[peel] Karl and his tapes , upload update

[februarycallendar@...]

David Jensen took over the midweek evening show on Monday 5th October 1981 and hosted it until, I think, Thursday 14th June 1984 (he had to leave PDQ when it was announced he was off to Capital).  He'd left the station in May 1980 to work for the newly-launched CNN in Atlanta - a news reporter rather than a DJ - but came back to the UK partially, I think, because he didn't like the way the US was going politically (he was definitely one of the few left-leaning DJs other than Peel on Radio 1 at the time, and bear in mind that the Thatcher government was very weak in 1981 and many thought it couldn't win a second term).  He also said that, despite the plethora of radio stations in the US, none of them played the music he was most interested in - this being the post-'Disco Sucks', pre-'Thriller'/'1999'/MTV/Second British Invasion period when the American mainstream was *very* bland and MOR/AOR (ironically just as the British mainstream was at its weirdest and artiest). 

 Richard Skinner had hosted the show for nine months starting on 5th January 1981 when Mike Read got breakfast, and hosted it again after Jensen left until Janice Long took over in September, so some claims of Jensen broadcasting on Radio 1 in July or August 1984 in Karl's tapes are incorrect.  Years later, Steve Lamacq said that Janice Long was the first presenter of the slot who "didn't sound like a jock doing a job", and I think that's fair comment, but I do also think Jensen's later career has been a terrible waste of talent - for a while there it seemed as though he was capable of a lot more than he would go on to show (other than on his stints on specialist digital stations like Jazz FM and Planet Rock - still basically nostalgia shows, but at least a broader and more interesting range than on the mainstream stations he's worked for).
 

 rpc