Wonderful Radio Britain AM

Profile -- Dr. John

Photo © WRBAM

 Dr. John was born in Cheshire and spent some of his early childhood first on the west coast of  Scotland and then, later, in Suffolk and the Home Counties.  He and his parents were early listeners to the radio programmes coming from the Savoy Hill studios of the BBC and transmitted from their 2LO (London) and 6LV (Liverpool) transmitters.

Johns' early recollections include listening to the record programmes of Christopher Stone (the very  first DJ) and visiting the Children's Hour studios where he met 'Uncle Mac' (the voice of Larry the lamb in the Toytown episodes) and 'Auntie Muriel' .  He was a member of the 2LO 'Radio Circle' and still has the badge, which, as a small boy he wore with great pride. John was also a member of the Gugnuncs.

John spent a lot of his time with his Godfather, uncle Matthew, who lived in rural Suffolk, who was one of the first people for some miles around to have a valve radio receiver with loudspeaker.  In those days comparatively few people living in the country had electric lighting, but John's uncle (always keen on any new decelopment) had his house wired for electricity. The 32 volt DC supply was provided by a Lister petrol generator and lead acid batteries housed in an outhouse.

When a schoolboy John often listend to the late night broadcasts (instead of being asleep in bed) on a crystal set using the bedsprings as an aerial.  It was at this time Johns' interests extended to the early experimental television, and was privileged to watch some of the 30 line transmissions on a friend's Baird Televisor; later taking a keen interest in the (then) high definition 340 line (Baird) and 405 line (EMI) transmissions from Alexandra Palace.  During WW2 John was partly in the Services and partly working on airborne radar.  At the end of hostilities John built a couple of television receivers, mainly from parts adapted from ex-military equipment.

John still maintains his interest in electronics and is helping with the construction of the commercial radio transmitters for WRBAM.  He is also especially interested in the high-fidelity sound reproduction he gets whilst enjoying the playing of his large record collection with its' many early 78's.

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