Mr DJ is in a spin

ONE of Bahrain’s favourite DJs has returned to the island for the first time since Boney M ruled the airwaves.

For those living in Bahrain in the late 70s and mid-80s Bob McCreadie was the main morning man.
He was one of the first disc jockeys at Radio Bahrain’s newly-launched English service and remained behind the turntables for nine years before leaving the island to return to his hometown in the UK.
As a young Essex lad in his 20s, Bob came to Bahrain to meet his elder brother who worked for Gulf Air. Training to be a teacher in England, Bob came upon an opportunity of working at the station and grabbed it immediately, as according to him ‘all that he ever wanted was to be on the radio’.
And there was no looking back. From hosting midday shows to breakfast shows Bob did it all. “I was probably the only one whose main job was working at the radio. Some nights I used to work as a DJ at a local nightclub,” he says of his big sunglasses, floppy collars, flared trousers, heeled shoes and chunky gold chain days.
“Bahrain was much smaller then but it was still very dynamic,” he explained. “Radio Bahrain was one of the first English radio channels styled on the lines of Western radio and after that Qatar and UAE followed suit.
“When I started doing the breakfast show, I ran competitions on the radio as the highlight of the show which became extremely popular. I did charity auctions, covered events like the raft race which was very big in Bahrain in those days, somewhat like the Formula One now!
“The breakfast show was an ideal time to be on air because that was probably the only time in the day when the radio had a steady and wide range of listeners.”
By the end of the 1970s, Bob was voted as the most popular DJ in a poll conducted by our sister paper, the Gulf Daily News.
He was as happy as a lark every morning marking a cheerful start to his listeners’ day. In his nine years at Radio Bahrain, Bob remembers being absent from the radio only twice.
He also interviewed Tina Turner twice when she was visiting Bahrain for concerts and was involved in doing promotional work for artists like Petula Clark and Billy Ocean. That was the time when Radio Bahrain used to regularly sponsor British comedians to perform on the island and Rowan Atkinson (now famously known as Mr Bean) travelled here twice.
In 1986, Bob returned to England and from being a hugely popular radio presenter in Bahrain he began his journey as an unknown DJ and started doing a weekend show at a local radio station in Plymouth.
“Since Radio Bahrain was a new venture I had a lot of creative freedom in terms of directing my own programmes. So I had a sort of unbridled creativity and confidence due to which I grew as a person and a radio presenter. This is what shone through in my early days in England. In fact, my success in UK has come from my learning here in Bahrain.”
Bob is presently a programme director at Pirate FM, the local station in Cornwall situated in the South West of England. He is also Pirate FM’s breakfast show presenter and is on the station’s board of directors.
He won the presenter of the year award for the Western region in the radio industry magazine awards for three consecutive years in 2004, 2005 and 2006. He also won the programmer of the year award in 2005 and 2007. Although Bob moved away, the Arabian archipelago was etched firmly in his mind and more often than not he spoke fondly of his Bahrain days to his second wife, Eve who had never visited the island.
Curiosity got the better of her and she along with Bob visited the island last week, the first visit for Bob after he left.
He still keeps his Bahraini driving license in his wallet and commented that the extensive causeway has changed the geography of Jasra and Janabiyah where he used to live. Although the age old charm of Bahrain is lost in the throes of modernity, the small pearl island will forever live close to his heart.

Most unusual request: Once a lady called to ask me to play a song for her horse whose birthday it was on that day.
My salary at Radio Bahrain: BD300 apart from the sponsorships and advertising fee.
Your personal favourite song: The Best’ by Tina Turner, she sang this song in Bahrain at a concert.
Your favourite line at the breakfast show on Radio Bahrain: It was the jingle 244244 give us a call, 244244 we play them all.
Favourite radio DJ: Chris Moyles on Radio 1 in England.

By Asma Salman