Johnnie Walker: The outspoken 'outlaw' radio DJ who has died aged 79

After spotting an article about a new pirate station Radio England, he quit his job in 1965 and spent six months at the station.

He departed for the pirate radio ship Radio Caroline, which was located off the coast of Essex, where he made his name and continued to broadcast in defiance of Government legislation against broadcasters without licences in 1967.

However, he summoned up the courage to play We Shall Overcome and the Beatles’ All You Need Is Love after telling listeners: “I was exhilarated, excited. I knew the moment that the second hand swept past the 12, that if I said a word I’d be a criminal, liable for prosecution for the next two years, living in exile in Holland.”

He was not an outlaw for long. In 1969, he joined the new BBC Radio 1 for a Saturday afternoon show and earned a reputation as a DJ who accorded more importance to the records he played than the chat between the tracks.

He moved on to a daily afternoon show and the names he pioneered included Lou Reed, Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles.

In 1975 he was front page news when he called the popular Bay City Rollers “musical garbage”.

But his outspoken views, and his choice of music, led to a showdown with his Radio 1 bosses and a move to California in 1976, where Walker recorded a weekly show which was broadcast on Radio Luxembourg and for a time on local radio station K-San.

In the 1980s, he returned to the UK and was back at Radio 1 to present its Saturday Stereo Sequence followed by stints on the BBC’s London local radio, the newly launched BBC Radio 5.

Following a return to the BBC Radio 1, he left the station for good in 1995 and that same year was given the Radio Academy-Music Monitor award for outstanding contribution to music radio.

He was offered his own weekly show on Radio 2, before taking over the Drivetime show.

In 1999, he was suspended by the station after allegations about cocaine use were published in the now defunct News Of The World.

Walker was fined £2,000 after he admitted possessing the drug, but station bosses reinstated him after the court case.

His last broadcast was on October 27 last year, with Bob Harris taking over his Sound Of The 70s show.

Walker’s 1971 marriage to Frances Kum in 1971 ended in divorce but produced two children a daughter, Beth, and a son, Sam and he married Tiggy Jarvis in December 2002.