In my formative years it was Lamacq and Whiley (R1's Evening Session) and Collins & MacConie (featuring the incredibly funny Quantick's World monologue / rant).

I occasionally listened to Peel, but not as much as I wish I now had. A man taken for granted.

with regards my listening habits. I've tended to read something or see an album cover and then investigate the act in question. But your mentioning Annie Nightingale and Alexis Corner brought back strong memories... they made Sunday evenings more enjoyable and helped me to forget that I had to go back to school the next day.

John Peel is a strange one for me... I loved him for what he stood for, I loved his sense of humour and his voice. But I hardly ever listened to his radio shows. When I did I would inevitably hear The Fall and have to switch off. I used to think "There's a homeless guy down the street with few teeth who shouts whilst banging a dustbin lid. He sounds better than this."

was something new and Capital Radio was a new, radical and exciting station. The late Roger Scott and Nicky Horne were top, top DJs. They always seemed to be playing music they liked and had chosen, they were enthusuastic and knowledgeable about it and they put the music first.

I remember his public announcement on the execrable "Your Mother Wouldn't Like It" that he wouldn't play punk rock because 'it wasn't music'. You could say he was an influence on my musical taste.

All bar the first couple of tracks on Peel were just too late. So instead it with Richard Skinner and David Jensen on the 8-10 slot that really supplied me with new wave stuff...but the NME was a far more powerful influence than any actual radio.

She had the Lamacq/Whiley slot in the 80's and she was great.I remember her interviews with Morrissey & The Jesus & Mary Chain and she played all the great 80's alternative bands.
Correct me if i'm wrong but was Ms Long not asked to leave BBC because she became pregnant whilst unmarried , bringing scandal to the corporation ? It seems laughable now (although not actually funny)
just shows how conservative things were back then.
Then John Peel. The only person who liked all the tunes on his show was John Peel, but that's what was great about him , he just played the records and the listener formed their own opinion (something Jo Whiley could do with noting)
Mark and Lard's show in the evening R1 before they went to the breakfast show was absolutely brilliant. They had live sessions by all the best bands at the time ( i particularly remember Stereolab & Spiritualized) and they were really funny. I was gutted when they went to the morning slot.
Annie Nightingale's request show was great. Sunday evening's after "the charts ". Some songs were requested time and time again like "Valley Girl " by Moon Unit Zappa. Very funny.

No Seriously! He used to play the early Idle Race records and a whole lot of other baroque stuff - the original Nirvana ('Rainbow Chaser', 'Pentecost Hotel' etc.) and a whole lot of other melodic pop/rock.
His own pastiches and multi-track jingles were great fun too.

Kelly Enema was one, but so was Tony Blackburn. Yes, I know the whole Smashy and Nicey thing, but TB was a highly influential DJ in the early 70s when he hosted the R1 Breakfast show. He played a lot of soul music. The reason the Detroit Spinners, Emeralds, Stylistics, Delfonics, Chi-Lites etc had hits in the UK was largely down to the airplay Blackburn gave them.

That means Luxembourg and the pirates (when I could get a signal). I caught the occasional Perfumed Garden but my Big L signal was often so distant as to be unlistenable. The Kenny & Cash show was a must-listen when I could. The BBC provided the occasional bit of rock 'n' roll on the Light Programme.

By the time Radio 1 came along I was 16 so I was already fairly well influenced. Top Gear/Night Ride were regular listens. Annie Nightingale and Kenny Everett were always a source of quality sounds.

As much as I soaked up Nickie Horne & Peel at the time, my musical references now all date back to Charlie Gillette & Bob Harris. Still remember Stuart Henry on 208 fondly as well.

I listened "religiously" to Peel in the early to mid '70s & he was great. I remember his playing all of Neil Young's "Zuma" one evening. Where else would you get bits of Ivor Cutler or Wild Man Fisher or Stanshall & Moon stepping in when he was on holiday?

By the '80s I couldn't listen to him anymore - he'd moved on to new stuff, but I hadn't. Would sometimes hear him on the World Service late at night & not really enjoy the experience.

Andy Kershaw introduced me to a lot of good stuff , mostly from Africa. It was on his show (which got shoved around from radio 1 to radio 2 and finally to 3) that I first heard the splendid "Orchestra Baobab" for example.

The late Charlie Gillett was always a pleasure & introduced me to many types of music I'd never heard before - e.g. Fado.

These days I prefer speech-based radio (radios 4 & 5 live) & am completely out of touch with modern DJs & modern music, old fart that I am.

Late 70s and early 80s. I heard the Velvets' Waiting for the Man for the first time on his show. It was completely different to anything I'd heard before. They're still my favourite band today.

Also KFM, Stockport/Manchester area, late 80s/early 90s with Craig Cash and Jon Ronson playing all the Madchester stuff with loads of punk and indie thrown in. Caroline Aherne used to play a mother of a famous rock star on Craig Cash's show and listeners had to guess who it was.

Peel introduced me to old stuff such as Irma Thomas as well as new stuff.

.

He who once opened up a Radio One bank holiday afternoon show with Springsteen's Sherry Darling, followed with Nils Lofgren's Keith Don't Go. Ah, those were the days...

I still have a few tapes of his Saturday Sequence show knocking around somewhere. When he died there was a special memorial show recorded at Abbey Road. Was lucky enough to be invited, and saw Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Mark Knopfler & Cliff, amongst others, all get up and do a number each.

Would prefer to still have him around instead though.

Gilles Peterson on Kiss FM ( every Sunday Night) plus his nights at Bar Rumba ( That's How It Is), Ross Allen on GLR with his destination in show, played all sorts of stuff from disco not disco, hip hop, jazz to Nick Drake etc, Coldcut on Kiss FM, Norman Jay on KISS, Mark and Lard when they were on at 10pm on Radio 1. Much better than Lamacq and Whiley who I recall just used to play Northern Uproar, Mega City 4 and Neds - I am stereotyping wildly of course to back up my prejudices..

Peel did play a part especially as he was playing jungle before many others and Captain Beefheart..

One of the more pleasing elements of the perpetually simultaneous online experience is we North Americans can escape the dire choices for radio here to check out the online offerings from folks like Sean Rowley, Mark Lamarr, and Stuart Maconie (if only Peel was equally accessible in his day).

To be honest, the Joy of Music, God's Jukebox, and the Freak Zone often displace mp3s as my first listening choice, although I need to do so with tabs open to emusic, elbo.ws, and amazon, as all three prompt frequent impulse purchases.

It's a rare music listener whose formative experiences didn't involve radio, and that sound of surprise as one track gives way to another still seems magical. Do any of the massive still regularly listen to some version of radio? If so, what?

I began getting curious about the big old world, behind the HJHs and the Top 40, Nicky Campbell and Bob Harris used to own the 10pm - 2am slot on Radio One. Many happy evenings reading in bed listening to them and I discovered a hell of a lot, particularly from Whispering Bob. I'll always remember hearing Dylan properly for the first time when he played 'Tangled Up In Blue' and just being amazed by it.

Like Humphrey I always appreciated Peel but rarely listened to him. However I did always listen to John Shaw and Mark Spivey on Radio Trent. They played a great mix of indie, hippy stuff, punk, metal and dodgy old Goth (Spivey produced the rather unlamented locals Every New Dead Ghost if I remember rightly). It seems rather remarkable in the context of the current 6 music debate that the local commercial station gave them airtime, but it was a long time ago.

I discovered many things through them (I've still got the odd cassette of stuff taped off them, including things like A Witness and all sorts of local bands etc etc) - particularly remember hearing both Elvis Costello's I Want You and Nick Cave's The Mercy Seat for the first time on their show, both jaw-dropping moments. Also won their Go-Betweens competition to get a copy of 16 Lovers Lane and tickets to their Trent Poly gig - which opened up a whole new area of music to me.

Blimey I'm having a right nostalgia trip on the site today.

all this way and not one of you progressive rockers have mentioned Fluff's wonderful Saturday afternoon show. It would often send me scurrying to the record shop the following weekend in search of Patrick Moraz, Kansas, Head East, Greenslade etc. An honorable mention must also go to Tommy Vance, champion of metal.

So much of my record collection is down to those three. Their enthusiasm and knowledge of and for their subject and my trust in their taste has led me to a revelation. Certain people just know how to do radio but they are usually buried beneath a steaming, foul smelling pile of those that don't. For instance, I am about to get in my car for the 90 mile journey home from work. I would normally be happliy accompanied by the wonderful Simon Mayo. Instead I will have to endure Richard Chuffing Madeley - or not, actually.

was slight, but important.
Most of my influence came from the music press (NME et al), recommendations from friends (and then trying to out-do their discovery with something else), local second hand record shop (spent hours in there) and probably Top Of The Pops.

The one DJ (if I had to pick one) that had any sort of influence was Mike Read, not so much for his Radio 1 Breakfast Show, but the weekend shows he did.
He seemed to care about the music he played, and knew the background/history of it.
He also co-wrote/co-authored the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, and at one stage selected Jam's Setting Sons as his 6th favourite LP ever.
As mentioned previously, I am aware of John Peel: The Legend, but rarely listened to his show

have been thinking about Peel since I posted earlier today.
He was essential to different generations because he played stuff we'd never heard & which really turned us on.

My theory is that this period was quite short for each generation ,but during that time Peel was the only one who excited me, by playing the sort of music that I wanted to hear.

When your tastes coincided with what he played, you listened all the time but once he'd moved on he was less important to you, but more important to the following generation.

Met him twice in the '70s & he was charming - we didn't speak about music much, more about football & I only have positive memories of him, based on his music broadcasting & later his radio 4 programmes, where his humanity, humour & way with words were clearly evident.

that Wogan (in the 70s) and the JY prog, which my Mum always had on, also had an influence on my musical taste - giving me both a love of The Carpenters, Neil Diamond and (ahem) Kenny Rogers, and a deep and totally irrational dislike of Crystal Gayle.

Craig Charles' Soul & Funk show on 6Music has cost me a small fortune in recent years what with chasing down all the gems he digs out. I thought I knew about this stuff until he taught me how much more there is to learn. Worth the licence fee on its own, and another good reason to save the station (apart from all the other good reasons).

Mark Lamarr for me.
And Robbie Vincent turned me OFF whole swathes of 1970s and 1980s soul and youth culture for which I will be eternally grateful.

Got the issue late this month and have just read David's article.

Can I just put on record that, despite repeatedly being told that there is a radio station for all types of music, there isn't a station playing my tastes......mid 1950s - late 1960s with a commitment to play the obscure or the undervalued of that era (i.e. a kind of extended Lamarr show/'I'm Down' rather than 'Help!'/soundtracks/rare soul/ska/pysch/beat).

As far as I can see that station doesn't exist or nor does any station actually cater for it even slightly.

I was rather hoping that 6 Music might have fitted the bill and despite asking for a Perfumed Garden-type programme in several early e-mails to the BBC the 'indie-lite' that David refers to seems to inform the whole station from where I'm standing.

This was/is 6's downfall......the idea that 'indie-lite' is popular when I don't think it is.
Great idea but wrong era.
The Clash, The Smiths, New Order etc. didn't 'enjoy' spectacularly low chart placings throughout their careers for nothing and most people couldn't name three Smiths' songs if their lives depended on it.
Actually, make that one Smiths' song.

The thing that truly amazes me is that the ground floor of HMV in Oxford Street is virtually the size of Wembley's pitch, is covered in small CDs, and yet music radio in this country in 2010 plays about 0.01% of it.

I've long since held that the average Joe on the street actually doesn't like pop music, so is David right?
Are the public that unquestioning?