Wilson was born in 1948 in Dunoon, Scotland and educated at the co-educational, comprehensive Dunoon Grammar School. He then studied at the University of Dundee and University College, Cardiff - where he was one of the first intake of 16 to the first-ever postgraduate journalism course in the UK, run by Tom Hopkinson of "Picture Post" fame. Wilson was the founding editor and publisher of the "West Highland Free Press" which he established along with three friends from Dundee University. In his student days, they had worked together promoting entertainment. In a BBC Alba documentary on his career, Wilson described promoting Pink Floyd in Dunoon in September 1968 as "the apex of my career". The early days of the "West Highland Free Press" were subsidised by revenue from entertainment promotion.