Kenny Everett (who changed his name from Maurice Cole in the mid-1960s) was fascinated by radio from childhood; with money gained from newspaper delivery rounds, he bought reel-to-reel tape recorders on which he recorded inventive mini-programs: music interspersed with comedy clips and speeches by politicians edited to humorous effect.

     In 1964 he sent one of these programs, "The Maurice Cole Quarter of an Hour Show" (which, typically, actually ran for some 20 minutes), to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London. To his amazement and delight he was invited onto a morning magazine program on the Light Programme (the Corporation's light music and speech network), on which the tape was played in full and Everett was interviewed. Although he impressed the BBC producers sufficiently to be invited back for a formal audition, he was told there were no vacancies at the corporation. However, one of the producers was covertly acting as a "talent spotter" for a new "pirate" radio station, the United States-backed Radio London, which was to become one of the most successful of the unauthorized stations broadcasting from outside the United Kingdom's territorial limits. Soon after boarding the converted U.S. minesweeper that served as Radio London's studios and transmitter, Everett met Canadian Dave Wish-who changed his name to Dave Cash. The two became firm friends and, after listening to tapes of a double-headed disc jockey show on KLIF in Texas, the Charlie and Harrigan Show, which featured comic characters wisecracking with a generally irreverent style, the pair began the Kenny and Cash Show, which became hugely popular. Everett would often stay up all night recording what were quickly to become his trademark comedy pieces for his own shows and "zany" promotions for other disc jockeys.

     However, Everett's unpredictable comments and outspoken views-especially on religion-led to his being dismissed by the station. He had taken exception to the pronouncements from U.S. evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong, who paid for a half-hour daily program that was scheduled in the middle of Everett's. The disc jockey frequently edited Armstrong's tapes to make it appear as if the evangelist were promoting violent crime, and Armstrong was generally lampooned by Everett, who had once been to a college for training Catholic priests. Armstrong happened to be visiting England during one of Everett's outbursts, and the evangelist demanded Everett be removed from the station or he would remove his program-one of Radio London's most lucrative contracts. 

     For a time Everett recorded a program for Radio Luxembourg, but he was again dismissed, this time for admitting in a newspaper interview that he had smoked cannabis. Forgiven by Radio London, he returned to the station in 1966-this time at ten times his original salary, a then enormous sum of £150 a week-in time to be chosen by the Beatles to accompany them to the United States to be the official disc jockey on what was to be their last tour. During this tour he forged a close relationship with his fellow Liverpudlians-then the biggest show business phenomenon in the world-and this was to pay off in subsequent exclusive interviews, previews of the group's albums, and the Fab Four's recording special jingles for Everett on both BBC and commercial radio.

     When it became clear that the government was intent on forcing the pirates off the air, Everett jumped ship and this time was accepted by the BBC, which was about to launch the pop network Radio 1. At first, though, Everett was restricted to a weekly lunchtime show and recording jingles and promotions. His patience was rewarded with a weekly Sunday morning program and, eventually, a daily show. However, Everett's outspokenness and refusal to obey instructions from the "suits" led to his being sacked by the BBC in April 1970. Officially this was because of a potentially libelous remark-although clearly intended humorously-about the wife of a government minister. In reality, though, this incident provided the excuse the BBC mandarins had been looking for since Everett began attacking the Musicians' Union, whose leaders were in delicate discussions with the corporation over the amount of airtime given to playing music off of records (the Union thought that unlimited use of such recordings would deprive its members of their livelihood).

     Then began a fallow period for the disc jockey, who was by this time widely recognized as one of the greatest on-air talents in the United Kingdom. Everett recorded programs for a few BBC local radio stations and did some television work. Then in early 1973 the BBC relented, and he was allowed back on Radio 1, but only if he would record his shows to allow producers to "vet" them before broadcast. Their judicious editing left some programs running considerably shorter than their allotted transmission time. However, salvation from this unsatisfactory existence came with the start of legal commercial radio in October 1973. Everett became one of the first-and most important-hires of the greater London service, Capital Radio. By Christmas of that year, Everett had teamed up again with Dave Cash to revive the Kenny and Cash Show at the vital breakfast period-again this was a huge success. However, now Everett's personal life was to have a dramatic impact on his career. Although he married in 1969, Everett had struggled throughout his adult life with latent homosexuality and had had a series of crushes on heterosexual men. When one of these-an engineer at Capital-rebuffed him in 1975, Everett made a serious attempt at suicide, leaving a note explaining his anguish at the unrequited love. However, much to Everett's evident frustration, he was found just before the sleeping tablets had a lethal effect.

     After a period of recuperation, Everett returned to a weekly program at Capital. This was one of the most creative periods of his career, during which he created a comic space serial, Captain Kremmen and the Krells. Kremmen-forever saving the world from the evil Krells-was Everett's alter ego, inspired by 1950s BBC radio serials such as Journey into Space.

     In 1978 Thames Television persuaded him to do a highly successful and inventive television show for the Independent Television (ITV) network. In 1982 the show switched to the BBC and was to run for five years at prime time on the main- stream BBC-1 channel. In October 1981 he also switched to BBC for his radio work-this time on the supposedly easy listening network, Radio 2. A risque joke about Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the last program under his contract led to his final departure from BBC radio. In 1988 Everett returned to Capital Radio for a daily program on the golden oldies AM service, "Capital Gold," which he continued until July 1994, when, increasingly ill from AIDS-related illnesses, he felt obliged to give up work. He died in April 1995. His funeral service a few days later was attended by many of the biggest names in British show business. Everett's "Wireless Workshop" studio was donated by his sister Kate to the Paul McCartney-sponsored Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts.