As Tony Blackburn marks six decades in the business, he has reflected on the time his career almost came crashing down when he was sacked from BBC Radio 1, around 15 years after he launched the station in 1967.
The disc jockey had been riding high having hosted Radio 1’s breakfast and mid-morning shows. Then, in 1980, he was relegated to presenting the kids’ weekend morning show, Junior Choice.
Around four years later, Tony was sacked from the station altogether and took over BBC Radio London’s mid-morning show.
In a new interview, Tony has recalled his brutal firing, claiming that “nobody bothered” to tell him.
He told Radio Times: “[A BBC commissionaire] said, ‘We’re really going to miss you’. I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Well, you’re leaving’.
“First I heard of it. Nobody had bothered to tell me.”
Nevertheless, he made the best of his new role and reinvented himself on his BBC Radio London shows, complete with a raunchier soul playlist and infamous innuendos about “12 inchers”.
While Tony enjoyed being able to play his beloved soul tracks, he was uncomfortable with the “pressure” he was being put under to make the show as risqué as possible.
Speaking to the outlet, Tony said his Radio London boss pushed him so far that he had to seek help from a specialist.
The father-of-two said: “He wanted me to go further and further. When the BBC complained about me talking about stockings and suspenders, he said he didn’t mind me talking about them, he was trying to stop me wearing them!
“Eventually, I got so nervous I was shaking all the time because I was being put under pressure to be over the top. I had to go and see a specialist about it.”
Tony switched to Capital London in 1988, presenting programmes such as the Breakfast Show, Weekends, Drivetime and the weekday evening show.
He remained there until 2002, the same year he won the first-ever series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!
Tony has previously said that he was shocked to be crowned King of the Jungle after believing the public “didn’t like him”.
Writing for the Daily Mail in 2007, he said: “I was obviously surprised and, of course, extremely flattered. For decades, I’d been under the impression that the public didn’t like me that much, that I was more of a British irritant than a ‘national treasure’.
“Perhaps they thought of me in one way and were surprised to discover I was quite different.”
He rejoined BBC Radio London in 2004 and later returned to BBC Radio 2 as the host of Pick of the Pops in 2010. He is still a fixture on the station to this day, hosting Sounds of the 60s and The Golden Hour.
On Sunday, Tony bid farewell to local radio when he presented his final show on BBC Radio Berkshire, BBC Radio Oxford and BBC Radio Solent. He explained he wanted to cut back on his workload in order to focus on his BBC Radio Two shows and theatre tour.
At the end of his last show, he told listeners: “43 years on BBC local radio and that’s it as far as I’m concerned. It’s been a pleasure being here… From me, Tony Blackburn, to BBC local radio – Bye-bye.”
