Johnnie Walker

Johnnie Walker MBE (born Peter Waters Dingley, 30 March 1945 in Olton, Solihull, England) is a popular British veteran radio disc jockey and broadcaster.

He is noted for his knowledge and love of music, his championing of new artists, and his attributing more importance to songs he plays rather than the chat in between. (Read more at Wikipedia)

Links to Peel
Like John Peel, Johnnie Walker made his name on pirate radio - in Walker's case, on Radio Caroline, which he joined in 1966 after a short period with the American-owned (and very American-sounding) pirate station, "Swinging" Radio England. He became popular as host of an evening show on Radio Caroline, in which, like Peel, he communicated with his audience in a more personal way than the typical smooth-talking DJs of the era. His choice of music differed from that of most of his colleagues, with a concentration on soul music, at that time very popular with the teenagers who thronged discos and clubs, but not always represented in the charts. He was one of the few DJs to remain on Radio Caroline after the station became illegal in August 1967, expressing his opposition to the Labour government's forcing the other pirate stations to close down in a series of hard-hitting recorded messages, played regularly by Radio Caroline in its fight to remain on-air. In 1967, when Peel was presenting his Perfumed Garden on Radio London, Walker listened to the programme and even paid a visit to the rival station, as Peel later recounted.

Radio Caroline was eventually closed (albeit temporarily) in 1968 and Walker left, joining Peel at Radio 1 in the following year. He initially presented a Saturday afternoon show, but in 1971 took over the early afternoon show from 1-3 p.m, in which he included the kind of album tracks usually heard on Peel's programmes and other Sounds of the Seventies evening shows. This led to a confrontation with the then Radio 1 controller in 1976. Walker quit the station and moved to the USA, working for station KSAN in San Francisco.

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Sessions

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Other Shows Played
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 * DD Month YYYY: Song (single/album) Label