Pete Murray returns!
Legendary radio presenter Pete Murray is returning to radio on Boxing Day – at the age of 96!
His familiar voice was heard for decades on-air nationally, and it’s believed this appearance means he’ll be the oldest radio presenter in the UK.
Pete is to host a special show on the new radio station for baby boomers, Boom Radio, playing songs that have come to mean a great deal to him and chatting about his life and memories. ‘I’ll fluff a bit, I know it – but that’s age, I guess!”
Pete Murray Disc Jockey 33 browsing through his records at home in his flat
Some twenty years since his last radio programme, he returns with enthusiasm: ‘Talking of highlights of my life – this must be one of them.’
London-born Pete’s first love was acting, securing a scholarship to RADA and appearing in several films. A shy teenager, his voice was initially heard on radio through an appearance in a serial called ‘The Robinson Family’ on the BBC World Service, playing the unlikely part of an American army major.
Into wireless proper in the in the 1940s, Radio Luxembourg served as Pete’s first broadcast home. At that time, with UK radio confined to the BBC, ‘Luxy’s crackly programmes beamed in from across the Continent came as a welcome tonic for British listeners eager to catch the latest hits. Pete emerged as an early master of his craft, with many broadcasters, including Tony Blackburn, citing him as their influence.
Moving to the BBC, he hosted shows on the BBC Light Programme. He recalls his first guest was Judy Garland, followed by the likes of James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich whom he’d met in his acting days in 1951 on the set of No Highway in the Sky, where he played an airline radio operator.
A top radio name, it was no surprise that Pete was appointed to join the eager new crowd at BBC Radio 1 as it made its debut in 1967 after the abrupt closure of the offshore pirate radio stations.
As a major personality, Pete became a familiar TV face through Six-Five Special, Thank Your Lucky Stars and the music panel show Juke Box Jury hosted by David Jacobs. He popped up frequently too on Top of the Pops in its earliest days. He considered it an honour to appear twice on The Morecambe & Wise Show – once playing an RAF officer and later as himself!
Pete is very fondly remembered for his time at BBC Radio 2 from 1969, where his Open House programme, with its familiar ‘ding-dong’ signature tune became part of British life for a decade.
A spell on the talk station LBC followed, putting to good use his keen interest in current affairs which he retains to this day: “I love to come down for breakfast and have the morning paper there. I devour the morning paper – I love every page. I’m very into the World of politics – fascinated by it.”
On his Boom Radio Boxing Day show, presented from the basement of his London home, he’ll demonstrate the breadth of his own tastes: ‘They are catholic – I like anything that’s’ good. From 10cc’s I’m Not in Love to Ella Fitzgerald and Brook Benton’.
Pete Murray – Boxing Day December 26th at 5pm. Boom Radio – on DAB, Alexa and phone
Here’s how to listen
