Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began his career in his home country at the age of sixteen playing jazz and classical music. He then joined Radio Luxembourg at the age of eighteen in 1968. His late-night shows concentrated on what was then referred to as "progressive" music and attracted many fans, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. By 1974, Jensen was becoming a TV personality in Britain, hosting pop shows on ITV, and in the mid-1970s he worked for the then-new Radio Trent (now Trent FM) in Nottingham, one of the first legal, land-based commercial radio stations in the UK. During the early part of his career he was billed as "Kid Jensen" and did not use his given name professionally until 1980.
In 1976 he joined the BBC's pop network, Radio 1, initially hosting a Saturday morning show from 10am-Midday, but sitting in for many other DJs, and eventually graduating to a weekday late afternoon/early evening show in the spring of 1978 from 4:30 to 7:00 PM. He kept his profile high through regular appearances presenting Top of the Pops, and championed many acts who went on to achieve huge commercial success, notably The Police and Gary Numan. He was effectively a halfway house between the specialist music-orientated DJs such as John Peel and the daytime "personality jocks" such as Dave Lee Travis.
In September 1980, Jensen left Radio 1 to work for the then-new CNN in Atlanta, but he returned a year later, presenting the weekday evening show from 8-10pm (later extended to run from 7-10 pm). Soon afterwards he dropped the "Kid" name, although he would still be popularly known by it for many years to come. His mid-evening show was dominated by indie-rock, but which also featured interviews with mainstream acts such as Duran Duran, and was the first show to champion Frankie Goes to Hollywood, long before their commercial success. He remained a regular Top of the Pops presenter and struck up a legendary partnership with John Peel.
In 1984, Jensen quit Radio 1 & joined London's Capital Radio, for whom he presented a weekday mid-morning show, then moving to weekday drivetime - as it was now called - in 1987.
In addition to his weekday shows he also presented the weekly The Network Chart Show, the UK's first syndicated commercial radio show which originally went out every Sunday between 5 and 7pm, directly opposite the BBC Radio 1 Top 40 show. Its anticipation of commercial radio's future direction is far more important than the chart it actually broadcast, which never equalled the definitive status of the official chart (then compiled by Gallup) used by Radio 1, even though it was considerably more up-to-date until the compilation of the official chart was speeded up in 1987.
While presenting the Network Chart, Jensen became ITV's unofficial "face" of pop music, presenting pop shows such as "The Roxy", an attempt to compete with Top of the Pops. He would continue to comment regularly on pop-related stories in ITN and Sky News bulletins for some time after he left the Network Chart in 1993, when he was replaced by Neil Fox (the show has since evolved into hit40uk). He continued to present the weekday drivetime show on what was now called Capital FM until 1998.
He also presented various children's programmes including Worldwise and Popquest.
In 1998 Jensen joined rival London FM station, Heart 106.2, presenting the weekday drivetime show from 4-7pm. He also presented a Saturday afternoon show which was networked on Birmingham's 100.7 Heart FM. In 2002 he returned to Capital and since then has been heard on its oldies service Gold, firstly presenting the Monday - Thursday late night show from 10pm - 1am, before taking over the weekday mid-morning slot in February 2003 before finally settling in the breakfast show, which he used to co-host with Erika North. David has now moved from the Breakfast Show to the late morning slot 10.00 – 13.00 and Saturdays from 9am - 12pm.
Jensen is married to wife Gudrun and they have three children. Their teenage son, Viktor, a successful racing driver, has entered the 2007 British and International Formula 3 Championship. He also founded the Kid Jensen Racing team that briefly raced in the Formula 3000 championship, which won one race at the hands of Nicolas Minassian in 1999 at Silverstone.
