Ik doe het even in het Engels

 

 

Mid December it was Christine Hatt who mentioned to us that her husband John Hatt was taken into hospital on December 1st with Pneumonia. It was in Wexham Park Hospital where he stayed the following weeks and was treated three times. Friday December 29th the sad news came in that John Hatt has lost his fight and died. John Hatt was known under deejay/presenter names as John Aston, John Stewart and Chris Stewart.

Here was is to find on the Pirate Hall of Fame: John Aston was born in March 1943 in Maidenhead, Berkshire, and worked on a number of pirates under a variety of guises. He was first heard in 1965 on the low-powered sweet music station K I N G Radio where he called himself John Stewart. He stayed on as this station was replaced by the much more powerful and successful Radio 390 but he had to change his name when he applied to join Equity, the actors' union.

 

They already had a John Stewart on their books so he became known as Chris Stewart. In November 1965 he replaced Vince Allen as Programme Controller on Radio Essex, moving to Caroline North as a newsreader in May the following year. This prompted a further name change because Caroline already had a broadcaster called Bob Stewart and the two names were considered too similar. John took the identity he was to stick with for the rest of his career: John Aston.

 

After a time selling advertising for Radio England and a stint on Caroline South he joined Radio 270, where he was known as “Action” John Aston. In April 1967 he transferred to the short-lived but much loved middle-of-the-road station Radio 355.

 

Since his offshore days John has worked in the film industry, producing special effects, but has also been heard regularly on Blast 1386, Thames Valley University Reading Campus Radio.’

 

 

Our sincere condolences go out to Christine and the family. In 2014 he was presented with an award for his outstanding contribution to offshore radio at the Amsterdam Radio Day. His friend Greg Bance did the laudation and you can here it on 9.40 in the following recording.

 

http://www.radioday.nl/2014/audios/RadioDay2014-13-Awards + Farewell.mp3

Photo copyright Alan Milewczyk

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