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Virgin: The Ray Cokes Show/London Calling

virgin.gif (1923 bytes)Starting from February 8th 1998, Ray concurred the airwaves again with a new radio show. After much international rumour and industry wide speculation Virgin Radio was proud to have secured the talents of this former MTV and Channel Four presenter. At first Ray only presented "The Ray Cokes Show", but after a couple of weeks he also started hosting "London Calling"

"The Ray Cokes Show" was a live interactive show with a Most Wanted kind of atmosphere It went on air every Sunday to Thursday between 20:30 and 23:00 CET.

Interactivity has been high on Ray's agenda during every show that he did and this time he pushed the meaning of 'interactivity' to the limit: There were of course the normal mails, faxes and emails, but as an extra bonus Virgin offered an own chat channel about Ray's show (#RayCokesLIVE) and a live webcam showing you the studio. During the show Ray joined the chat room so listeners were able to talk to him as he went live across the nation.

Although Ray was hosting his show on the British station Virgin Radio, fans from anywhere in the world were able to listen thanks to the Real Audio live stream, that Virgin offered on their website.

The Ray Cokes Show brought back Pathetic Pat. At first, he was sent all across the UK as part of "Post Pat" with some crazy missions from the listeners like "Ask my girlfriend if she wants to forgive me for the things that I've done (?!?)". At the end, he was the man in control of the phones: he answered all the calls and some of them were brought live on the air.

My favourite item on the show was 'the dating roulette', in which a girl had to choose between two male callers. The next day, she went on a dinner date with the chosen one. Of course everyone was wondering how it would work out between this week's great couple. That's why Ray called them back a week later to hear their accounts about what went on during the dinner and afterwards...

And who would forget 'Phone Sex', a very popular item that Ray had previously used on Most Wanted: Ray phoned up a couple that was having sex at that exact time (the girl was in on the joke) and he tried to push the boy into confessing that he was having sex. Of course the item led to some strange (and very hilarious) situations, but it proved to be funny every time.

"London Calling" was Ray's second show on Virgin Radio: it was a mix of the latest gossip, guests, live music and a chance to hear "The London Lottery" ... Every evening between 19:45 and 20:30 CET.

In July '98 Ray left Virgin Radio. This is the official statement, that he released:

July 20th, 1998 -- As you are probably aware by now, Virgin Radio and I have parted company. I was not happy there; indeed some of my colleagues where the nastiest people I have ever met.

I have been advised to say nothing further at present,......

In the meantime thank you so much for all your emails and support, whenever I'm down you bring me up again.

Love and respect,
Ray

It seems a shame that he left under such circumstances, especially as the shows improved a lot as time went on. Lets hope he will be back on our TV soon.

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This page has last been updated: 21-05-01

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