It was DLT's Network
moment. But the Hairy Monster wasn't "as mad as hell" rather than
miffed that the writing was on the wall for his Radio 1 career. "Changes
are being made here which go against my principles, and I just cannot agree
with them,' he told listeners towards the end of his Sunday lunchtime show
twenty-five years ago today.
 |
| The Guardian reports on DLT's resignation 9 August 1993 |
Those changes were, of course, the incoming controller
Matthew Bannister with a mission to bring down the average audience age of the
station. Travis, then 48 years of age and with 26 years' service - along with
John Peel the only member of the original line-up still on air at that time - in
his own words "snapped on air and
thought, No, tell the listeners before I tell anybody else".
 |
| Speaking to The Sun's Piers Morgan (Saturday 14 August 1993) . "I have sat back for the last two years and watched a once great organisation collapsing." |
Chances are he could have stayed until the end of his
contract in October 1993 but as he'd already spoken to the press, in this case The Sun and a certain Piers Morgan, outgoing
controller Johnny Beerling had little option be to let him go immediately. Press
speculation at the time was that DLT could have moved across to Radio 2 but
he'd already met with controller Frances Line who'd nixed that idea.
 |
| The Independent 11 August 1993 |
Although seen by many at the time as something of a radio
dinosaur DLT's show was still immensely popular, attracting an estimated
audience of 4 million. Beerling accepted that he was "a good DJ" but
that he "continually showed he was out of touch with the direction in
which Radio 1 was going".
 |
| The Sunday Times 15 August 1993 |
For many years DLT's on air resignation seemed to define his
career, overtaken, of course, by more recent allegations. But surprisingly
there's no recording of that show from Sunday 8 August 1993 in circulation
other than the now famous 10-second "changes are being made here"
extract, presumably taken from the logging tape; though Paul Donovan of The Sunday Times seemed to be aware that
before that link he'd asked his producer Saira Hussain to record it on
quarter-inch tape. "DLT clearly has a firm idea of his own place in pop
radio history"
Following DLT's resignation from Radio 1 he moved to
commercial radio, Classic Gold and so on, though he continued to work for the
BBC World Service on A Jolly Good Show
until 1999. Claire Sturgess was drafted in to cover the Saturday show and Nicky
Campbell the Sunday one. By mid-October Matthew Bannister had signed up Danny
Baker for both the weekend shows. Dave Lee Travis can be heard on the online
station United DJs.
Here's DLT on Radio 1 in 1992. First my own recording from
12 January 1992 and a fiendish Think Link.
Did you get the fourth record?
From my fellow collector Noel Tyrrel is this recording of
the 29 November 1992 show with the Face
Race quiz and the Garage Sale.