Tony Prince (born Thomas Whitehead; 9 May 1944) is a British

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

and businessman. He broadcast on

Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Allan Crawford, initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopol ...

and

Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg). The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...

in the 1960s and 1970s, later becoming a programme director and then businessman. He was responsible for establishing the remix label DMC.

Biography

Early life and DJ work

Born in

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, the only son of a

scrap metal Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...

worker, he attended Oldham Art School and worked as a

jockey A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase (horse racing), steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used ...

, TV salesman and toolmaker before becoming lead singer in a local band, The Jasons, in 1959. Janice Barker, "The DJ that rocked", ''Oldham Chronicle'', 20 April 2009
Retrieved 4 June 2017 In 1962, he started as a club DJ at the 'Astoria Ballroom' on King Street, Oldham. He introduced

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

onstage on the night that they first reached number one on the British charts in 1963 with "

From Me to You "From Me to You" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released in April 1963 as their third single. It was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The song was the Beatles' first number 1 hit on what became the UK Singles ...

". He was expelled from the Musicians' Union in 1964 for playing records in dancehalls rather than employing live musicians, and then moved to

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

to work for

Top Rank Top Rank, Inc. is a boxing promotional company founded by Jabir Herbert Muhammad and Bob Arum, which was incorporated in 1973, and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Since its founding, Top Rank has promoted many world class fighters, including M ...

. He presented an early ITV pop music programme, ''Discs-a-Gogo''. "Boat Rocker: the Tony Prince story", ''DMC World'', 2012
Retrieved 4 June 2017 In 1965, having worked with DJ

Tony Blackburn Anthony Kenneth Blackburn (born 29 January 1943) is an English disc jockey, singer and television presenter, whose career spans over 60 years. Blackburn first achieved fame broadcasting on the pirate stations Radio Caroline and Radio Londo ...

at ''Discs-a-Gogo'' and auditioning for the

pirate radio Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license, whether an invalid license or no license at all. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are rec ...

station Radio Caroline North on a ship in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

, he joined the station, developing his personality as "your royal ruler".

Radio Luxembourg and DJ work in Europe

After the

Marine Broadcasting Offences Act 1967 The Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 (c. 41), shortened to Marine Broadcasting Offences Act or Marine Offences Act, became law in the United Kingdom at midnight on Monday 14 August 1967. It was subsequently amended by the Wirel ...

, which came into effect in August 1967, banned pirate radio, he joined

. In 1970 Prince embarked on a tour of

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

doing three shows in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

, Karlovy and

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. He also made

discotheque A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and ...

appearances throughout Europe and the music he played had an important influence on the younger generation of people who, in certain European countries, only had access to the music by listening to him on Radio Luxembourg, broadcast on 208 Metres Medium Wave, in previous years but had no access to seeing the groups play live. He became president of the International

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

Fan Club, interviewed Presley in 1972 and 1973, and played Presley songs non-stop following the singer's death in 1977. He continued to present programmes after becoming programme director at Radio Luxembourg in 1977. He was programme director until 1984, changing the station's format, for a time, to play predominantly

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

and

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...

Return to the UK, TV work and projects

Around 1981, he began playing

DJ mix A DJ mix or DJ mixset is a sequence of musical tracks typically beatmixing, mixed together by a Disc jockey, DJ to appear as one continuous track. DJ mixes are usually performed using a DJ mixer and multiple sounds sources, such as Phonograph, tur ...

es of dance records and started the successful and influential Disco Mix Club Show. On returning to Britain, he launched DMC as a record subscription club in 1983. He also launched the club culture magazine ''

Mixmag ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was printe ...

'', later sold to

EMAP Ascential (formerly EMAP) was a British-headquartered global company, specialising in events, intelligence and advisory services for the marketing and financial technology industries. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was ac ...

. Prince continued to run the company, now known as DMC International, until 2006. Jason Barnard, "Tony Prince – The Royal Ruler", ''The Strange Brew'', 2017
Retrieved 4 June 2017 In 2002, Prince established World DJ Day, set up to raise funds for

Nordoff–Robbins music therapy The Nordoff–Robbins approach to music therapy is a method developed to help children with psychological, physical, or developmental disabilities. It originated from the collaboration of Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins, which began in 1958, wit ...

. His later projects have included

Wedding TV Wedding TV was a woman's lifestyle television channel broadcast in the United Kingdom. Separate versions of the channel were available in Poland and Italy. The channel claims to be the first TV channel of its kind, concentrating on love, life, re ...

, which he co-founded. The channel (available on Sky Digital) won the "Best Specialist Channel" award at the annual Broadcast Digital Channel Awards in 2008. In 2016, he published a double autobiography co-written with Czech music fan Jan Šesták, ''The Royal Ruler & the Railway DJ''. Rosalyn Roden, "DJ legend pens autobiography", ''Oldham Chronicle'', 30 November 2016
Retrieved 4 June 2017 In 2018, Prince co-founded a radio station, United DJs, with other broadcasting personalities including

Mike Read Michael David Kenneth Read (born 1 March 1947) is an English radio disc jockey, writer, journalist and television presenter. Read has been a broadcaster since 1976, best known for having been a DJ with BBC Radio 1, and television host for mus ...

Emperor Rosko Michael Joseph Pasternak (born 26 December 1942), known by his stage name Emperor Rosko, is an American presenter of rock music programmes, most widely known for his shows on Radio Caroline and BBC Radio 1 in the UK in the 1960s and early 1970s. ...

, David Hamilton,

Dave Lee Travis David Patrick Griffin (born 25 May 1945), known professionally as Dave Lee Travis, is an English disc jockey and television presenter. He currently presents a Sunday programme between 10 am and 12 noon on ''Heritage Chart Radio''. Travis began ...

and

David Jensen David Allan Jensen (born 4 July 1950) is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 to 19 ...

. On 23 May 2021, United DJs ceased broadcasting after three years with Prince stating, "...we have been unable to attract enough listeners to make the station commercially viable".

Personal life

In 1970, aged 26, Prince married Christine Hall from

Derker Derker is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies in north-central Oldham, close to the boundary with Royton. History Historically a part of Lancashire, Derker was recorded as a place of residence in 1604 with the name ''Di ...

at Oldham Register Office. He now lives in

Bray, Berkshire Bray, occasionally Bray on Thames, is a suburban village and civil parish in the Windsor and Maidenhead district, in the ceremonial county of Berkshire. It sits on the banks of the River Thames, to the southeast of Maidenhead with which it is ...

. Jan Raycroft, "Tony Prince on Elvis, the risks people took to listen and ending up in Bray", ''Berkshire Life and Buckinghamshire Life'', 13 March 2017
Retrieved 4 June 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prince, Tony 1944 births Living people British DJs English radio personalities Pirate radio personalities People from Oldham Offshore radio broadcasters Radio Luxembourg (English) presenters Record collectors