Roger "Twiggy" Day (born Roger Thomas in Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

England; 29 March 1945) is a radio broadcaster and DJ who began his career in

offshore radio Offshore radio is radio broadcasting from ships or fixed maritime structures. Offshore broadcasters are usually unlicensed but transmissions are legal in international waters. This is in contrast to unlicensed broadcasting on land or within a na ...

, and was a key pioneer in commercial radio. He later presented on BBC Local Radio across southern England.

Radio career

In March 1966 Day met Dave Cash who arranged for him to DJ with

Radio England Swinging Radio England ("SRE") was a top 40 offshore commercial station billed as the "''World's Most Powerful''" that operated from 3 May 1966 to 13 November 1966 from a ship in the North Sea, four and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, En ...

, he went live on air in May that year. After Radio England closed down Day joined

Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly ...

and remained with the station even after it was outlawed. In January 1968 his fan club, the Daydreamers Club, was set up and was run by his father Bertie Thomas; by November of that year it had over 2000 members. Also in 1968 he was voted the 10th best national DJ by the readers of ''

Disc and Music Echo ''Disc'' was a weekly British popular music magazine, published between 1958 and 1975, when it was incorporated into ''Record Mirror''. It was also known for periods as ''Disc Weekly '' (1964–1966) and ''Disc and Music Echo '' (1966–1972). ...

'' with his Caroline show voted as 7th best in the country. In the summer of 1968 he started at

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 ...

. In December 1968 Day compered a number of shows for the

Beach Boys A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...

during their European tour beginning at the

London Palladium The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in the famous area of Soho. The theatre holds 2,286 seats. Of the roster of stars who have played there, many have televised performances. Between 1955 a ...

. In 1970 he joined

Radio North Sea International Radio North Sea International (RNI; ; ) was a European offshore radio station run by the Swiss firm Mebo Telecommunications, jointly owned by Swiss engineer Edwin Bollier and his business partner, Erwin Meister.. The company, registered in Switz ...

where he remained for four months. He briefly rejoined Radio Caroline in 1973 and also worked for the

United Biscuits Network United Biscuits Network (UBN) was an internal radio station serving the factories of United Biscuits (UB) in Britain that operated from 1970 to 1979. In 1970 the BBC had a monopoly on radio broadcasting in Britain, although there were a few off ...

. On 2 April 1974 Day was the first DJ heard on the morning of the launch of

Piccadilly Radio Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West is an Independent Local Radio station based in Manchester, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio Network. It broadcasts to Greater Manchester and North West Eng ...

in Manchester. In 2012 the Roger Day Evening Show, which was broadcast on BBC Local Radio, was nominated for best radio show at the Music Week Awards. Day then moved stations and until 2012 began presenting a daily show on

BBC Radio Kent BBC Radio Kent is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Kent. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Great Hall in Tunbridge Wells. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...

every weekday evening from 7 to 10pm. The show was heard on six stations (

BBC Sussex BBC Radio Sussex is the BBC's local radio station serving the counties of East and West Sussex. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Queens Road in Brighton. Programming Local programming airs from the BB ...

BBC Surrey BBC Radio Surrey is the BBC's local radio station serving Surrey, north-east Hampshire and north West Sussex (including Gatwick Airport). It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at the University of Surrey in Guil ...

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 ...

BBC Radio Berkshire BBC Radio Berkshire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Berkshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds studios at Thames Valley Park near Reading. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience ...

and

BBC Radio Oxford BBC Radio Oxford is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Oxfordshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Summertown area of Oxford. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audienc ...

) in the South and South East of England. From 2013, Roger Day had a weekly show on BBC Radio Kent, taking over Dave Cash's classic countdown show in 2017 until March 2020, featuring the charts of 1960 to 1979. He continues to do classic charts online. He has also presented an afternoon show on Radio Caroline's Caroline Flashback station online, and a weekday show on Delux Radio. In February 2021, he was the first voice heard on

Boom Radio Boom Radio (also Boom Radio UK) is an independent, commercial, national radio station in the United Kingdom. Owned by Boom Radio Ltd, the station is aimed at baby boomers, the generation of people born between 1946 and 1964, and is the first rad ...

, where he presents a Monday to Thursday show, ''Roger Day in the Evening'' 6-8pm, a two-hour Sixties show on Saturdays at 8.00am and a three-hour programme on Sundays 2-5pm.

References

External links

Personal websiteRoger Day in the Evening on Boom RadioRoger Day on Boom RadioRoger Day interviewing

Albert Scanlon Albert Joseph Scanlon (10 October 1935 – 22 December 2009) was an English footballer. He began his career with Manchester United and was one of the " Busby Babes" who survived the Munich air disaster of 1958. Although he sustained severe inju ...

- streaming audio {{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Roger 1945 births Living people People from Cheltenham British radio DJs British radio personalities English radio personalities Pirate radio personalities Offshore radio broadcasters