Offshore Music Radio

The spirit of the pirate radio days are alive and well with Rob Bayly who combines great production with a unique archive for a quality revisit to the swinging decade.

This show is previously aired on Somer Valley Radio

Caroline North off the Isle of Man was the station that hooked me on broadcasting and I owe her my career. Aged 11, inspired by the floating DJs,  I built a bedroom ‘studio’ from old valve Dansette record players  and Army surplus kit, recording embarrassing shows onto ¼” tape. While at university in the 70’s I broadcast for real on BBC Radio Manchester as producer of their weekly student programme. I also DJed live at the university discos, being ‘paid’ a bottle of Newcastle Brown a night - worth 18p at the time. Thursday discos were ‘heavy’, Fridays were ‘boppy’ and Saturdays we had great live acts like the Who, David Bowie and Pink Floyd. I loved 70’s rock and had even missed my ‘O’ level Maths to see the Doors and Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight. (But did OK on the Maths re-sit)The BBC trained me as a Studio Manager, specialising in sessions for shows like John Peel. I went into TV production, starting on Tomorrow’s World, and now direct documentaries including one recently called  ‘Hey Mr. DJ’, celebrating the offshore era.I am married to Jan, who still has cassettes I made for her introducing my favourite tracks with personal messages! We have a young son, Matthew, who is a keen Liverpool football supporter and often pops in during my shows. Maybe he’ll be a DJ for the next generation.