Johnnie Walker signs off final Rock Show by thanking producer

Radio DJ Johnnie Walker has signed off his final episode hosting BBC Radio 2’s The Rock Show by saying thanks to his producer.

The veteran presenter, 79, announced earlier in the month that he was retiring from radio after 58 years due to ill health, having been previously diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

His condition causes the lungs to become scarred and makes breathing increasingly more difficult, according to the NHS, and he has regularly broadcast for several years from his home in Dorset.

Taking to the air, Walker told listeners that he was “taking over the show”, and will be choosing “some of my favourite rock anthems to fit into the programme”, which he launched in 2018.

For his first track he played Sweet Jane from Steve Hunter, Dick Wagner and Lou Reed, ending the show with what he called the “classic”, The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again.

He encouraged listeners to tune in to Shaun Keaveny, who becomes the new host of The Rock Show on November 1.

He also said: “I always say at the end the show thanks to Liz ‘Queen of Rock’ Barnes, she is the ‘Queen of Rock’, and she has put in so much work, putting this rock show together, crafting it beautifully, and mixing up old songs and new songs and I know you’ve appreciated the old and the new together.”

He added that his producer had done a “magnificent job” and said “thank you” to her.

Walker also played Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats’ I Need Never Get Old during the hour-long episode and, referencing the title, he said “if only that were true, I wouldn’t be giving up The Rock Show”.

Each week the programme asks guests to name their “rock god”, and Walker picked Bruce Springsteen, saying he was a “lovely man”.

His final episode hosting Sounds Of The 70s will air at the weekend.

Walker’s wife Tiggy, who is his carer, shared an image of him on social media preparing for the show, wearing a big curly wig and pink shirt.

She wrote: “For his final Rock Show on ⁦@BBCRadio2 ⁩Johnnie ⁦@piratejw thought he’d dress for the occasion…”

Walker told listeners on October 6 he was “making a very sad announcement” and vowed he would “make the last three shows as good as I possibly can”.

Former The Old Grey Whistle Test presenter Bob Harris is the new Sounds Of The 70s presenter from November 3.

Birmingham-born Walker began in pirate radio with Swinging Radio England in 1966 before moving to the offshore Radio Caroline.

He departed after the station closed for BBC Radio 1 in 1969, continuing until 1976 and later moving to San Francisco, where he recorded a weekly show broadcast on Radio Luxembourg.

In the early 1980s he returned to the BBC and has remained there ever since.