DJ Mike Lynch

Radio was my first love. As a child, Mum would always have the radio on. I would listen to Ed "Stewpot" Stewart on a Saturday morning and Tony Blackburn with Arnold the dog. I can't remember what TV show I saw it on, Blue Peter or Magpie, but they showed a DJ in a studio. I was fascinated and from that moment on, I wanted to be a DJ.

As soon as I was old enough, 17 I think, I joined Southampton Hospital Broadcasting Association as a junior member. You weren't allowed to do anything live until you were 18, but I got taught to be a sound engineer by some of the best in the business. Tony Harding, who went on to be a founder of Ocean Sound Radio. If you want an interesting read on that Tony has it all here. Tony was amazing to watch, on a Saturday he would broadcast sports results as they came in. He would have a tv on Grandstand on silent, two pairs of headphones with two different radio sports channels coming into each ear! Whilst doing all that, he was broadcasting live to hospital patients, just amazing. He also taught me how to edit tapes and record jingles onto cartridges. This proved to be an important skill later, as not many people knew how to do it.

I had a thick Hampshire accent and I was coached, to lose it, by Alan Lambourne (He reads the football scores for BBC), he also taught me lots about radio sound engineering, top guy. In those days, the DJ (presenter) sat in a studio and spoke when the red light came on and the sound engineer mixed the microphones with music played on turntables and interviews etc on large reel to reel tape machines. When the presenter wanted a record playing, they would just point or wave. You had to be on your toes! (or fingers). Hover over image to enlarge

Problem was, in those days, if you wanted to be in radio, you started at Hospital Radio and then worked at a local radio station for free. I couldn't do it, I already had a full time job and couldn't work as a radio station lackey for free. I did apply to a few radio stations. Back then, at least they replied. Bet they don't now. I have very nice rejection letters from Head of Radio 1 Doreen Davies and Steve Panton Program Organiser for BBC Radio Solent.
But I enjoyed my time there at the Western Hospital Southampton HBA as a sound engineer (as soon as I was 18 they let me do live stuff), so I was happy to do that. Wednesday evening, I would engineer a couple of shows live and play tapes out of shows that had been recorded. Good times. Hover over images to enlarge

Southampton HBA also broadcasted to Winchester Hospitals, down a rented phone line. Around 1983, a few of the presenters and engineers, Steve Feeny, Tony Knight and Paul Blitz (to name just a few) at Southampton HBA formed a breakaway station called WHR, Winchester Hospitals Radio. I joined them and spent many happy hours helping to build the studios at St Pauls Hospital in Winchester. It launched in 1984, I became a committee member, and studio manager (technical) and I ran Sundays Schedule on the station. This time, however, you could engineer your own show if you liked. It was an exciting time, I had my own show on Sunday afternoon, followed by Alan Matthews and his Oddballs show. In the evening I would either engineer some other shows, play out recorded shows and I also presented the request show in the evening.
Alan Matthews was also a club DJ on the South Coast, and got me an evening job at Seasons Nightclub in Winchester and also some gigs in Southampton. I had a full time job as a mechanic / autoelectrician 6 days a week, nightclub DJ Thursdays and Fridays, Radio DJ all day Sunday. On top of that I started being a roadie for Stu Roberts, a mobile DJ from Alresford (who was also at WHR). He taught me loads about mobile DJing, which is a very different kettle of fish from nightclub DJing ! I was exhausted, but happy. Hover over image to enlarge

This carried on until 1987. In 1986 I got married (in secret, with Alan Matthews as my witness / best man) and in 1987 I gave it all up to move to London to be with my wife. I really thought my DJing days were behind me. I couldn't have been more wrong. In 1988 I joined the Police and in 1994, I was transferred to the Metropolitan Police IT school at Hendon. It was there I met Ian Ellis, a civilian instructor who had a mobile DJ business. I used to go with him to keep him company and roadie for him, but it piqued my interest once more, so I started DJing contract work for a guy in Watford. He supplied the gear and I supplied the music and talent (lol). I then bought a load of second hand stuff from him and did some bookings of my own (Police social clubs and weddings / birthdays etc.). I was resident at The Swallow Hotel (M25) and a pub at Hartingfordbury
In 1998 I was transferred to Metropolitan Police Specialist Operations, back on shifts and so the Mobile disco stopped. Once again, I thought that was it. Until ... I got a desk job in Specialist Operations, bought some new gear and off I went. I was getting older now, so I specialised in weddings in and around Hertfordshire. My day job was getting more intense, and so in about 2004, I decided to hang up my headphones forever

I retired from the Police in 2015 and worked for Assa Abloy for 4 years unil I decided to stop full time work. We made the decision to emigrate to Spain under the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and, despite COVIDs best efforts, arrived in July 2020. Alan Matthews was still DJing and was doing some great radio and broadcasting it on MixCloud. So, thats what i do now. Got myself a Pioneer all in one unit and I now present a show on MixCloud called Classic Pop & Disco, mixing 70s and 80s pop and club tracks. I've also done some specials; Halloween and Christmas Party mixes and stood in for Alan on his popular Rockin' Caravan show. You can take the DJ out of the disco, but you cant take the disco out of the DJ.

Click the MixCloud link at the bottom of the page, to go to my shows.