Island Life Magazine Ltd January/February 2006 | Page 6

INTERVIEW

King of the
wind-ups

“the Island-born DJ likes to think he’s more provocative than
nasty, and aims to be thought-provoking rather than destructive”.

His morning talk show is probably the most listened-to programme on
Isle of Wight radio – and it certainly does what it says on the tin: gets
people talking.
In fact Alex Dyke has found himself in hot water on more than one
occasion for his pranks and send-ups.
But the Island-born DJ likes to think he’s more provocative than nasty,
and aims to be thought-provoking rather than destructive.
Jackie McCarrick caught up with “Big Al” and got a glimpse of what
makes this local legend of the airwaves tick.

cross the Solent from Lymington with a grey squirrel to let loose among
the Island’s famously protected population of reds.
Police were called in by outraged local squirrel protectionists, and the
upshot was that the DJ ended up eating humble pie with a court
appearance for wasting police time.
“It was an awful thing to get done for wasting police time,” says Alex,
who received a hefty fine and was bound over to keep the peace. “But
there was never any malice in it, it just seemed like a good joke at the
time”.

If there’s one stunt that stands out from Alex Dyke’s bag of tricks since
joining Isle of Wight Radio five years ago, it’s undoubtedly
“Squirrelgate”.
That was when he did a spoof report on a “terrorist” who planned to

In fact, it sounds as if Alex’s daily slot with his old buddy David Holmes
(“The Doc”) is a daily barrel of laughs for the on-air duo.
“We go on at 11am and we laugh on and off until 2 – I can’t think of a
better way of earning a living than talking to people and having fun,

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