With an Audience of One

Deke Duncan, a DJ from Hertfordshire, England is getting a one-hour radio special this Christmas.  Why is that so significant, you might be wondering?  Well, for 44 years, Deke Duncan (his real name is Eric Thorp) has been running a “pirate” radio station out of his garden shed.  He set up Radio 77 in 1974 to fulfill his life-long passion of being a DJ; however, due to licensing restrictions, he was only able to broadcast to his own property.  So, he set up a speaker in his house and broadcast to an audience of one…his faithful wife, Teresa.

He was featured in a TV story on the program “Nationwide” in 1974 as the DJ with the smallest audience in the country.  In the story, Deke is shown complaining that “the station’s entire audience has decided to go down to the shops.”  The clip also shows his wife cleaning and going about her day, as the radio plays in the background.  At one point, Deke sends a shout-out to his number one fan.

A couple of months ago, the BBC’s Archive service dug up the clip and reposted it on Twitter, and the response prompted journalists at the BBC Three Counties Radio to track Deke down.  They found him still broadcasting from the garden shed to his wife (now his second wife, Pamela).  He never gave up on his dream over the last 44 years.  The radio show invited Deke to join them on air where they announced that they were giving him a one-hour Christmas special.  He gladly accepted the offer, saying, “For the first time in my life I’m speechless.”