Broadcasting continuously on the British Broadcasting Corporation’s modern music flagship Radio 1, since 1967, John Peel’s choice of music for broadcasting to his listeners has influenced at least three generations.
John Peel’s early life
Born John Robert Parker Ravenscroft in Cheshire, England in 1939, into the middle of England’s middle classes, the son of a cotton merchant, John’s early life followed the familiar set pattern of education and upbringing familiar to so many of his ‘class’ in the particular class system that existed in the UK at that time. Sent to an elite boarding school at the age of 13, according to reports from the time, it soon became apparent that he was not simply going to be another product of the system and follow the rules.
After boarding school, the 18-year-old went straight into National Service in the army. A period of three years in the armed forces was compulsory in those days in the UK in the late 1950’s. Again, John showed no sign of being a success in the military and following orders. The early 1960’s found the soon-to-be radio announcer in the United States working, presumably with help from his father’s contacts in the trade, in the Cotton Industry in Dallas, Texas. Radio, however, pulled him and he simultaneously found work, albeit unpaid, at the local WRRR radio station. Beatle-mania was about to hit the US, and John’s Liverpool accent, which he managed to strengthen, fitted right on in. A career as a DJ was round the next corner.
John Peel the early DJ
The Englishman, or rather the Liverpudlian DJ soon found work as a full-time radio announcer and now in his early twenties, the then John Ravenscroft, or Ravencroft as it became, worked various shifts and programmes at a number of US radio stations:
- At KLIF in Dallas, Texas
- In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at KOMA
- And then in San Bernardino, California at radio station KMEN
Unsurprisingly perhaps, it was in California, then in the middle of the Sixties music and cultural revolution that John was able to move away from the format current with many radio stations of the day playing the ‘Hits of the Day’ and began playing the music he liked. He brought this way of programming and presentation back with from the United States when he returned to the UK, in early 1967.
The Pirate Ship and the BBC
The BBC radio output, many commentators argue, for most of the sixties ignored the current trends in popular music and played very little that reflected young people’s listening at the time. These youngsters didn’t want the dance band music of the 1940s and 50s and the staid and regimented output of the state run broadcaster that their parents listened to, they wanted rock and roll. This was broadcast to them by Pirate radio stations operating ‘illegally’ and mostly in international waters.
John Ravenscroft, at this time changed his name to Peel, not only it’s said, to make it easier to remember but to hide his identity, and his style of broadcasting and the music he played was perfect for the time. Recently returned from the States, he got a job on one of the pirate ships, Radio London or ‘The Big L,’ and John Peel the DJ, the British Broadcasting Institution was born.
In the late 1960’s, the UK government passed an Act of Parliament and clamped down on the pirates in the seas round Britain, and the BBC were then forced to reflect the changing taste of the young and established Radio 1. John Peel, along with a number of the other ‘pirates,’ was given a job with the fledgling operation.
By the time his death in 2004, John was the only DJ still broadcasting on Radio 1, from the original intake of pirates in 1967 and the only one to continuously broadcast on the station, needless to say, playing his choice of music on the network from its early days. He may not have liked being called an institution, but he certainly made good radio to last that long.
Dan McCurdy - Dan McCurdy is a freelance writer producer creative and lecturer. Dan is one of the UK's most experienced radio writers and producers. ...
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