I had a bad night last night due to *ahem* environmental difficulties
So as I was awake at 3am and, prodded by a podcast listener’s email asking about something I mentioned on last week’s show, I spent the early hours of the day in the company of google, facebook and linkedin, trying to answer the question ‘Whatever happened to…?’
John Deloach. Or is that John De Loach? Who knows.
John was a presenter on the radio station AFN SHAPE.
I used to listen to AFN SHAPE, and John in particular, whenever I was recalled ‘home’ to NATO’s No 4 Wing, 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force permanent base, from wherever in the world we’d been sent to, on yet another detachment.
I liked his microphone style and his personality.
I would have described John as an American version of Kenny Everett. Not as madcap as Kenny, John was still a long step away from his more mainstream colleagues.
And I’m not naive, I know that he had a set-list and an A and a B playlist, but it was obvious, from listening to his colleagues, that John mixed it up as best he could.
And the music was good; AFN SHAPE played more diverse music than any of the German or Benelux stations we could get on FM.
Anyway, my googling, facebooking and linkedining were mostly fruitless, but I did come across a four-year-old discussion, on Craigslist, that offered up an email address of someone who used to work with John when he moved from SHAPE to USAF Ramstein.
So maybe there’s a chance.
And what happens if that chance bears fruit?
I’m going to drop the guy a line and say ‘Hi John, you don’t know me but 250 years ago I used to listen to you on AFN Shape and…’?
Lame.
Lame, lame, lame, lame.
No, I’m not going to do that.
But, you know, I just want to *know* that he’s still around somewhere.
Still OK.
Still using that sense of humour of his.
That’s all.
And on this week’s podcast I’m going to play a snippet (maybe more) of the first track I heard John Deloach (John De Loach?) play on AFN SHAPE, all those centuries ago.
Oh yes.
And the music is still excellent, even after all these years.
eh up! Why don’t you stick a soundbite on your blog so that us heathens can listen to the mysterious John Deloach (John De Loach). Go on… you know you want to!
Annie, I wish I could. I used to have some cassettes (that’s how long ago we’re talking about!) with a couple of his shows, as well as some brilliant radio shows from the Dutch VPRO network, who introduced me to the late Warren Zevon, but I lost the cassettes when I moved to Spain, sorry.