Keith Skues

Biography

Skues was born in Timperley, Cheshire. His broadcasting career began on the British Forces Network in Cologne, Germany, in 1958. This was followed by overseas tours to Kuwait, Kenya and Aden. He returned to Britain in 1964 and joined Radio Caroline, then Radio Luxembourg in 1966 and Radio London in the summer of the same year.

He was one of the original presenters on the newly launched BBC Radio 1 in 1967, and was heard on the very first day, following on from Tony Blackburn, presenting Saturday Club. In 1969, he took over the weekday afternoon show before moving on to What's New, which was broadcast every weekday from 4.15–5.15pm. Other Radio shows included Album Time, Radio 1 Club and Night Ride, which was also broadcast simultaneously on BBC Radio 2.

Skues left Radio 1 in 1974 and was appointed director of Radio Hallam (now Hallam FM) in Sheffield. By 1980, he was the longest serving programme director in music radio. In 1987, Hallam merged with two other Yorkshire stations to form The Yorkshire Radio Network with Skues being made Group Programme Consultant. In 1989, the group launched Classic Gold on its AM frequencies and Skues became programme controller, as well as broadcasting six days a week.

In 1991, Skues briefly took over the afternoon show on BBC Radio Sheffield. He then had a brief spell on the late afternoon show on BBC Radio 2. In January 1992, he went to Saudi Arabia for two months as Public Relations Officer for the Royal Air Force detachment in Dhahran. Squadron Leader Skues was a member of the public relations team at RAF Marham for the 75th anniversary of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1993, an event which attended by members of the Royal Family.

From 1995, he broadcast programmes on Monday–Friday nights from 10pm–1am on BBC Radio Norfolk, BBC Radio Suffolk, BBC Essex, BBC Radio Northampton, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and BBC Three Counties. BBC Radio Lincolnshire also take his show on Sundays, although it is generally not in their BBC region.

In May 2005, Skues took semi-retirement, but could still be heard on the above BBC Local Radio stations on Sundays 9.00pm–1.00am with a show entitled Pirate Radio Skues, which included an "archive hour", replaying an hour of classic pirate radio from home-taped recordings. The "Archive Hour" was discontinued in 2009, following changes to BBC compliance rules. From the start of 2010, the word 'Pirate' was dropped from the programme's title, and the programme also included music from the 1970s. With effect from 3 October 2010, Keith's Eastern Counties programme was reduced in length - 11.00pm to 1.00am. From January 2013 his Sunday evening programme 'Skues Me' was extended by an hour and can be heard on BBC Radios Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Three Counties Radio, Cambridge, Northampton and Lincolnshire from 10.00pm to 1.00am; also heard on BBC iPlayer 'Listen Live' or 'Listen Again.'

From 2007 until 2010 he also had a rock and roll show Saturdays 7.00pm–9.00pm, entitled Rock'n'Roll Heaven, on BBC Three Counties Radio (Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire).

He was awarded an MBE in the 2004 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting and charity.