stations - KNAC, KROQ and SiriusXM. My career started on college radio in the UK and when I went to Europe to tour as a club DJ I was hired by O3 (Austria 3) to host an evening rock show. When I first came to the States I was told that I'd never get a job on the radio in Los Angeles with an English accent (thanks, Sam Bellamy) but I knocked on every radio door in California until my knuckles started bleeding, and after winning a contest on KWST as LA's best unknown DJ I was  hired by KMGN Magic 98 in Bakersfield. Within three months they made me the morning drive DJ and Program Director. After a year in Bakersfield I wanted to leave (actually after a week in Bakersfield I wanted to leave, but I was there to get experience!) but my employers wanted to keep me so they offered me a gig at another station they owned in San Luis Obispo, California. They flew me out to KZOZ - Z93 - in SLO town and I was entranced by this beautiful college town on the beach and a summer there sounded fine with me. I took the station through their first ever rating period (I was PD and morning DJ there) and the bosses were hoping to come in at #2 behind the Central Coast monster, KSLY. Instead KSLY got a 5 rating and was #2 to our insane 29 rating - an impossible number!!! Armed with those ratings I was hired by KNAC in Long Beach and in June 1982 moved to KROQ in Los Angeles. When Mike Evans left in August I was asked to join the morning show as co-host with the incredibly talented Raymond "Raymondo" Bannister. KROQ single-handedly changed radio in America and over my 18 years there I worked with legends such as Rick Carroll, Kevin Weatherly, Dusty Street, Larry Groves, Mike Evans, Freddie Snakeskin, Rodney on the ROQ, Jeddum Fishum, Swedish Egil, Kevin & Bean, Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Carolla, Carson Daily and Dr Drew. I quit KROQ in April 2000 to move to the Caribbean with my wonderful wife, but three years later we were lured back by VH1 and Satellite Radio. I'm now on SiriusXM - and can be heard every day across the US and Canada on Ch 33, First Wave. In June, 2021, I was blown away when I was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for my work over the years in radio - amazing for a kid from a small town in England. You can read the entire story in my autobiography, World In My Eyes, available worldwide on Amazon.com