From sty to studio - there's no stopping Britain's oldest DJ

Now, at the grand old age of 96, Eric Cull stakes a claim of being Britain's oldest radio disc jockey - and he is still going strong.

The voluntary hospital radio presenter, of Wednesfield, has been in the radio business since 1963 and is currently part of the team at New Cross Hospital's Radio Wulfrun station - where he has worked for the past 24 years and presents a hour long show to patients every Sunday morning.

But it all began for Irish-born Eric when he was just nine years old and had to a recite a poem at a parents night at his old school in County Down, Northern Ireland.

"I love radio because it is a means of communicating," he said. "It all started when I was a boy and myself and two other pupils were asked to read something to the parents. I read a poem and the old schoolmaster said 'this boys voice will be heard by millions.' I always remembered that and it just stuck with me."

However, it wasn't until the early 1960s when the avid Wolves fan got his break and began to put his talents into practice behind the the decks - and Eric owes his start in broadcasting to four little piggies.

He was delivering packages to farms on behalf of a chemist when a generous customer gave him four piglets in return for his hard work.

After rearing the pigs for four years they died, and by 1963 Eric and his friend had converted the former pigsty into a studio where they spent the next eight years.

He said: "My friend and I made a program called Irish Interlude from the pigsty which was sent out to worldwide radio to the Far East, Caribbean and another to Ecuador. It was from sty to studio. That's where this journey all started.

"And when I look back I've been broadcasting for more than 60 years I have recorded shows from places across the world including Australia to a pigsty in Ireland."

Eric presented and produced shows in Northern Ireland before moving over the England in 1974. He started presenting for Beacon radio in Wolverhampton while working as a a flat superintendent across the road from where he lives now in Torridge Drive.

"There was a lot of trouble in the country during the 1970s and 80s, he said. "I was taken out of the car once and someone put a gun to my head. They told me to get out and they were wearing masks. I just thank God; he could have shot me.

"It was scary. And I knew I had to get out of there. I was 55 and I saw a flat superintendent job in Wolverhampton in the paper and before I knew it I had moved here."

In 1992, shortly after landing a role at Radio Wulfrun, then aged 73 when most people of that age would consider packing it in putting their feet up, Eric and his wife Joyce, were invited out to Australia after he had sent tapes of his shows to his niece, who lived in Perth.

The couple spent three months down under where they featured on two different radio shows in Perth and Freemantle.

Now, his Sunday morning show on the New Cross radio station includes interviews, discussion, as well as a program called Musical Memories which gives the senior patients a moment to take a step back into the past.

Eric says the purpose of the show is to help those listening to relax, rest, recover and return home - a process which he refers to as 'the four R's'.

"The program we do for hospital radio is to comfort and encourage people who are frightened and afraid to go through with an operation – it's something that can hopefully take their mind off it for a while."

"One woman recently rang us and told us she'd heard our program and that we had been a tremendous lift and a blessing to her. Six weeks later we were at her funeral and she never made it out of hospital but the fact the show meant so much to her at that time is the reason I do it."

He added: "I was told I had a voice for radio and I thank God for that. Broadcasting was something I was called to do. I wasn't highly educated and I often marvel at that.

"My broadcasting career has been enjoyable and very rewarding. My goal has always been to help people and if I can help someone along life's way then my life is worth living. What else do you want from life?"