Radio legend Sir Jimmy Savile dies at 84

The man who claimed to be the first ever DJ, Sir Jimmy Savile has died at home just says before his 85th birthday.

Sir Jimmy said in his autobiography that he was the very first person to ever use two turntables and a microphone at an event back in 1947. He had been suffering from pneumonia.

Savile was part of the early line-up on BBC Radio 1, joining in 1968, a year after it launched. Previously he’d spent almost 10 years at Radio Luxembourg.

He will be remembered for his popular radio shows including Savile’s Travels and his weekly Jimmy Savile’s Old Record Club, where entire top tens from years gone by were played. This was the very first show to feature old charts on radio.

John Myers the Chief Executive of the UK radio sector industry body, the Radio Academy, said: “The sad death of Sir Jimmy Savile represents a great loss to the UK radio industry. He was one of the pioneers of modern pop-music radio. He made the smooth transfer from Radio Luxembourg to the BBC in the late 1960’s and from 1997 moved his broadcasts to commercial radio where he continued to be successful and well respected by radio audiences around the UK.

He left Radio 1 in 1987 and worked on various commercial stations around the UK and was most recently heard on Real Radio hosting a Christmas Countdown.

Of course his television career gave him the most publicity with Jim’ll Fix It and hosting Top of the Pops, amongst others.

He was knighted by the Queen in 1990 for his charity work, the same year he was honoured.