There is something that has stayed on my mind about mike dickin's death 7 years ago. A few weeks before mike died, George Galloway was interviewed on RTEs the late late show, he said in that interview that his show on talksport would soon be increased from 2 to 3 nights per week, well he got his third show in Mike Dickins friday night 10-1 slot, two days after mike died. I wonder was mike about to be dropped by talksport ?

Interview I refer to here, http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mFMev9t...IE&guid=&hl=en

Mike's last show here http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tOsOncJ...le&guid=&hl=en

For what it's worth (probably less than a couple of lira), I never thought the reported circumstances of his death sounded right. I have also never seen any reports online of the outcome of the inquest - surely there must have been one? I know he espoused the theory Diana's accident was stage-managed and wasn't afraid to repeat that view on air.

He was a miserable old git, but overall I thought he was a fine broadcaster. I miss his style of programme a lot more than I thought I would in this ever-increasing world of touchy feely, PC broadcasting.

Sad to see there appears to be so little interest in one of the best phone-in presenters the UK has produced to date. Memories are short.

Mike is sadly missed by me.

I always listened to him when I could.

Found this appropriately irreverent reminiscence:

http://thecreativeradiopartnership.b...t-dickins.html

(scroll down a little for the comment about Dickin)

Interesting conspiracy theory.

I've just found this... listen about 5'30" in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlkQ8FsP8g8

Tell you what I often think of Mike Dickens and wish he was still on in the mornings so I could get away from 5 live......

Hell I even miss Scott Chisholm and Anna Raeburn................

Top broadcaster who's style is sadly missed.

Was lucky enough to have spoken to him a couple of times when he did the mid morning show on TS

I've always thought there was something very odd about Mike's death, I'm not sure what, but just odd.

Even the way it was reported was weird, it's difficult to find much about it at all and the details are scarce. I refuse to believe he caused, and died in, an accident while driving normally near his home, given his experience with vehicles.

Apart from that, I have many radio heroes, but consider Mike to be the King of radio.

R.I.P. Mike, much missed, never forgotten.

Why is there anything odd about MD's death? He was well overweight, liked his food and beer, and was known to have a short fuse. He was originally sacked from LBC for punching a producer. All good ingredients for a heart attack from which he is believed to have died whilst driving.

Indeed.
His condescending nature and casual racism, and attempting to set the world record for the number of times a programme could be based on parking tickets rivalled that other repulsive oik Gaunt for absurd repetitiveness.

Dickin never could understand the fundamentals of endowment mortgages, now matter how many explained the simple principle of the product.

Obviously unfit to be on radio then

So his health was in question after all.

Maybe he answered his doctor the same way he answered his callers when they asked!

He was particularly good in Battle Of The Titans at Christmas in argument with his fellow presenters, but as far as I am concerned could be quite needlessly obnoxious, brusque and rude for no good reason. Although he could also be a decent listen, many times I just switched off because of his attitude to people.

Not with me i posted a tribute to Mike Dcikin on here in a couple of years ago all it got was about 5 replies.

He is undoutedly one of the finest UK Phone in presenters ever,his final show on religeon with Prof Richard Dawkins was a classic and worthy finale.

Why so few appear to remember him is a mystery i will never forget him.

RIP Mike Dickin.

No and he has been proved right as in the end Endowment Mortgages very often could not pay off the original debt,as the value of the endowment investment plummeted in recent years.

No wonder he could not get his head around them.

IE You are relying on something that could go up or down to pay off a debt, worse still if it went sour you could be Homeless.

My point was not whether or not they were a reliable, sensible product or not but the actual mechanics of how they function.

Dickin had literally dozens of programmes on the subject but failed to comprehend at any stage - that and his absolute belief that the moon landings were fake just about summed his intellect up.

Mike was a superb broadcaster and journalist, and once you got beyond that gruff exterior, you would soon realise he had a kind heart.

Here's the truth: There was a period some time before he died when he was away from talkSPORT for quite a while, on health grounds. He returned, but only on Friday and Saturday nights, and broadcast from a specially-built studio near his home in Cornwall, as travelling to London so often may have become a bit much for him.

In the final year or two of his life he mellowed somewhat, he was less abrupt with callers, he could be heard breathing heavily while on air and he kept discussing the same topics time and time again. Whether this was his choice or was coming from orders of station management I've no idea. He was still a decent listen, though.

Mike was overweight, a heavy drinker, and, for many years, a smoker (he'd given up several years before he died). I'm fairly sure he gave up the booze following his illness as well. He'd been ill, and had taken an extended break from work. Guys, it really isn't all that inconceivable that he should suffer a heart attack behind the wheel.

I never knew this.

He actually believed that the moon landings were a fraud? All 6 of them! Now that is beyond foolish. I would always have imagined him firmly in the other camp on this one, ridiculing people with that belief. Heaven knows what his own reasoning for that must have been.

I vividly recall the last time I listened to him on Talksport, on a Friday night, 8th December 2006 it must have been well after 10pm and I was hanging lights outside with his voice tearing into Tony Blair over something. He sounded on form. That was the last I ever heard.

Talk Radio was a blast when it started. Mike Dicken was a legend.

(Hi Rich hope your keeping well mate!)
Mike Dickin on occasions had me switching straight off or over to other channels he could be ultra annoying to listen to at times when he was in insult mode but I have no intentions of insulting his memory any more than saying that because I know many people really loved hearing him and Mike's sadly not here any more to defend himself.

It doesn't really surprise me Mike didn't believe in the moon landings didn't he also have weird theories on other subjects too, I'm with you it's totally and outrageously ridiculous to think it didn't happen but let all the non-believers carry happily wanting to believe it didn't happen they'll be saying next Lee Oswald didn't kill JFK, the FBI killed Monroe and 9/11 was an inside job OOPS THEY ALREADY DO DON'T THEY.

After the spirited Buzz Aldrin stuck a right hook on a conspiracy theorist, I'd always hoped Dickin might have invited Aldrin to the studio.

http://www.allproudamericans.com/Buz...-Theorist.html

Very nearly posted on the actual Talksport thread about 3 days ago after giving it a quick peruse Billy.

I never really had Mike Dicken down as a conspiracy theorist. Maybe I've simply forgotten.

What I do recall is that if you listened to him on DAB and wearing a decent set of headphones, as I always did even to speech radio, you could clearly hear him wheezing in the background at times even when other people were talking. You could hear the swivel chair squeak too.

But this style of radio is certainly missed nationally. He was on air at Talksport at the exact time news of Diana came through and announced it on air.

....and we have the first "soft landing" on the moon this very day today, the first since 1976, by the Chinese...allegedly!