DJ Heaven - Mike Read

In this the final post in the series on DJ Heaven it’s the turn of guitar playing,  Cliff impersonating, pop quizzing, tennis playing, poetry writing Mike Read.


Hands up if, on hearing his name, you want to sing the jingle: “Mike Read, Mike Read, 275 and 285. Mike Read, Mike Read National Radio 1”.  Go on you know you want to.


This edition of DJ Heaven was broadcast on BBC2 on 13 November 1993. Narration for the series was provided by Veronika Hyks. The producer was Jeannie Clark.

Mike was until quite recently still broadcasting but he seems to be finding it increasingly difficult to get a paying gig. Last year he was on Total Star out of Cheltenham but that company experienced some financial woes. In November he was back at Big L but that was beset with transmitter problems. By February this year Mike was now on One Gold, broadcasting on FM in Spain and also online. One Gold also experienced numerous technical problems and never, as far as I’m aware, played a commercial. One Gold is currently off air.

Here’s a scoped aircheck of Mike Read on Big L from 17 October 2010. At first Mike is somewhat pre-occupied with technical issues in the studio but also covers the news of the day – the royal engagement of William and Catherine and the release of Beatles tracks on iTunes. And, despite giving out the email address many times, you’ll notice that he reads out not a single message. Was anyone other than me listening?