Ray White was born in Shoreham, Sussex, England in 1952. He graduated in electrical and electronic engineering at Portsmouth Polytechnic and joined the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1973. In 1979 he became Senior Engineer at the Radiophonic Workshop, where he was responsible for the installation and maintenance of six electronic music studios. He also worked on initial designs for a Programme Presentation Suite for Radio One. In 1993 he left the BBC to persue a different lifestyle.