Born: 29 January 1943
Known for: After beginning his career as a singer, Blackburn then worked as a DJ for the offshore pirate radio stations Radio Caroline and Radio London (1964–1967), before joining the BBC in 1967, initially broadcasting on the BBC Light Programme. Blackburn was the first DJ to be heard on BBC Radio 1 when it officially launched at 7 am on 30 September 1967, with his first words on the new station being "And good morning everyone! Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1!"
He was in a group called Tony Blackburn and the Rovers which at one point included Al Stewart; they performed in Bournemouth and the surrounding areas. His singing career failed to take off, although 3 studio albums and 14 singles were released, of which two, "So Much Love" and "It's Only Love", made the UK Top 40 in 1968 and 1969 respectively.
Blackburn has won two lifetime achievement awards from the Radio Academy, the second of which was to mark his fifty years of broadcasting.
He fell out with the BBC in 2016, but on 30 September 2017, Blackburn recreated his first breakfast show on BBC Radio 2, playing the songs from vinyl, and he later joined Nick Grimshaw, and guests Mike Read, Simon Mayo and Sara Cox for a special show to celebrate BBC Radio 1's and BBC Radio 2's 50th anniversary.
Tony continues to work in radio, and in 2020 he teamed up with Kaiser Chiefs frontman, Ricky Wilson to present a new series of podcasts entitled Ricky and Tony's Pop Detectives. The shows centre around Blackburn and Wilson trying to unravel long held myths and rumours about pop stars lives and their music.
Bournemouth Connection: Blackburn was born in Guildford, Surrey, but in 1946 his family moved to Bournemouth. He was educated at Castle Court School in Parkstone, Poole, Dorset. He gained entry to Millfield School in Somerset on a sports scholarship and captained the school's cricket team. He left before taking any examinations, but gained O-levels, following private tuition, and enrolled for an HND course in Business Studies at Bournemouth Technical College.
Series Information: This series started in 2020, recognising the fine people of Bournemouth. For the first 4 years, cache series would be published at Christmas, or New Year, which replaced the "Lost Christmas Caches" at that time of year. A yearly series would consist of 9 traditional caches, with a bonus to find. In total, 40 caches were published until 2023. Now, all remaining caches are stand-alone caches, and from 2024, new ones will be added to the series.