[1] As Dave Dennis, from 1964 to 1966 he was the "Double D", the fastest-talking and highest-rated DJ on Radio London, operating from the pirate ship MV Galaxy and broadcasting alongside future household names such as Kenny Everett and Tony Blackburn.
[2] As Neil Spence, from 1968 to 1985 he oversaw the early radio careers of James Whale, Roger Scott, Adrian Love, Graham Dene, Jeremy Vine and Dale Winton, among many others who would reach the top of the UK broadcasting industry.
[6] He attended the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama in London for a three-year acting course, and then spent time in English repertory theatre.
A short time later he was as at Radio Invicta, a "sweet music station" which broadcast from a second world war fort at Red Sands, near Whitstable in Kent.
[8] Late in 1964 a demo tape won Spence a lunchtime spot on Radio London, which was due to begin broadcasting in December that year from the motor vessel MV Galaxy.
Among his early colleagues were Earl Richmond, Kenny Everett, Dave Cash, and senior DJ Tony Windsor, who had been with Spence at Radio Atlanta.
"[9] After a shaky start, Spence became comfortable with the Radio London format and quickly established his lunchtime show as the most popular on the station, working live for three hours a day, often in rough seas where gramophone needles skipped across vinyl records, and with blankets to deaden the echo from the steel walls of the studio.
His parting shot was a hit single which reached number 19 in the station's own chart, featuring his sickly-sweet reading to music of a Victorian newspaper editorial,[12] 'Yes, Virginia', reassuring a young girl that Santa Claus did indeed exist.
However, by the time he arrived at Radio London in late 1964 his performance was still considered "stuffy" by senior DJ Tony Windsor and programme director Ben Toney.
As new voices came on board, Spence the actor-DJ resolutely maintained the Dave Dennis character, catchphrases and all, in the face of a rising tide of ever more elaborate jokes aimed against him.
[28] As the comedy became more sophisticated, Spence found himself on air with Everett having been invited to recite the weirdly obscure lyrics of the song "Along Comes Mary" by The Association in his best actorly voice.
After the words of the final chorus, "When we met I was sure out to lunch, Now my empty cup tastes as sweet as the punch," Everett announced: "That was "Along Comes Mary", ladies and gentlemen, as Dave Dennis crawls out of the studio on his knees."
[29] Recordings of Spence's lunchtime programme as Dave Dennis[30] show his own humour breaking through his former style, as he combines a rich British-accented voice with an irreverent approach which slyly and then more confidently sends up the BBC announcers of the day, with the speed of his delivery matching the rhythm of the music he plays and his theme tune 'Go Mean' by Ruffle.
[31] On his return, his presentation style was even faster than before, as if to eliminate any possibility of dead air, and his microphone technique was adapted to cut through mush by making maximum use of the station's transmitter power.
After his departure from the station, Spence's Christmas single recorded under his own name made full use of his actor-DJ talents and his acerbic humour - any eight-year-old listening would genuinely believe there was a Santa Claus, while anyone older would hoot with laughter at the cloying sentimentality.
On listening to Winton's second show at Radio Trent, Spence "true to form, pulled my performance to pieces with all the skill of a friendly surgeon without the use of anaesthetic.
Given the qualities and immediacy of the medium, it was crucial for DJs to have the ability to recover from a mistake or a setback and continue to broadcast effectively and entertainingly, and Spence's withering critiques could be seen as essential to build on-air resilience.
"The whole station is run on tight commercial lines," he told trade magazine Billboard, but added: "Unlike US Top 40 we allow much scope for a DJ's personality - and for factories in England this is just what is needed and indeed, required.
He brought on presenters suitable for ILR stations, which although they carried advertising, had a strong public service requirement as well as a commercial need to appeal to as many people in their local area as possible.
"[38] The actor-DJ who had thrived on a comedic onslaught by Dave Cash and Kenny Everett was careful to tell trainees that the only result if they did this to their own colleagues would be to make the butt of their jokes more popular, and their own ratings slide.
Spence took a high standard of technical competence as a basic requirement to present a tightly formatted show, and a bright personality was an absolute essential.
Spence's critiques were always delivered while wearing his trademark dark suit and polished shoes, with every inch of his angular six foot two frame reinforcing that he was in charge.
He was not the only DJ broadcasting to the UK to develop the American top-40 format for a British audience, but he was the first to master it, and he took it further and faster than his contemporaries, making early pirate radio colleagues like Earl Richmond and Tony Windsor look stuffy in their turn.
In the event, in 1967 the British government introduced the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, and the BBC established its national pop music station Radio 1.
[40] Spence's legacy as what Dale Winton called "one of the best ever DJs on pirate radio"[41] could easily have been a host of imitators in the same Dave Dennis Double-D mould.
"[44] In a profession tending naturally towards self-obsession, while Radio 1's ex-pirate DJs matured into their comfortable berths, Spence was developing not his own presentation style but that of others - together with a finely tuned ear for how a station should sound, what made it distinctive from its competitors, and most importantly how it could stay in touch with its audience.