BBC SUSPENDS DRUG CLAIM DJ

The Radio 2 disc jockey Johnnie Walker has been suspended from his job,
after allegations in a Sunday newspaper that he regularly took cocaine.

Mr Walker, who presents the drive-time show four times a week as well as a
Saturday afternoon slot, is alleged to have snorted cocaine in front of
undercover reporters from the News of the World. The article claims he also
supplied a prostitute to the journalists who were posing as potential
business contacts.

The BBC decided to suspend him within hours of the paper's publication. A
spokesman said: "Johnnie Walker has been suspended from his Radio 2 show
pending a full BBC investigation to be led by Jenny Abramsky, director of
radio. Use of illegal drugs is something we take very seriously."

Walker issued no statement last night and the BBC would not reveal whether
he had admitted or denied the allegations.

The allegations against Walker, 55, sit awkwardly with the comfortably staid
corporate image of Radio 2. Despite his slightly anti-establishment persona,
Mr Walker has won hearts throughout middle England since joining the station
just over a year ago and his laid-back tones are listened to by 3.5 million
people every week.

Walker launched his career as a pirate disc jockey on Radio Caroline. From
1969 he spent seven years at Radio 1, championing names like Steve Harley,
Lou Reed, Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. His outspoken views and insistence
that he be allowed to play more than the 70 records on the playlist made his
relationship with his employers increasingly uneasy. He resigned in 1976 and
moved to California.

He rejoined the station to play "adult-orientated rock" in 1991. He received
the 1995 Radio Academy-Music Monitor award for outstanding contribution to
music radio.