Johnnie Walker, MBE (born Peter Waters Dingley; 30 March 1945) is an English radio disc jockey and broadcaster. He began his career on pirate radio, most notably on Radio Caroline. He joined BBC Radio 1 in 1969. He joined BBC Radio 2 in 1998 and currently presents Sounds of the 70s on Sunday afternoons and The Radio 2 Rock Show on Friday nights. Early life Walker's father sold electroplating equipment for car parts, at W. Canning & Co. Johnnie Walker was educated at two independent schools in Solihull. He attended Ruckleigh School until the age of eight and went on to Solihull School, where he enjoyed music lessons and playing rugby, but he failed his O-Level examinations. He then was a garage manager apprentice, studied for a City and Guilds qualification in motor mechanics at Gloucester Technical College and aspired to be a car salesman, before becoming a DJ in bars and ballrooms. Early career Offshore radio Walker's broadcasting began in May 1966 on offshore (pirate) radio station Swinging Radio England, before moving to Radio Caroline. When government action forced the pirate stations to close in 1967, three presenters were still broadcasting: Walker, Robbie Dale and Ross Brown. BBC Radio 1 Walker joined BBC Radio 1 in April 1969, presenting a two-hour Saturday show from 2 to 4pm. A year later, in 1970, Walker presented a one-hour weekday morning slot from 9 to 10am, moving to the weekday early afternoon show in 1971, from 1 to 3pm, which then went out from noon to 2pm in 1973. The show featured the music quiz "Pop the Question" and the Tuesday chart rundown as the new weekly chart was published from the research figures provided by the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) on Tuesdays at this time. United States In 1976, Walker had a dispute with station management over the music he played, and about how it was deemed to "not fit" the station's daytime music line-up. He was also reprimanded for criticising The Bay City Rollers – then at the height of their popularity – on air, describing them as "musical garbage". As a result, he left Radio 1 for a while and moved to the United States, where he stayed for five years. During his time in the states Walker worked for radio stations KSAN in San Francisco, KPFA in Berkeley, California, in January 1981, WHFS in Bethesda, Maryland, and