New photo DJ who has broadcast from garden shed for 44 years has been offered show on local radio station

After 44 years presenting his radio show, Deke Duncan is a bit of an institution.

The only thing is, it’s broadcast from his garden shed and the only listener he’s ever had is his wife (although, having remarried, technically it’s two listeners).

All that is set to change, however, after a local radio station tracked him down when it saw him in action on a vintage BBC Nationwide report.

Deke Duncan, who has been presenting his radio show from his garden shed for 44 years, has been invited to broadcast to the public for the first time

Now he has been invited to broadcast to the public for the first time in an hour-long show due to be aired over the Christmas period on BBC Three Counties radio, which covers Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

The 73-year-old was visibly moved when the offer was made to him on Sunday while appearing on the station during presenter Justin Dealey’s show.

With a tremor in his voice, he said: ‘You’d better pass the tissues. That feels really nice. For the first time in my life I’m speechless.’

Mr Duncan fell in love with broadcasting after listening to pirate stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio London, which both operated illegally from ships off the Essex coast in the 1960s.

He felt they were ‘brutally’ taken from the nation when the government outlawed them and fought back by launching Radio 77 - named after a job lot of second hand jingles he bought from an American radio station of that name.

Deke ,now 73, started playing pop records from his back garden in Stevenage in 1974

With no licence, the mixture of pop records, local news (vandalism to shopping trolleys was one item) and fake adverts could only be relayed to a speaker in the living room of the house in Stevenage, Hertfordshire - as seen in the black and white Nationwide footage from 1974.

When his then wife Theresa (CORR), wanted to pop out to the shops, he lost his entire audience - but carried on regardless.

It appears he may actually have had other listeners from time to time, albeit inadvertently.

On one occasion the police officers turned up at his shed after his neighbours complained about the noise. He turned the situation to his advantage by interviewing them.

Deke made regular references on air to the fact he was broadcasting from - and to - 57 Gonville Crescent.

Sundays were his biggest day, with a non-stop service running from 6am to 12pm with the help of two other enthusiasts.

‘We used to record all the shows and play them back and think, “That’s cool” - but we couldn’t afford to keep buying spools of tape, so recorded over them,’ he said.

Mr Duncan - real name Eric Thorp - remarried in 2013 and now lives in Stockport, Greater Manchester, where his new wife Pamela plays the loyal role of dedicated listener.

His lucky break came when BBC Archive recently tweeted the Nationwide report, leading to Three Counties to track him down.

During the item - in which he sported a shaggy hairstyle and trendy sideburns - he mentioned his ambition was to broadcast to the ‘whole of Stevenage’.

But when he took part in the show on Sunday, Three Counties station editor Laura Moss told him: ‘We think we can go one better than that and not only would we like to broadcast to Stevenage, how does the whole of Beds, Herts and Bucks sound?’

The plan has met with approval on social media. Rae Earl wrote: ‘I think this is just lovely... Wonderful!’

Another user said: ‘Put a grin on my chin.’ A third tweeted: ‘He’s waited 44 years for this. I love this story.’

Mr Duncan’s first wife, Theresa Buckley, was celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary yesterday(MON).

She insisted his passion for radio wasn’t the reason their marriage ended.

‘I went along with it. He wasn’t doing it all the time though - he took breaks,’ the 66-year-old said.

‘It was a bit of an obsession for him. Most of the time when he wasn’t at work he’d be in the shed.

‘He wanted to do it as a career. He did actually get offered a job on a pirate radio ship but it closed down. That was before I married him.’

She added: ‘I think he’s excited about the BBC show. I was with my daughter when he phoned to tell her about it.’ 

 

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News Pictures DJ who has broadcast from garden shed for 44 years has been offered show on local radio station  

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