Gary Crowley
Gary Crowley (born 8 October 1961) is an English broadcaster and DJ.[1]
When he was at school (Rutherford School, Penfold Street, Marylebone, London) in the late Seventies Crowley started a punk fanzine titled The Modern World, interviewing some of the most important bands of the day including the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Jam.
After leaving school he took up a junior position at the Decca record label. A short time later he moved jobs to take over from Danny Baker as the telephone receptionist for the NME at their offices in Carnaby Street.[1] At the time the weekly music paper was at the very centre of the punk explosion under the editorship of Neil Spencer and featured writers such as Julie Burchill, Tony Parsons and Nick Kent.
Crowley's next employment was with Clive Banks' independent plugging and publishing company and through connections there he was offered a job as a DJ on London's independent commercial station Capital Radio. At the age of 19 he became UK radio's youngest DJ.[1]
TV presenting soon followed, with a Saturday morning children's show on ITV called Fun Factory and as the presenter for the Runaround spin-off Poparound which ran in 1985 and 1986.
His TV career continued through the Nineties with the popular 'post-pub' music show The Beat ran on ITV from 1991–94 and in 2008 Gary Crowley presented on Rockworld TV.
Crowley's DJ broadcasting career began with his Capital Radio break and continued with an influential show called Magic Box on BBC Radio London.
In 1997 Crowley left what was then Greater London Radio to join up as the star presenter on London's first indie station XFM, the product of a team including NME journalist Steve Lamacq, programme controller Sammy Jacobs, record industry mogul Chris Parry and also featured Ricky Gervais as "head of speech".
XFM's launch date was set for 1 September 1997, with Crowley the first deejay to broadcast on the station.[1] The day before launch, Diana, Princess of Wales died. The broadcast test tape was discontinued and XFM’s management considered delaying the launch. But a week of promotional live events meant that financially it had to go ahead as planned.
So it was that at midday 1 September 1997 Gary Crowley opened a new radio station with the words "Welcome to XFM, broadcasting on 104.9. We find ourselves starting a radio station today in circumstances we wouldn’t have wished, following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. As a mark of respect to someone we saw as someone going her own way… we wish to dedicate the activities of our launch day to her memory."
Crowley continued to present a mid-morning show until his old employers (and XFM rival) Capital Radio bought the station. He was offered an overnight "graveyard shift" show and decided to quit and return to the BBC, on what was now BBC London 94.9,[1] where he continues to broadcast a two hour weekly show on Saturday evenings. In addition, Gary can often be found on BBC 6music filling in for other presenters.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Burrell, Ian (2009) "Gary Crowley - How 'the youngest voice on radio' stays fresh", The Independent, 9 November 2009, retrieved 2010-11-02