Johnny Moran – Nostalgia Central

After early radio experience in Melbourne, Australia, Johnny came to Britain in 1963 (his mother was from Sheffield in Yorkshire), joining Radio Luxembourg as a staff announcer in 1964, where he introduced himself as ‘Johnny Moran, your music man’.

When the BBC launched Radio 1 on 30 September 1967, Moran was recruited as part of the core team. He was one of the 22 select presenters, alongside figures such as Tony Blackburn, Kenny Everett, and Terry Wogan.

He was principally responsible for devising Scene and Heard, which embraced news items, a review of the pop press, interviews with pop people in the news and a look at a current LP.

The programme suffered over the years from recurrent bouts of rescheduling when it was shunted around the network like a redundant goods train.

Moran spent seven years with Radio 1 and left in 1974 after being headhunted by his old friend and fellow radio veteran Keith Skues, who was launching Radio Hallam in Sheffield.

Because of his mother’s local roots, the move was a homecoming for Moran. On 1 October 1974, he officially became the very first voice broadcast on Radio Hallam, opening the station and taking over as its long-running flagship breakfast show host.

He spent over a decade at Hallam, becoming a beloved household name across South Yorkshire until stepping away in the late 1980s

Moran died on 7 August 2022, aged 78.