Many years ago, Keith Rodgers sat on top of Shirley hills in Croydon, trying to tune in to a pirate radio ship while it was being jammed, by the British government on his Transistor radio.
He had no luck listening to that station, but as he tuned around on that fateful Sunday, he found something amazing, Radio Jackie.. it had real people playing great music using their real personalities , and sounded like a fun thing to listen to. It took him a while of listening and several trips to the Lion gates of bushy park to visit and see the group of youths in the pub that, were Radio people, to get the courage to approach the bar staff and ask, who were the Radio Jackie crowd.
Gathering all his teen wit, he approached one of them and was invited to sit with them, after a few weeks of visiting this crowd on a Sunday, he went to the curry house with them and had a meal with them.
Somehow, he got invited to site and after several weeks walking for what seemed miles over soggy muddy fields and carrying car batteries to the sites, he started asking to do a show,for several weeks, no was the answer, but the time went by and one day he was invited to Mike Knights's bedroom , in the corner was a pair of record decks and an old rectangular microphone, with cardboard slipmats, his first radio show was made there.
It didn't get on air, after a few weeks of going and making shows, one somehow got to be on air, I think one of the other tapes ( cassette) snapped and they needed to have an extra show. More of his shows went out, starting out under the name of Keith Rodgers and eventually changing his name to John Preston, his shows went out on a regular basis.After some time went by and several visits to local Police stations, under escort, he decided it was time to stay away, but Radio Jackie continued without him.
Later,he was invited to the radio Jackie shop in Morden and invited to do a live show And briefly got paid for a few weeks, several months passed and he was sacked for the first time,he cant remember why.
He applied to every station in the uk for a year, over and over and never got even one interview
It turns out that, he wasn’t that bad as a presenter, but had been ignored because some radio stations had black listed radio Jackie staff.
One day He tuned into the station and found they were saying, we are closing down, he was there on the last day and a short excerpt of him speaking appears on the radio Jackie LP.
Years later, he received an email from Dave and was invited to come and chat, Thames radio was being run by Radio Jackie staff and was about to change its name to Radio Jackie.
He was put on air that day and as the months went past, regular shows ensued, one day after a chat with Dave about taking up to the vocals , he was told, he was not really local and he decided to take a two week holiday.
After the holiday, he went back to the station and was told by the presenter that he no longer had a show.
To this day He still tunes into Radio Jackie and these day does not like what he hears, the personality has mostly gone out of the presenters only a very few sound enthusiastic .
His dream to be a professional radio Presenter was never fully fulfilled and he is sad when he listens to a station that could be great, but has lost in his mind at least, its will to be Fun.
Good luck to all who sail in Radio Jackie, I think you will need it.
