Legendary Radio 2 host Johnnie Walker leaves listeners in tears with goodbye message on final show

Johnnie Walker broadcast his final BBC Radio 2 show on Sunday afternoon and thanked his loyal listeners for their support throughout his 58-year reign in radio

Following legendary broadcaster Johnnie Walker’s announcement earlier this month that he would be stepping down from BBC Radio 2’s The Rock Show and Sounds of the 70s, on Friday 25 ^th October he presented The Rock Show for last time and today (Sunday 27 ^th October from 3-5pm) he hosted his final Sounds of the 70s.

Earlier this month, the legendary radio host announced that he was retiring. At the time, he announced: "That leads me to be making a very sad announcement. The struggles I’ve had with doing the show and trying to sort of keep up a professional standard suitable for Radio 2 has been getting more and more difficult - hence my little jokes about Puffing Billy.

"So, I’ve had to make the decision that I need to bring my career to an end after 58 years, and so I’ll be doing my last Sounds of the 70s on the 27th of October, so I’ll make the last three shows as good as I possibly can.

"Now this week in 1978, The Rolling Stones were special guests on America’s Saturday Night Live TV show and they appeared in a couple of sketches and performed three tracks from their latest album, Some Girls. Well, one of the tracks on the album seems quite suitable at the moment.”

Jonnie played The Rolling Stones’ track, Miss You before adding: “And by the way, I can also reveal not only my last Sounds of the 70s, but the person taking over the show will be the one and only Bob Harris, so Bob Harris will be in charge of Sounds of the 70s from the 3rd of November.”

Today, on his final show of Sounds of the 70s today, he said to his listeners: “So it doesn’t really matter how long you’ve been listening to the old JW here, we’ve had a great time doing Sounds of the 70s. It really developed into a sort of a Sunday Afternoon Club, I always got the feeling, and lots of people preparing their Sunday roast, maybe pulling the cork on a bottle of wine, other people doing their gardening, pottering in a shed, doing ironing.

"It was just great spending Sunday afternoons with you and it’s going to be very strange for me next Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock to think that I won’t be speaking to you. It’ll be somebody else, namely Bob Harris, who’ll be doing Sounds of the 70s. So, I’ll miss you a lot and it’s been great connecting up for all these years. We’ve done a lot of living together you and I."

He signed off from the show, saying: “So here we are, the end of a 15 year run on Sunday afternoons, Sounds of the 70s, and 58 years on British radio, and it’s going to be very strange not to be on the wireless anymore but also, by the same token, life will be slightly less of a strain really, trying to find the breath to do programmes. So thank you for being with me all these years and take good care of yourself and those you love and maybe walk into the future with our heads held high and happiness in our hearts. God bless you."

Rod Stewart also sent a message for Johnnie. Rod said: “I have to thank you my man, thank you from the bottom of my heart for playing not only my songs, but The Faces and just about every other rock band in the world on your wonderful show over the years. By doing so you propelled the careers of a bunch of unknown layabouts to the top of the charts and overnight fame and everything that goes with it. It goes without saying, without your support we never may have got there. So, if I do manage to get through the Pearly Gates, I’ll have a pint of Guinness please mate and guess what, I’ll pick up the tab. See ya later, Johnnie. Rock on mate, rock on.”

His wife, Tiggy, also joined him on the show at one point to talk about Johnnie broadcasting his shows this year, saying: “I just want to say well done for keeping going as long as you have, because you make a lot of people very happy and I know there will be a lot of tears out there today, including mine."

Johnnie replied: “And maybe one or two from me as well. Thank you very much for saying that and thank you for all your wonderful care. I certainly couldn’t have done this show without that, so thank you for that.”

During the programme, Johnnie added one last song - Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird - into his famous 'Johnnie's Jukebox' before sealing the jukebox forever, and throughout the show he played his own selection of favourite tracks from the decade, including Elton John & Kiki Dee - Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Rod Stewart - Sailing, Neil Diamond - Holy Holy, Simon and Garfunkel - Song For the Asking, David Bowie - Starman, Lou Reed - Walk On the Wild Side, The Skids - Into the Valley, and The Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (but I like it) and Johnny Nash – I Can See Clearly Now. To close the show, he played Amazing Grace by Judy Collins.

Shaun Keaveny will be the new presenter of The Rock Show from Friday 1^st November and Bob Harris takes over as presenter of Sounds Of The 70s from Sunday 3^rd November.

Listen back to Johnnie’s final Sounds of the 70s here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00244tb.

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