Alex Dyke (born 19 February 1962) is an English broadcaster and radio presenter on

BBC Radio Solent BBC Radio Solent is the BBC's local radio station serving Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Havelock Road in Southampton. According to RAJAR, the station has a ...

Career

1970s

Dyke started life as a DJ at Shanklin Youth Club in January 1975 at the age of 12. At 16, Dyke had managed to gain work at several night clubs on the Isle of Wight even though he was legally under-aged.

1980s

By the early 1980s, Dyke was working at youth clubs in the South with some of the top chart stars of the day. He presented showbiz interviews at

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

's local commercial radio station

Radio Victory Radio Victory was the independent local radio (ILR) station for Portsmouth in southern England. It was launched on 14 October 1975 and served south Hampshire, West Sussex and the Isle of Wight initially until 1986, with various later reincarnat ...

before joining BBC Radio Solent in early 1984 to help out on their youth show ''Something Else''. In 1985, Dyke joined

Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg). The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...

at their Mayfair studios in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

taking control of future programme ideas and recording specials and documentaries. In 1986, Dyke moved closer to home to start work at a new station,

Ocean Sound Heart Hampshire (formerly Ocean FM and Ocean Sound) was a British independent local radio station serving South Hampshire, West Sussex and Isle of Wight primarily for Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester and Chichester. The station served an a ...

where he fronted late nights, afternoons and ''Drive Time'' until 1991. During the 1980s and 1990s he also presented shows for

Northsound Radio Northsound Radio was the name for the original Independent Local Radio station broadcast from Aberdeen and serving the North East of Scotland. In 1995, the station split to become two separate stations. History Until summer 1981, the only loc ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, Nova The Power FM and

Contact 94 Contact 94 was a radio station that broadcast from Lessay in Northern France to Normandy and the Channel Islands between September 1988 and November 1991. The station broadcast on various frequencies during its time on air, including 94.4 FM, 93 ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

1990s

In 1990, as part of the

ITV Telethon The ITV Telethons were three charity telethons organised and televised in the United Kingdom by the ITV network. They took place in 1988, 1990 and 1992. Each lasted for 27 hours and all were hosted by Michael Aspel. The final telethon in July 1 ...

whilst at Ocean Sound, Dyke broadcast a 27-hour non-stop radio show from the TVS television studios in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

and was featured in the TV coverage for this event. In 1991, he joined

Isle of Wight Radio Isle of Wight Radio is an independent local radio station in Newport on the Isle of Wight. The station began transmitting from Briddlesford Farm AM transmitter on 15 April 1990. Isle of Wight Radio switched to FM in March 1998, its main transmi ...

to present the ''Midmorning show'' and in 1992 introduced the daily

phone-in In broadcasting, a phone-in or call-in is a programme format in which viewers or listeners are invited to air their live comments by telephone, usually in respect of a specific topic selected for discussion on the day of the broadcast. On radio ( ...

which he presented for the next 17 years.

2000s

By the year 2000, 30% of the calls to the daily phone-in came from the UK mainland. His mid-morning show was networked to sister station The Quay in Portsmouth and he co-presented the late night radio show ''North South Divided'' with Mike Elliott ("Mike The Mouth") across all 28 radio stations in

The Local Radio Company The Local Radio Company was a British media company, based in Redruth, Cornwall, that owned ten independent local radio stations in the UK. After takeover talks with UTV Media, UKRD Group and Hallwood Financial, UKRD acquired the majority sha ...

. After living in the United States for a year in 2009 and presenting programmes in

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

for

News radio All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news stations can run the ...

1190am and

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

1080am, Dyke returned to the UK to work for BBC Radio Solent.

2010s

In 2012 Alex joined

BBC South Today ''BBC South Today'' is the BBC's regional television news service for the south of England, covering Hampshire, Isle of Wight, West Sussex, much of Dorset and parts of Berkshire, Surrey and Wiltshire. Since 2000, an opt-out of the main progra ...

and over the next 8 years made a series of short films about Rock and Pop in the South including reports on the Beatles the Rolling Stones and Tom Jones. Plus he reported live from various festivals including the

Isle of Wight Festival The Isle of Wight Festival is a British music festival which takes place annually in Newport on the Isle of Wight, England. It was originally a counterculture event held from 1968 to 1970. The 1970 event was by far the largest of these early ...

. In 2016 Dyke created the new afternoon show for BBC Radio Solent - The Afternoon Wall Of Sound. Live sessions came from acts as diverse as the Zombies and Rick Astley. Dyke currently presents the Wall of Sound on BBC Radio Solent on Friday evenings 6 til 10 and ''Bubblegum and Cheese'' on Saturday.

2020s

Dyke along with radio producer Tom Stroud created the podcast Stars Cars Guitars. A weekly get together with

Spandau Ballet Spandau Ballet () were an English new wave band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids, playing "European D ...

singer

Tony Hadley Anthony Patrick Hadley (born 2 June 1960) is an English pop singer. He rose to fame in the 1980s as the lead singer of the new wave band Spandau Ballet and launched a solo career following the group's split in 1990. Hadley returned to the ban ...

and guitarist

Jim Cregan James Cregan (born 9 March 1946) is an English rock guitarist and bassist, best known for his associations with Family, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and Rod Stewart. Cregan is a former husband of the singer Linda Lewis and worked with her as a ...

. The Podcast hit the top of the Apple charts in just five weeks. In December 2020 a Christmas TV show of the podcast was broadcast on

Talking Pictures TV Talking Pictures TV (TPTV) is a British free-to-air vintage-film and nostalgia television channel. It was launched on 26 May 2015 on Sky channel 343, but later also became available on Freeview, Freesat, and Virgin Media. It is on air for 24 h ...

''Bubblegum and Cheese''

Artists such as Mud,

Slade Slade are an English rock band formed in Wolverhampton in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The ''British Hit Singles ...

Showaddywaddy Showaddywaddy are a rock and roll group from Leicester, England. They specialise in revivals of hit songs from the 1950s and early 1960s, while also issuing original material. Showaddywaddy spent 209 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, and had 10 ...

David Cassidy David Bruce Cassidy (April 12, 1950 – November 21, 2017) was an American actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was best known for his role as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his stepmother, Shirley Jones), in t ...

, Donny Osmond,

The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was con ...

and

The Hollies The Hollies are a British pop rock band, formed in 1962. One of the leading British groups of the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, they are known for their distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. Allan Clarke and Graham Nash founded the band ...

are often featured on the radio show ''Bubblegum and Cheese''. It began in 2005 when Dyke was asked to present an extra show at weekends. The programme quickly went from being broadcast on just one radio station to 20 stations in The Local Radio Company network. In 2010 ''Bubblegum and Cheese'' moved to BBC Solent where it ran until being axed in 2021. ''Bubblegum and Cheese'' now plays for short spells on Express FM, Portsmouth. In 2011, Dyke took ''Bubblegum and Cheese'' on the road, and now tours with artists and plays at various large-scale events across the country.

Television work

Dyke presented a short series for

ITV Meridian ITV Meridian (previously Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station was launched at 12:00 am on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadcaster Television South, and is owned ...

called ''People Power'' and has guested several times on ITV's ''The Time and the Place''. He presented an American Chart Show for the now defunct

Solent TV Solent TV was an independent not-for-profit television channel broadcasting on the Isle of Wight. It was transmitted from the Rowridge transmitter on the Isle of Wight on UHF channel 54 (735.25 MHz). It began broadcasting in October 2002 but ce ...

who also used to film his daily lunchtime phone-in which he hosted for Isle of Wight Radio. The phone-in received cult status when picked up by a

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

TV channel. Martin Lee at London's

LBC Radio LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcast ...

said "It's car crash radio on train crash TV."

References

External links

BBC Radio Solent profile

Official Stars Cars Guitars website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyke, Alex 1962 births Living people English radio presenters People from Shanklin