Who was "Brit" Pat Harris (CHED DJ 1964)?

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Who was "Brit" Pat Harris (CHED DJ 1964)?

Postby jon » Fri Oct 03, 2014 2:49 pm

While looking through old Edmonton Journals looking for info on the debut of Edmonton's 50,000 watt CBX, I happened upon a Dave Laundy-authored "teen talk" column that mentioned CHED.

Here is the relevant part:
...CHED's English DJ Pat Harris...Pat, you'll remember, was a disc jockey at Radio Red Rose, one of the three pirate rock'n roll radio stations anchored off the English coast.

I got curious, since I had never heard of that particular pirate station. This is the best info that I could find:
Radio Red Rose

Many businessmen explored the possibility of establishing offshore radio stations having witnessed the success of Radio Caroline. One such venture was planned by three Liverpool club owners, James Ireland, Alan Williams and Mr S Roberts, in July 1964.

They hired a ship, Red Rose, and were reported to have made test transmissions for an hour and a half from a position twenty miles off Liverpool on 12th July 1964. After this broadcast the ship reportedly headed back to Amsterdam for the installation of additional equipment and an increase in its aerial height. However, although the backers announced that their station would start broadcasting 24 hours a day from the beginning of September 1964 nothing more was heard of this venture or of Radio Red Rose.

ref. - http://www.offshoreradiomuseum.co.uk/page195.html

Anyone know anything about Pat Harris?

So many Top 40 stations had British-sounding DJs at that time. Even if they were from Australia or New Zealand.
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Re: Who was "Brit" Pat Harris (CHED DJ 1964)?

Postby Howaboutthat » Fri Oct 03, 2014 8:10 pm

Yup. Kiwis and Aussies love being mistaken for Brits.
Houston, We're dealing with morons!.
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Re: Who was "Brit" Pat Harris (CHED DJ 1964)?

Postby jon » Fri Oct 03, 2014 8:57 pm

Howaboutthat wrote:Yup. Kiwis and Aussies love being mistaken for Brits.

The late Rhett Hamilton Walker the First ("I") did not seem to mind. As I wrote this, I discovered that he died nearly two years ago.

This from Norm Gregory's current web site:

Rhett Hamilton Walker I, 1960’s KOL DJ, Dies
by Norm Gregory on December 23, 2012
in Radio Scrapbook

KJR and KOL battle for Top 40 supremacy through out the 1960s. At the height of the musical “British Invasion” KOL tried English accented jocks. Leading the air-staff was Rhett Hamilton Walker I. He was a New Zealander but his unique accent was close enough.

I just received news of Rhett’s passing.

Hi Norm Just a quick note to let you know that Rhett Walker passed away in Victoria, Australia last week. Rhett was born in New Zealand. His mother was American. His father was British. He began his radio career in Australia. He then went to the US for a number of years where he worked at various West Coast stations as an on air talent and programmer before returning to Australia in the late 1960s. A few memories of Rhett Walker’s early Australian and, later Stateside career…… Getting the ball rolling as night time DJ and sometime pop star at station 2UW in Sydney – circa late 1950s/early ‘ 60s. Across the Pacific to his mother’s homeland…. and …. Early days at KOL – AM in Seattle… Moving up by moving down to KRLA in Southern California.. where he eventually replaced Casey Kasem . . . Rhett doing the full celebrity DJ bit at KRLA. Rhett appears on Donovan’s 1967 live album. doing the stage intros in Anaheim, CA … And then onto KRUX in Phoenix as PD.. From there, it was just about back to Australia… in fact, back to 3DB (?) in Melbourne…. then 3AK….. and on and on he went through 6PR, 3KZ, Fox.. etc. Rhett quit radio years ago and became an academic, eventually rising to the position of Professor of Business at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia. All the best Bruce Corneil
========

I recently saw him on a KFXM San Bernardino chart, but it sounds like his first U.S. gig was at KUTY in Palmdale, California.
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