Christopher Stone - Medley

So. Here he is. It’s all his fault. The first jock. Christopher Stone never had an accapella name-check. He never growled on-air at his bosses for a late pay packet. But he is credited as being the ‘first disc jockey'. 

He pitched the bright idea to the BBC. They laughed. He persisted. Eventually, on July 7th, 1927, he was set loose with a pile of 78s, a record player and a microphone. If Tony Blackburn’s oft-repeated tales are wholly accurate, there were probably a few folk knitting in the corner whilst he did it. Being serious though, this was a remarkable venture for a dinner-jacketed BBC. Chris genuinely wore one too, despite the informality of the presentation.

Seven years later, he was an early ‘poachee’, if the press of the day used the poaching verb back then. Off to the sponsored shows on Radio Luxembourg he went. Mind you, he was offered £5,000 a year. One imagines the Corporation paid a little less. As with so many of his generation of broadcasters, he then became ‘Uncle Chris’ on Radio Lyons; before returning to the Beeb in 1941.

Hear him reflect here on his career - then a BBC clip; and some Decca material.