Like many people, he started his proper radio career in hospital radio, with the award winning Kidderminster Hospital Radio - unpaid of course.
He went on to work at AA Roadwatch in the late 80s, with a spell at Metro Travel and Trafficlink, in their "flying eye" traffic plane.
Mike was born in Sutton Park Road, Kidderminster, and went to Franche County Primary School and King Charles 1st Grammar School, Kidderminster.
His first job was as a salesman at Currys in Vicar Street Kidderminster, and after that he worked in The Midland Bank, and then back to the well known electrical retailer, to become manager of the Leominster store - he lived in Moreton on Lugg at this time.
He made an early start in radio. At the age of six he was using his brother's reel-to-reel tape to put on "shows" from the bedroom, with an extension speaker cable down to Mum and Dad in the kitchen below.
A spell of "pirate" radio in South Shropshire took him on to radio stations in the Black Country a