The BBC's John Peel:
Peel was one of the first broadcasters to play psychedelic rock and progressive rock records on British radio. He is widely acknowledged for promoting artists of many genres, including pop, dub reggae, punk rock and post-punk, electronic music and dance music, indie rock, extreme metal and British hip hop. Fellow DJ Paul Gambaccini described Peel as "the most important single person in popular music from approximately 1967 through 1978. He broke more important artists than any individual." [wikipedia]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geI2TbD3ihM
The UK was in a special place with regard to radio music discovery, though. John Peel originally started on pirate radio where he could play whatever he wanted. That created such a demand within the UK that he was able to move to a job at the BBC doing the same thing and draw a listenership from the whole country. But since HN is so American-centric, most of the posters here know radio of that time only as a much less adventurous format, unless you could listen to a “college radio” station (the USA’s only real analogue to Peel). Otherwise, corporate ownership of stations, with local stations receiving their playlist from corporate, meant no adventurous programming.
Several of my favourite artists have "Peel Sessions". But that was an entirely different era of history; the last episodes were over 25 years ago I think.
Peel ran his show on a state broadcaster network (BBC Radio 1), in a country where the state provided significant arts funding until the 1980s or so. That created a culture where it was possible to record and perform music full-time without living on the street. Many bands met at state-funded, zero-tuition art colleges. Those days are long gone.
The BBC's John Peel: Peel was one of the first broadcasters to play psychedelic rock and progressive rock records on British radio. He is widely acknowledged for promoting artists of many genres, including pop, dub reggae, punk rock and post-punk, electronic music and dance music, indie rock, extreme metal and British hip hop. Fellow DJ Paul Gambaccini described Peel as "the most important single person in popular music from approximately 1967 through 1978. He broke more important artists than any individual." [wikipedia] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geI2TbD3ihM