David Neil Spence (1931–2007) was a British pirate radio broadcaster of the 1960s and an educator of the 1970s and 1980s, with a fine ability to spot and develop radio broadcasting talent. As Dave Dennis, from 1964 to 1966 he was the "Double D", the fastest-talking and highest-rated DJ on Radio London, operating from the pirate ship MV Galaxy and broadcasting alongside future household names such as Kenny Everett and Tony Blackburn. As Neil Spence, from 1968 to 1985 he oversaw the early radio careers of James Whale, Roger Scott, Adrian Love, Graham Dene, Jeremy Vine and Dale Winton, among many others who would reach the top of the UK broadcasting industry.
Early years Spence was educated at Leighton Park School in Reading, Berkshire, a highly academic school where he was boasted he was not just bottom of his class but of the whole school.Skues (2009) Pop Went the Pirates, p.251 He left school to work in farming and stayed for eight years, by which time he was the manager of the farmTuney Tunes [Eindhoven, Netherlands], 'Radio London', May 1966 and claimed on-air to be an authority on pigs.Skues (2009) Pop Went the Pirates, p.187 He attended the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama in London for a three-year acting course, and then spent time in English repertory theatre.
Radio presenting career Spence began his radio presenting career with the pirate station Radio Atlanta, which began broadcasting in May 1964 from the motor vessel MV Mi Amigo off the east coast of the UK. When Radio Atlanta was taken over by Radio Caroline in July 1964, Spence resigned and left the station. At some point that year he worked briefly as a DJ at Radio City, which broadcast from an old army fort at Shivering Sands in the Thames Estuary. A short time later he was as at Radio Invicta, a "sweet music station" which broadcast from a second world war fort at Red Sands, near Whitstable in Kent.Skues (2009) Pop Went the Pirates, p.21, p.98, p.111
Late in 1964 a demo tape won Spence a lunchtime spot on Radio London, which was due to begin broadcasting in December that year from the motor vessel MV Galaxy. Along with the other launch presenters he adopted a new on-air name, Dave Dennis. Among his early colleagues were Earl Richmond, Kenny Everett, Dave Cash, and senior DJ Tony Windsor, who had been with Spence at Radio Atlanta. Later arrivals included Tony Blackburn.
The station was ground-breaking for UK pirate radio, in that unlike its major rival Radio Caroline it used a tight American top-40 format. "Caroline had always been what I call catch-as-catch-can radio," said Dave Cash: "You used to go out there with a bunch of records and play them. No one had any idea what order they were in. No one had any idea of format at all."
After a shaky start, Spence became comfortable with the Radio London format and quickly established his lunchtime show as the most popular on the station, working live for three hours a day, often in rough seas where gramophone needles skipped across vinyl records, and with blankets to deaden the echo from the steel walls of the studio. His ratings could not be put down to formatting or music choice alone, as every DJ followed a similar tight format, based on the Dallas station KLIF. It was almost unheard of for a lunchtime radio show on any station to be a bigger draw than the breakfast show. An eventful two years saw Spence in his fast-talking persona of Dave Dennis keep his lunchtime show at the top of the station's ratings despite later competition from a wildly comedic teatime show presented by Kenny Everett and Dave Cash.
In April 1966 Spence took his holiday in New York, where he was influenced by the high-pressure presentation style of DJs such as Bruce Morrow and Jack Spector, and the formatting skills of WABC's Rick Sklar and WMCA's Ruth Meyer with her team-radio approach to presentation known as the 'Good Guys.'Billboard, 14 May 1966, p.24Billboard, Letters, 23 October 1971
Spence quit Radio London in December 1966. His parting shot was a hit single which reached number 19 in the station's own chart, featuring his sickly-sweet reading to music of a Victorian newspaper editorial, 'Yes, Virginia', reassuring a young girl that Santa Claus did indeed exist. He went to live in Southern Ireland with Jo Spence, then a photographer's assistant and later a pioneering feminist photographer of the 1970s and eighties, who changed her name to his by deed poll.
Radio programming career
Radio London closed down in 1967 with the introduction of the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act 1967, and BBC Radio 1 began broadcasting the same year. On his return to England, Spence began making jingles and trails for Radio 1, where many of his pirate radio contemporaries were forging on-air DJ careers. Kenny Everett in his first BBC broadcast in May 1967 jokingly named the Double-D as one of his "best friendships."Skues (2009) Pop Went the Pirates, p.256-57 Spence later said he had worked for all four BBC Radio networks, including the classical station BBC Radio 3 and the speech based BBC Radio 4.Billboard, 30 April 1977, p.96
In 1970, he was appointed the first programme controller of the United Biscuits Network, UBN, a station which began broadcasting by landline to two of the UK factories of United Biscuits in September that year. The aim of the station was to keep workers entertained and productive, reducing staff turnover and absenteeism while providing safety and hygiene information. A year later UB chairman Hector Laing announced the station was achieving its objectives despite many doubters, and would expand to other factories. Spence told the Financial Times with some justification that the station's quality equaled BBC Radio 1 and was "a great sound."'Tuning in to United Biscuits.' Financial Times [London] 7 Oct. 1971: 22. The Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2010. Accessed 27 Oct 2015 Spence developed a station which provided a top-40 format during the day, a middle-of-the-road MOR format in the evening, and a soul, blues and reggae format at night.
Spence also gained a reputation for talent spotting, and for developing the careers of DJs, who frequently moved on to regular broadcast stations. Among those whose early careers he helped to forge were Graham Dene, who he discovered in the BBC Gramophone Library, Adrian Love, and Roger Scott. As Independent Local Radio (ILR) began to expand, many UBN presenters left to work at the new stations. In 1977 Spence himself moved to ILR, taking over as programme controller at Radio Trent from former UBN presenter Bob Snyder. At Trent, Spence developed formats to appeal to a broad local audience, and continued to find and develop new talent. Among his hires there was Dale Winton, another DJ who had been at UBN.
Radio training career Spence's first training job was in the late 1960s at the "London Broadcasting School" run by his ex-colleague Earl Richmond. Among his first trainees was James Whale. Spence developed a strong commitment to training and development during his years at UBN and Radio Trent, and that, together with his ability to talent spot, led Michael Bukht, then programme controller at Capital Radio, to ask him in 1980 to join the newly established National Broadcasting School as head of programming.
From 1980 to 1985, Spence led intensive three-month courses to train music radio presenters. The school's aim was to develop talent for ILR, but many also went on to work for the BBC and in television as well as overseas, including in pirate radio. Alumni from his presentation courses included BBC presenter Jeremy Vine John Leech and the musician Mikey Dread. When the school closed in 1985, it appears Spence refused offers of work and was believed to have returned to farming. He resisted all invitations from former colleagues to attend reunions, particularly those from his pirate radio days. He died in Lincolnshire in 2007.
Presentation style
When the founders of Radio Atlanta had discussed where to find suitable voices for a commercial station broadcasting to the UK, they concluded that no British broadcasters were capable of the task as they were so firmly rooted in the BBC style. However, they took Spence on, together with a number of DJs well-versed in commercial broadcasting in Australia. Surviving recordings give a flavour of Spence's conventional and actorly British delivery. Although formal by comparison to US and Australian commercial stations, his style was far more relaxed than the BBC of the time.
Moving to Radio Invicta, Spence maintained his actor-DJ style. However, by the time he arrived at Radio London in late 1964 his performance was still considered "stuffy" by senior DJ Tony Windsor and programme director Ben Toney. Windsor was tasked with turning Neil Spence the announcer and presenter into Dave Dennis the DJ, and was asked by Toney to "break in" Spence and "give him a few tips on how to present a proper deejay show." Spence, who had grown up with little else to listen to except the BBC, responded poorly to Windsor's direction. "In the end I could tell he was about to drive Dave around the bend," said Toney, who then asked Spence to use his acting training and in effect to create "Dave Dennis, the Double-D" as a character to be played on air.
Toney was using off-air tapes of the Dallas top-40 station KLIF as a formatting aid for Radio London, and instructed Spence to listen to them carefully. "I then told him that if he were any kind of actor, he would be able to create the style of programming recorded on the tapes. As it turned out, Dave went from being a stuffy announcer to a top-notch deejay in a matter of weeks," said Toney. Toney later said that of all the DJs he encouraged towards the new style of British commercial broadcasting, Spence "made the greatest amount of progress of them all." As new voices came on board, Spence the actor-DJ resolutely maintained the Dave Dennis character, catchphrases and all, in the face of a rising tide of ever more elaborate jokes aimed against him.
His cabin mate Kenny Everett began the trend by making on-air references to his smelly feet and terrible temper. As the comedy became more sophisticated, Spence found himself on air with Everett having been invited to recite the weirdly obscure lyrics of the song "Along Comes Mary" by The Association in his best actorly voice. After the words of the final chorus, "When we met I was sure out to lunch, Now my empty cup tastes as sweet as the punch," Everett announced: "That was "Along Comes Mary", ladies and gentlemen, as Dave Dennis crawls out of the studio on his knees." Everett told his audience that Spence deserved an OBE for his performance.
Recordings of Spence's lunchtime programme as Dave Dennis show his own humour breaking through his former style, as he combines a rich British-accented voice with an irreverent approach which slyly and then more confidently sends up the BBC announcers of the day, with the speed of his delivery matching the rhythm of the music he plays and his theme tune 'Go Mean' by Ruffle.
In April 1966, Spence spent his holiday from Radio London in New York, where his reputation gave him access top radio DJs and programmers.Billboard, 14 May 1966, p.4, p.24 On his return, his presentation style was even faster than before, as if to eliminate any possibility of dead air, and his microphone technique was adapted to cut through mush by making maximum use of the station's transmitter power. "DD's on-air style became machinegun-like with the volume at+3dB," said fellow London Radio DJ Duncan Johnson. "I made a comment and he said the top man in New York says you have to push the compressor to hold the listener. I didn't bother to ask why."