Paul Barnes (1939 [1] -2025 [2] ) was a British broadcaster and journalist. During his career, he presented on both radio and television.
Barnes was born in July 1939 in Coventry. [1] He attended Leamington College and Coventry College of Art. [3]
Prior to working as a broadcaster, Barnes worked in documentary film production, advertising and publishing. [3]
Barnes's career in broadcasting spanned 49 years. [4] Barnes's first radio broadcast took place in 1969. [3] Following this first broadcast, Barnes then became presenter of Out of this Week on BBC Radio 4. [5] Barnes began presenting Sunday in 1972. [6] Barnes was the first presenter of Newsbeat on BBC Radio 1 [7] in 1973. [8] Barnes worked as a presenter and/or reporter on Jazz Notes, Outlook, Sunday, Woman's Hour, The World at One, Today and several other radio programmes during his radio career; [3] Barnes presented Today between 1975 and 1977. [9] In the 1970s, Barnes worked as a reporter for Woman's Hour. [10]
Barnes's career in television began when he was appointed a presenter on Granada TV in Manchester in the very early 1970s. [5] At ITV, Barnes presented Folio, Anything Goes and The Village Show. [7] In approximately 1997, Barnes began presenting a show on BBC Local Radio in the East of England called The Late Paul Barnes, which in 2009 was broadcast between 11pm and 1am at the weekend. [5] The show always involved Barnes signing off in the same way [11] and focused on jazz and big band music. [12] In 2011, Barnes received a jazz broadcaster of the year award. Barnes left the BBC in 2018. [4]
Barnes also once managed a school, for training people to become pilots, at Norwich Airport. [11]
In March 2025, it was announced that Barnes had died. Barnes was married until his death to Helen McDermott, who was also a broadcaster. [2]