Tony Prince
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tony Prince (born 9 May 1944) is a British radio disc jockey and businessman, who is best remembered for his programmes on Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg in the 1960s and 1970s.
He was born in Oldham, Lancashire, and worked as a jockey and toolmaker as well as performing in local band The Jasons. In 1962 he started working as a club DJ, and moved to Bristol to work for the Top Rank chain. He also presented an early ITV pop music programme, Discs-a-Gogo.
In 1965 he joined the pirate radio station Radio Caroline North, based on a ship in the Irish Sea, developing his personality as "your royal ruler" and becoming a popular presenter. After the banning of pirate radio through the 1967 Marine Offences Act, he joined Radio Luxembourg, which to British pop music fans at the time provided the only alternative to BBC Radio 1. He continued to present regular programmes at Luxembourg, after becoming programme director there in 1977. That year, he gained considerable notoriety by becoming the first European D.J. to play Elvis Presley songs non-stop, upon hearing about the singer's death in the late hours of August 16. He remained programme director until 1984.
Around 1981, he began playing DJ mixes of dance records on his programmes, and started the 'Disco Mix Club Show'. On returning to Britain, he launched DMC as a record subscription club in 1983. He also launched the spin-off magazine Mixmag, which was later sold to publishers EMAP. Prince continues to run the company, now known as DMC International.
