Outside of Radio 1, Blackburn was a damn good soul DJ.

I agree about Adrian Juste though - the Argos Kenny Everett. I'm not really part of Radio 1's demographic these days but I heard Chris Moyles in my daughter's car the other day and he seems to be without redeeming features

Is fantastically crap. Adrian Juste was poor but at least it was because he tried too hard to be funny. Moyles can't be arsed to try but is still sufficiently full of his own ego to think he is gloriously amusing. He's not.

And he brings shame on all right thinking Leeds fans.

...I used to love the Adrian Juste show, it seemed very clever, and introduced me to a lot of old comedy that I wouldn't have heard, plus each show must have taken *ages* to stitch together. And it was followed by Jimmy Saville, what's not to like?

Seriously, was he worse than DLT? Or Simon "..and then the family died tragically..." Bates? Or Tony Blackburn? Or David "Kid" Jensen? Or Peter Powell?

I think my favourite program in that era was probably Annie Nightingale. I haven't seriously listened to radio since about 1990, so I can't speak for any of the current lot.

Gary Davies had a prime spot on the weekday Radio 1 schedule for several years, yet did not seemingly develop a personality in all that time. But that's OK - I hate him for another reason.

In the early 1980s, I thought that Black's "Wonderful Life" was a beautiful song. I had picked up on it early and played it to death. It had a few false starts in the charts before finally doing quite well.

Then - quite by accident - I was listening to the Gary Davies show some time later and it featured this treasured, well-crafted song but it was customised by the artist himself to be a jingle :

# no need to run and hide
Gary Davies on Radio One...#

I immediately thought less of the artist for being such a sell-out. And it made me despise Gary Davies forever. I felt so let down.

If you think I am being harsh, what would you feel about (say)Richard Thompson, if he adapted one of his songs for jingle purposes?

bit in the middle, young free and single ooh, Gary Davies, ooh Gary Davies, ooh Gary Davies on your radioooooo, yeah!

Was actually the first Radio 1 DJ to play anything on air by Radiohead. He made their first ep his record of the week. The band never forgot this, apparently, and years later, having achieved world domination, they found themselves at the same function as the perma tanned DJ and approached him to thank him in person. Which I think is rather nice.

Adrian Juste breasts the tape at the line, only marginally ahead of Simon "but even without arms and legs, Kate was determined to walk up the aisle" Bates, and Dave Lee "I've got a farm" Travis.

… as well as the crappy ones that somehow sustained a career of some years on national radio (and the dreaded George Lamb seems to be settling nicely into that category), there are those whose sheer unmemorableness has excised them from the memory of most listeners. Whither 'Me,' Mark Page? I have some respect for Tony Blackburn - he, unlike so many, always seems to have been genuinely committed to radio broadcasting, rather than seeing it as a rung on the media-career ladder, and actually cares about the music he plays. Bruno Brookes, on the other hand is beyond redemption in all manner of ways (the 'Bob Harris incident' especially. And you can add Liz Kershaw to that.) Moyles is hateful too, of course - how did we reach a state where the music played on 'music stations' is so little regarded that it functions as barely more than an occasional time filler between the DJs' witterings?

there, I've said it

...but overrated, surely. It's the 80-20 rule for him. 80% of what he played was unlistenable shite.

to ever catch the Essex FM Breakfast Show?

The ghosts of Gary Davies, DLT, Me Mark Page and Smashy and Nicey are still alive in the nirvana that is Martin Day.

edit....Kid Jensen gets a pass purely due to his R1 session with The Smiths that formed the excellent material on Hatful of Hollow. I'll even allow his Canuck misapprehension that you can change your football team allegiance too...

or is the only good and intereresting music radio kept for the evening and the stupid and witless played in the morning.

He used to be such an annoying twerp. I recall being driven somewhere one Saturday afternoon having to endure a whole programme with a driver who thought he was hilarious.

Shame Peely and Jensen didn't get him in that car park - Simon Bloody Bates.

whilst looking for details (not for me you understand, but a work colleague) on the just announced AC/DC gig at Hampden http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.4159
what's that line about putting your brain into gear...

...the ones who talk over the beginning/end of a record (coz it's all about me me me )
...the ones who join in with the song (look guys I am soooooo wacky and zany)
...the ones who play a song but 'forget' to tell you who it is by because they are too busy blethering.

... Sarah Kennedy who broadcasts to the nation on Radio 2 until 7.30am. There was never a better reason to switch to Radio 4. She bleats incessantly about cats and reads 'hilarious' emails about domestic adventures which usually involve ducks on a pond or some such twaddle, generally sounding like she has escaped from the pages of a 'Just William' anthology. I suppose it is meant to be vapid and anodyne (background to clean your teeth to) but comes across as simultaneously smug and irritating with expressions like 'much beloved' when referring to her current paramour. Yikes! I am beginning to sound like her. I've said too much already so won't mention the 'racism' incident.

I find her heinous too. Still, she has a certain audience in her thrall. Can't stand Pam Ayers, she also has her 'audience', so does Genesis P Orridge. I just don't get it?

Boneheaded DJ Gibber™, like the link I posted, is just base. I can understand it's audience, I live in Glasgow and drive through its East End to work. Occasionally I stop to buy an evening paper, fags, beer etc. there are some strange and dangerous people out there.

As a radio personality he splits opinions and veers between very funny and totally up his own backside. As a DJ (i.e. tee up a record, introduce it, play it, tail end it and move on to the next record) he is diabolically cr*p.

Graham Dene (ex Capital, now where?) was the wettest, drivelliest DJ known to mankind. It's amazing that a station astute enough to employ the late Roger Scott (surely the DJ's DJ) could also get it so wrong on occasions. Mind you, they did employ Nicky Horne, he of the great taste but appallingly fawning interview style.

A few points:

The Radio 1 DJ's that we love to slate now were wonderfully of their time and were immensely popular at the time. Revisionism and some biting satire has changed our perception of them.

Listening back to old Radio 1 excerpts now they still sound great with the music of the time. Again, very much of their time.

Some adapted and did well, most failed to see the change in style that listeners wanted. At the risk of being attacked by flying shoes, Campbell and Mayo have done well to move on. Gary Davies was great at the time and fitted the style of the station.

George Lamb has got to be the worst ever though. Not of his time, just plain awful.

Johnny Vaughan would run him close....

Final thing, irrespective of styles and formats there will never be a radio DJ in the UK that will ever come close to being as good as Roger Scott. The greatest shame is that we don't have more recordings of his to listen back on. Effortlessly cool and a true pro AND he loved his music.

Commercial radio station disc jockeys who have the same piece of "music" being played on the hour on the hour every hour. Or they have the same cheesy voice that irrates me.

Any wonder now I choose to refuse to listen to music radio and get most of my influence from WORD magazine and other monthlies.

Drives me to despair to think that some of these people get heavilly paid for being absolutely t***s too!

I read a book on quantum physics once and, having failed to understand a single page of it, noted in the introduction that the author gives a long and effusive appreciation of Tommy, who he acknowledged as an inspiration for writing the book due to conversations with him.

However, Tommy veered wildly between crapness and genius. Signing off his shows with a long pause and the words "Isn't music great?" made the toes curl almost as much as Bowie's Lords Prayer.

Surely someone has forgotten those dreadful Radio2 shows presented by Lulu that had about as much excitement as a loaf of thin sliced bread.
She may have been around Pop Music for five decades, but she never assimilated any knowledge about what she was experiencing.
Worst Radio 1 DJ of all time was probably Paul Burnett, who made every broadcast sound like a disaster waiting to happen.Shame really because he was a nice bloke when I met him about 32 years ago.
In commercial radio there are umpteen souls living in an insecure existence controlled by management more in tune with 'Attitude' magazine than the world of music. Salaries and payments on the smaller stations border on the minimum wage for maximum effort.

Like John Peel who lost the plot when I was still in primary school.

Andy Kershaw with his inane world music gibberings.

Oh, and bloody Jo Whiley. If ever a voice was designed for a mute, it's hers.

she had a 'radio' face

George "Roast" Lamb

Chris "Makes me ashamed to be a Leeds United fan" Moyles