Dave Lee Travis

Dave Lee Travis, 2004

Dave Lee Travis (born May 25, 1945 in Buxton , Derbyshire , England ) is a British radio and television presenter and disc jockey . In Germany he became known in the mid-1960s as the moderator of the Beat Club . In the BBC and BFBS he uses the acronym of his name, DLT, as his stage name .

Life

Travis went to school in Manchester and trained as a graphic designer . His radio career began with the pirate station Radio Caroline ; From 1967 to 1969 he and Uschi Nerke presented the pop music show Beat Club (episode 18–46) on German television .

In 1968 Travis went to Radio 1 of the BBC in Manchester; from 1969 he hosted the show on Sunday mornings here, and from 1971 the lunchtime program from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. From May 1978 to December 1980 he presented the morning show as the successor to Noel Edmonds . During this time he was seen on BBC and BFBS television as the presenter of the British hit parade Top of the Pops .

In 1976, Travis and fellow DJ Paul Burnett recorded a parody of CW McCall's truck driver hit Convoy , entitled Convoy GB . The single, released under the pseudonym Laurie Lingo and the Dipsticks , rose to number four on the UK charts . Travis became known worldwide for his "Jolly Good Show", broadcast on the BBC World Service from 1981 to 2001, in which he fulfilled the listeners' musical wishes and always read the listener's mail with humor and irony. The Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi met Travis personally during her visit to London in 2012 and called the program an important “lifeline” in her years of house arrest, which “rounded off” her worldview.

Until August 8, 1993, Travis moderated various radio programs on the BBC; due to differences over the direction of the BBC radio programs, he resigned from his job that day on a live broadcast. He then worked for various private radio stations. In 2003 he returned to the BBC, where he presented a regional Sunday morning show until March 2007.

Travis was named British Pipe Smoker of the Year in 1982 .

On November 15, 2012, Travis was arrested by the London Metropolitan Police as part of "Operation Yewtree" and released on bail. This police action arose in connection with the abuse scandal surrounding the late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile . Travis denied any allegations of abuse and only admitted to the press that although he had often "cuddled" women, this was never previously understood as sexual assault. Children were never involved. Travis, who had spoken of a serious loss after Savile's death, now called the ex-colleague a "bloody evil", with whom he does not want to be lumped together. The police arrested Travis again on March 11, 2013, because there were new suspicions against him. Here, too, the accused stated that it was never about children. Travis was released on bail. He was charged with physical and sexual harassment of a total of 11 young women between 1976 and 2008. The victims were between 15 and 29 years old. In the courtroom, Travis was described as an 'opportunist' sex offender who attacked women in situations when they weren't expecting it, sometimes while the program was on.

literature

• Thorsten Schmidt: Beat Club - all programs, all stars, all hits. Kultur Buch, Bremen 2005 (published in cooperation with Radio Bremen on the 40th anniversary), ISBN 978-3-933851-09-3

Web links

• Biography at Radio Rewind with photos and audio samples

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David Roberts (ed.): Guinness World Records - British Hit Singles and Albums , 19th ed., 2006, ISBN 1-904994-10-5 , p. 323
2. ↑ See Operation Yewtree in Wikipedia
3. ↑ "We are all going to be worse off without him around" in: Jimmy Savile the big fixer , The Daily Telegraph , October 30, 2011
4. ↑ Dave Lee Travis admits cuddles but denies sexual assault , The Daily Telegraph, November 16, 2012
5. ↑ BBC press release of March 13, 2013
6. ↑ Dave Lee Travis described as 'opportunist' sex offender. BBC News, January 14, 2014, accessed January 15, 2014 .