BBC Man Alive The Disc Jockeys 11th Feb 70 

So pleased I saw this. I was one of the dancers at the Top Rank Croydon. It's a bit blurred, but I'm the last one on the right.

Thanks for putting this up. Would love to see the BBC repeat all of the Man Alive episodes on BBC4

That Riscoe guy looked very dodgy with the young girls. Savile not the only one at it

I can safely see we've had the best times feel sorry for The young ones and their future.

Kenny Everett is the true genius here!. RIP. Regards.

This is wonderful to watch. In December 1970 I was 12 years old and had only started secondary school 4 months earlier. My whole life was in front of me. This evokes many memories not only of the personalities featured but of an entire time. Even the Man Alive theme music is powerfully nostalgic.

Saw Tony Blackburn last year in Warrington for his road show, nice to see him in person after listening to him for 56 years.

Ironically Tony Blackburn played Melting pot on Pick of the pops today 46 years later......

love these old Man Alive docos, also love the theme music! Be great to edit out the beginning high pitched squeal though :)

5:40 - The physical work of producing a radio show in 1970 is seen here, a far cry from what we have now in 2020. Greg James on Radio 1 Breakfast Show has all of his playlist loaded onto the computer, and at a touch of a button he plays each song. No need to load records, ensure turntable ready etc.

Thank you so much for posting this video! I remember seeing it, live, back in 1970 and I was always looking for it on RU-vid and elsewhere. It was this very program that made me want to be in radio, which I did for a while here in the States from 2007-2014. (Yes, It took me that long!) Radio technology sure has changed. The equipment back then looks rather dated now, but the DJs had real technical skill, as well as voice talent.

Kenny Everett was a genius. enjoyd this programme thanks

Quite interesting. Radio 1 was my world in 1970. Most disc jockeys were basically similar apart from Kenny Everett who was unique. Listening to Kenny was a bit like watching Monty Python - you were totally blown away by every bizarre inventive piece of comical genius. Kenny loved the Beatles and to see him in this doc being bowled over when listening to 'Because' from Abbey Road is totally understandable. KAN 10.19 UK

Celebrity Pop music Disc Jockeys . Parasites feeding off the musical talents of others and lackies of the music record industry . 😁

Rosko's extremely overinflated ego makes him come across as a total prat to absolutely brutal. He reminds me of Chris Evans when he started at Radio 1 breakfast in 1996.

Wow, a very rare, fantastic time capsule of late 60s pop culture and in colour! Tony Blackburn's breakfast show is my first memory of Radio 1.

Emperor rosco comes across as a egotistical prick in this

Wow watching this really shows that Kenny Everret was a genius to make those shows live! Sadly missed! Once saw this little man in Heaven (under Charing X station) & couldnt believe it was him cos he was so small, but brilliant man!

The only people I could stand in this whole documentary were Kenny Everett and John Peel. Everett was a twisted comic genius who knew far more than he was letting on. Peel had the frivolity of it all sussed from the start.

The late great John Peel RIP. When there was real music.

priceless footage of Kenny Everett and John Peel

What a fantastic film this should be re run on BBC 4 wonderful footage of Kenny.

thank god for peely and cuddly Ken R.I.P.

Ah, nostalgia! Back then, the Greenwich Time Signal "pips" were all the same length.

20:20 - I adore sweet Kenny, he was really mad and lovely at the same time. Sad he passed away in 1995 from that horrible AIDs illness. Here, he is just so sweet, adorable, funny, kind, not arrogant - all the things 2020 BBC Radio 1 presenters aren't now. All ego driven asses in 2020.

Strange to notice that what comes forth from most DJs mouths is so incredibly puerile that it makes you wonder what qualifies someone to be one ~ I suppose we (the listener) just want something in our ear that bounces along to cheer along with the gibberish we all have in our heads most of the time

As a kid I absolutely adored Kenny Everett, what a genius indeed.

When this came out, my mother was expecting me (I was born four months later). So the programme is only just older than me!

Radio one was a government controlled version of Pirate Radio , only saved by Johnny Walker, Kenny Everett and legend John Peel! My best memory is radio One banning the Sex pistols in 77 and they still got to number one!

What a piece of fascinating archive. Mind you, one watches now a bit with narrowed eyes. What exactly was the story with all the girls in Rosko's studio at the beginning of the programme?

Jimmy Young shouldn't have been on Radio 1 from the start. He simply didn't fit in. Radio 2 was his home. Radio 1 should have had dedicated Radio 1 hosts and programming from 7am to 7pm and 10pm to Midnight from the very start in 1967. Yes, needle time restrictions and budgets, but if the BBC did care, it could have worked.

If ever you were a tad bit confused about what a narcissistic tw@t was........Rosco. urgh!

I remember their jingles were just as iconic as the djs themselves.

John peel, Kenny Everett genuinely nice guys !!

35:53 - Watching this moment now in 2021, it is obvious what Rosko had on his mind to do with this young girl in order for the record she wanted to be played by him to get played. Just swap the word "tea" for sex and you get what he was after. So blatant now when watching.

14:50 - Watching this little bit, you can sense the different attitude at Radio 1 in 1970, Emperor Rosko certainly enjoying himself here, you do wonder how many of those girls he invited back to his place later. This scene sums up the attitude and acceptance in 1970s Radio 1.

16:05 - At 10.00am weekdays Radio 1 and 2 shared the Jimmy Young Show. At 11.00am Radio 2 would leave the show and air Morning Story and Waggeners Walk until they rejoined Jimmy at 11.31am.

48:47 "Are DJ's really neccessary?" 50years later - hello Spotify/Apple music/Amazon music/You Tube etc... :) Though I do miss Kenny Everrett & John Peel. Jimmy Young had the feel that he didn't take himself too seriously & his shows were good. "Emperor" Rosko & Tony Blackburn on the other hand didn't come out of this looking good.....just sayin'.....

5:48 the record she Is plugging became a huge Hit. I have a copy of that Demo In the Picture Sleeve. It Is Murray Head doing "Jesus Christ Superstar" and a very young Yvonne Elliman doing "I Don't Know How To Love Him" from the at this point, The fourth coming Movie. 50:08 Cuddly Ken Inventing scratching, way back In 1970, brilliant. He was playing Alan Price and "Seventh Son" at the end.

Tony Blackburn endorsing sexual harrasment is a bit disturbing.

Herbie Flowers playing with Blue Mink. Played with Elton, Bowie, Bolan, Al Kooper, Bryan Ferry, Lou Reed, Jeff Wayne, David Essex, Cliff, Ringo, George Harrison, McCartney and many more. Amazing player.

I loved Kenny as a disc jockey and listened to him every week. Only a little girl but I knew genius when I heard it. It was an exceptional time.

“Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive But to be young was very heaven.”

john peel was the greatest dj who ever lived i say that as an american

The culture at the time. No wonder why and howJimmy Savile did what he did!

49:18 Disc Jockeys are *NOT, AND NEVER WILL BE* more important than the music they play.

Fascinating how the sexual predation that is so unacceptable now was so openly discussed and referenced here, just part of "how it is".

Now I know where the phrase on Steptoe and Son: 'A Jimmy Young cock up' comes from,lo. I think the two that had the real talent as DJ's were Kenny Everette and John Peel. The others were complete egotists. John Peel was a real music lover and propelled many bands to stardom over the years with the Peel sessions.

Kenny Everett unknowingly inventing "Scracthing" records at the end of this doc.

Yewtree would have a field day with this

There's something really weird about Tony Blackburn.

Interesting, they were paid £45 a week - works out at about £650 now - no wonder they had to supplement their wages. Really low money

That Roscoe guy.... every consecutive scene he becomes a bigger cartoon Lothario. (wonders what the Operation Yew tree file is like on him)

Good to hear John Dunn finish his stint on b/fast a really liked the big guy.also a enjoyed Tony Blackburn each day .

6:14 ... very interesting ... all that breakfast food laid out without any clear-glass "cough guard" as protection.

That film hasn’t aged well… Rosko / Mike hasn’t done himself any favours in recent years by comparing his experiences of being cancelled (due to his working alongside Savile and Denning) with those of a couple of other Radio 1 DJs of his time who were (unlike Rosko) the subject of multiple allegations (though eventually acquitted in court of any of wrongdoing). Yes, it is unfair that his life should be tainted by the actions of Britain’s most prolific paedophile (Savile), but perhaps he shouldn’t speak up for a couple of the others (as he has done many times) if he wants a way back. I admire his loyalty, but it is not helping his cause. And Rosko knows (better than anyone) that at least one of his other colleagues (not mentioned above) was as guilty as sin in the underage girl stakes (and used to boast about it). Let sleeping dogs lie, Rosko…

Those factory listening tubes are fucking bleak.

Why do I always want to hear Tony Blackburn say Pans People?

Kenny most surely listened to the other Kenny (Williams) because his voice at 28:00 is Gruntfuttock from Round The Horne.

Brilliant! I remember watching this when it was transmitted, all those decades ago. If Man Alive has been rescued from the BBC archives, i wonder if Late Night Lineup from 29th September 1967 is around or Nationwide 23rd November 1978? Both were set in the London Control Room and Continuity Suites.......

"Can we mention the kids in the dressing rooms?" "No, best not. Some people might think there's something peculiar going on."

Great footage of Kenny Everrett - The man was a genius - He knew exactly how to engage that listener! - Theartre of the mind - Sadly missed - Often mimicked but never bettered! I do have some concerns about Rosko tho - proper perv in my opinion and totally unacceptable behaviours especially with those young girls!

"Today the BBC, TOMORROW....ITV if they'll have me!" Funnily how he said that in 1970...! Fascinating look at Cuddly Ken at work and rest. At least he seemed as at home in his material recording studio as Rosko was flinging singles around his studio and annoying John Peel with his mess...!

Fascinating just how refined John Peel's accent. was. He might have been very critical of other presenters developing a public persona but he was subconsciously in the process of developing one all of his own.

Those people with cardboard tubes listening to the speakers in that factory...

Emperor Rosko still going strong: In 2018, Rosko joined the line-up for the new United DJs DAB and online radio station.

As likeable and brilliant as the late John Peel was, there is no doubt he would have been asked some uncomfortable police questioning post Saville.

is the blonde girl among the throng of so called 'teenyboppers' gathered around rosko at 40.17 into the programme claire mcalpine?

BBC Man Alive The Disc Jockeys 11th Feb 70. 3.9.24. do yer want me? Ermmmm, no..... GARY DAVIS doesn't have these problems.....

44:10 John Peel was quite right. Radio presenters are *NOT* stars! They're there to simply play the records, give a bit of banter but get silly with it, give time calls as required and read any notices that require reading on air. I did community radio here in Australia for a bit over ten years and *NEVER* referred to myself as a "Disc Jockey", simply referring to myself as a "radio announcer".

4:55 John Dunn in there, who was on Breakfast Special in those days (the show that preceded Tony's and which carried on after 7am on 1500 and VHF only).

I was not yet into music at this point. So much of the incidental BBC music here is so naff! By the time I started listening, in 1972, it was much more hip. Thank goodness for John Peel and Kenny Everett.

In all of Emperor Rosko's empty, puffed up nonsense here you can see the birth of what became the egoistic geriatric DJs that Radio One had to have metaphorically put up against a wall and shot 30 years later, putting us all out of our misery.

Gary glitter merchants

As a Rock/Metal fanatic i always felt Fluff Freeman and Tommy Vance were the only DJs worth listening to. Watching this I feel I was 100% right.......

There's a scene from recent movie- Boat That Rocked, Welsh actor, Fans is leaning back, reaches to his right, pile of 45s, doesn't matter what he picks, it'll be a beauty! The scene summed up the sixties! Wonderful soundtrack, starts with The Kinks!😊

3:06 - I love this sentence from 1970, that the BBC did not splash out on huge salaries for the Radio 1 presenters. Now in 2021 that has all changed, and people like Greg James of the Breakfast Show earn around £275,000 a year, Scott Mills pockets near £345,000 a year. BBC claim it is down to competition which is more fierce in 2021 than 1970.

Thank Gawd for Kenny and John Peel. That Radio 1 format was already failing, the cracks just weren't showing yet. We were all ignoring the radio and playing Bowie by that time.

Well this is proof how the BBC used to turned a blind eye to inappropriate behavior from its staff 4:03 Rosko kisses a your girl on the mouth, apart from this its a fascinating look into the past.

Rosco...what a creepy odious character!! Very 'Saville'esk😢

Tony Blackburn still going strong today!

At 46:55 we see a band in a BBC recording studio with Rosko. There was a reason for this, due to needle time restrictions on the amount of records BBC could play per day, BBC got bands and singers into their own recording studios at BBC Broadcasting House in London to record a few songs of theirs, which would be recorded on to BBC tape, meaning when a DJ played their song from this tape it was exempted from the draconian needle time rules.

It's disturbing watching them chatting up underage girls knowing what we do now

When DJs had to work for their money!

I just love seeing the canteen ladies giving Tony Blackburn some cheeky backchat, & Irene Cooke opening Tony's post...in the days when BBC Radio cared about their listenership & decades before the pinhead & weasel management types of today hollowed it out from the inside to make it the supposedly cash-strapped short-of-budget failing corporation we are slowly losing...

At 19:15 "But John Peel's views don't prevent him taking home his £40 a week salary from the man in charge" 😀 Yes, absolutely, the hypocrisy of a privately educated Champagne Socialist. At least Tony Blackburn was honest about what Radio 1 was.

In 1970 the needle time restrictions imposed on the BBC was really harsh. Amounting to 7 hours of pop records allowed to be played per day. This meant a huge amount of orchestras, bands, BBC orchestras, organ music, live sessions etc had to be used to fill their 21 hour schedule each day.

It's hard to watch some of this, knowing what was going on behind the scenes with a lot of those DJs. Scratch the surface and it was a very dark era, but like so much in the 20th century, it was all brushed under the carpet.

This was broadcast about fifty four years ago it looks as if it was just yesterday 😄

Roscoe is from California But that Terrible Quazi English Accent.

All the girls in his studio, all the ones he kissed and the ones interviewed were all children. Did Roscoe get looked at with Saville.

Recently returned from America, John Peel seems to have lost his scouse accent. Did he ever have one? It was re-discovered a few years later!

Kenny Everett a sad little boy you read his body language even then you could see he was having a struggle with his homosexuality. Sad BUT.... maybe just maybe that's what made him so great...

Cool video-I was a student DJ at UCLA late 70’s-remember the carts-PSA’s-music wheel colors-2 turntables-

Proper DJ's, not like the celeb presenters emploed today by the likes of Heart and Absolute

John Peel and Kenny Everett, the only two who pointed to the future. The best on BBC 1 at the time.

3:06 BBC low wages hahahaha doesn't splash princely salaries around - yes then, as it should be, now they pay mega bucks

Do you have the man alive episode coming of age? My late father is in it and I’d love to find it.

Asa teenager I used to hate the jimmy young show.

The reporter sounds like Joan Greenwood but apparently not.