The Disc Jockeys

Overview

Tonight: The Disc Jockeys Radio 1 is wonderful. Or so the jingles say. And the stars of this two-year-old, all pop, wonderland, are the Disc Jockeys - more than a score of them. Theirs is one of the most exclusive and competitive jobs in the country - at any rate in the field of tinsel. Their counterparts in the United States are sometimes super-stars, idols themselves, on a par with the Rolling Stones or the Beatles, whose discs they plug. But what of our home-grown variety? Are they super-stars or giant dwarfs? Merely spinners of discs churning out candy-floss rubbish? Or influential leaders broadcasting to millions of youngsters at their most impressionable age? What is their role in the vast big-beat music industry? Man Alive talked to, and followed, five Disc Jockeys: Tony Blackburn, Kenny Everett, John Peel, Rosko, Jimmy Young - watched them at work; at play; examining their influence and their position in the pop world. (BBC)