Ex radio head gives talk on his career - including starting out in strip joint

The former head of BBC Radio in Scotland is to make an appearance in Perth with his brand new book.

Jeff Zycinski has come face-toface with prime ministers, princesses and Hollywood actors during his 30 years working in radio, and has now written a self-styled“laugh and tell”memoir about how his own career began in a Soho strip club.

He will be discussing his new book‘The red light zone’when he visits Waterstones in Perth on Thursday, March 28. Jeff said:“I was fully clothed. “I was recruited by Capital Radio for a programme covering 24 hours in the life of London.

“I was sent to the Raymond Revue Bar because I had the look of someone who could blend into the background of a seedy nightclub.”

In the book, Jeff describes his early years working for Moray Firth Radio in Inverness and Radio Clyde in Glasgow, before he applied for a job at BBC Radio Tweed, based in Selkirk.

He continued:“Unfortunately, Radio Tweed had been shut down a year before I got there, so I did wonder if they had made a mistake.

“But they gave me a big empty office and a huge desk, so I stuck with it.”

The book includes accounts of numerous meetings with the rich and famous, including a to-and-fro encounter with Margaret Thatcher in Glasgow, ambushing Richard Branson and speaking to Princess Anne about bus routes in Govan.

His book also discusses the different leadership roles of various BBC directors general.

And a time when he performed stand-up comedy in basement clubs under the pseudonym Johnny Sellotape will also be discussed in‘The red light zone’.

‘The red light zone’was published at the end of last month and can be bought from Waterstones or online from Amazon, and he will be in Perth’s Waterstones on Thursday, March 28.