Former radio DJ Simon Dee, perhaps most remembered as the first voice to be heard on seminal pirate radio station Radio Caroline back in 1964, has died of bone cancer. He was 74.
Dee, born Cyril Henty-Dodd, had a wide range of jobs before joining the original Radio Caroline, one of a number of off-shore radio stations set up to circumvent strict British radio licensing laws that prevented commercial pop stations from existing. It was Dee who made the first announcement on the station, before handing over to the outfit's other DJ Chris Moore.
Despite his early association with the radio pirates, Dee's career quickly developed with a move into the establishment, presenting for the BBC's Radio 1 forerunner The Light Programme. Once Radio 1 was launched in 1967 he was given a show there, and subsequently began his TV career, most notably the popular 'Dee Time' show for the Beeb.
For a few years in the late sixties Dee was one of the UK's big TV stars, but he fell out with the BBC over money, and then also with ITV company LWT, where rival talk show host David Frost disliked the similarities between their two shows. Frost was a part-owner of LWT, so was always going to be the victor in any intra-company presenter rivalries.
Despite playing an active role in the pro-pirate radio campaign at the start of the seventies, a campaign which led the way for the arrival of commercial radio, having fallen out with the BBC and ITV, Dee found his career going nowhere but downhill. After some years as a bus driver, it wasn't until the mid-eighties that Dee returned to the airwaves, presenting for both Radio Luxembourg and Reading radio station Radio 210, and later back on the BBC hosting Radio 2's 'Sounds Of The 60s'.
Paying tribute to Dee, former colleague Tony Blackburn wrote on his Facebook profile yesterday: "So sorry to hear that my old friend Simon Dee has died. I was out on Radio Caroline with him in the 60's and loved him. He was a brilliant broadcaster who threw it all away, sadly, because he couldn't handle fame. I appeared on his very successful 'Dee Time' Saturday night TV show, people forget how big he was. My memories of Simon will always be happy ones".