Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Stuart Henry broadcasting on Radio One in 1973

Here's a clip of the Radio One and Radio Luxemburg DJ Stuart Henry in action and talking about his approach to the job. I wrote about him when choosing Queen Bitch by David Bowie on Sunday.

A product of Stewart's Melville College and Glasgow College of Dramatic Art, Henry was an actor before he went into music radio. His career on the pirate stations was short-lived because he suffered terribly with seasickness, but he found safe harbour at the BBC until his health began to decline.

In his obituary of Henry, Chris Welch quoted Johnny Beerling, a former controller of Radio One:

"Stuart was a great guy. He used to do a spot called 'She's Leaving Home', which was all about missing youngsters. 

He showed a concern for social action broadcasting a long time before Radio 1 was ever involved with it. He'd say, 'I'm no asking you to go back, my friend, what I want you to do is let your parents know you're all right." He'd get people to ring in and make contact. (He used the old Beatles song as a theme tune.) 

He also campaigned about nuclear testing and had an environment spot on his Saturday morning show, before it was a popular issue."

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