Broadcasting Career
Read's professional broadcasting career began in March 1976 at Reading's Radio 210, where he co-hosted a show with Steve Wright, before joining Radio Luxembourg late in 1977.
He joined BBC Radio 1 at the end of 1978 and was soon presenting the night time programme before John Peel's show, where he championed new groups and featured live sessions. He was one of the most popular Roadshow presenters during his time at the station. He took over The Radio 1 Breakfast Show on Monday 5 January 1981, a spot notable for his on-air decision in 1984 not to play the Frankie Goes to Hollywood single "Relax" due to supposedly obscene lyrics. Halfway through a broadcast of the song, Read lifted the needle on the track, denounced the lyrics as "obscene" and refused to play it again.
Following on from his five-year stint on Radio 1's breakfast show, Read took over a Sunday morning show in 1986, from 10am-12.30pm. In 1987, he moved to Saturday Mornings from 10am-1pm, and also to a Sunday afternoon show from 1-3pm, where he played classic tracks. In addition he hosted Round Table and later went back to it as the renamed Singled Out on Friday evenings, where musicians and disc jockeys would review the new single releases.
Read's Saturday morning show ended in September 1988 and his Sunday afternoon oldies shows finished in January 1989, when Alan Freeman rejoined the station to host an oldies version of Pick of the Pops. From January 1989 to September 1990 Read presented a weekly show called The Mike Read Collection which went out on Monday evenings, and still remained on the Friday panel show Singled Out (which had by then gone back to its original name of Round Table). He remained in this slot until 1991.
Read currently (from 1 September 2011) presents a three-hour Saturday Breakfast Show on Covent Garden Radio where he shares his recent conversations with people in the world of entertainment and music, information about what's on in London generally and Covent Garden specifically, and his favourite music tracks.
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