Robin Houston (born London, 1947) is a British voiceover artist and former announcer, radio and television newsreader and quiz show host. After starting his career as an announcer and stage manager, he became one of the pioneers of commercial radio in the United Kingdom. He went on to read the news on television for 15 years and to become one of the most well known announcers in television entertainment. For many years he was a host of television quiz shows, and is now a veteran voiceover artist with over 50 years' experience in the field.
In October 1973 he became a founding presenter and producer at Capital Radio in London, one of the first two commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom, broadcasting from their studios at Euston Tower. There he read the weekend news bulletins[3] and served as one of the producers of the daily news magazine programme London's Day. At the beginning of 1974 Capital revamped its programming[4] and he became Capital's senior newsreader, presenting morning bulletins in the new Kenny Everett Breakfast Show and the Tommy Vance and Michael Aspel programmes.[5] In October 1974, with other leading Capital presenters, he joined in recording the 1st anniversary single which was freely distributed to listeners.[6] In the same month he took over the position of News Editor in addition to his newsreading duties. November 1974 saw Capital Radio close down its newsroom for financial reasons (causing 12 journalists to be made redundant)[4] and he moved to LBC, the UK's first commercial radio station, broadcasting from studios in Gough Square, off Fleet Street in the City of London.
There he became a newsreader for Independent Radio News and a daytime news programme presenter for LBC[7] while acting as a relief presenter on LBC's breakfast show, AM.[8] In the late summer of 1975 he took over the station's early evening classical music show and the late-night phone-in and arts interview duties, presenting Robin Houston's Nightline[9] At the start of 1976 he became LBC's daily drive time presenter on Newsbreak, a combination of news, features and arts interviews.[10] Expressing a desire to move into television, he ceased working full-time for LBC at the end of 1976.
While still presenting occasionally for LBC and making early appearances on television, from 1977 to 1979 he became a regular music presenter on the BBC World Service radio channel, broadcasting from Bush House in London, on The Robin Houston Request Show, Sounds International and Anything Goes.[11]
Television news
For over 14 years, from September 1978, he presented the lunchtime bulletins of Thames News on Thames Television, covering the ITV region of London and the home counties. From April 1980 he also presented the nightly late Thames News bulletins, broadcast immediately after News at Ten.
He continued to be seen twice-daily on Thames News until the end of Thames Television's contract in December 1992. He read over 5,500 news bulletins in that time.[12][13]
He was one of very few broadcasters to work for both the Thames Television and London Weekend Television franchises at the same time.[14] While presenting Thames News on weekdays he was also an in-vision continuity announcer and promotions voiceover for London Weekend Television from 1977 to 1979[15] and for 15 years he was the voiceover announcer for the majority of the entertainment and awards shows produced by LWT between 1977 and 1992. As such he established a style and expertise appropriate for the time which has since been much copied, but seldom matched.[16] In the same period, and until 1997, he also announced entertainment and awards programmes for Thames Television, for a number of other ITV companies and for BBC Television.
As an announcer he provided the voiceovers for over 850 ITV television shows:
For BBC Television he also announced Clive James' New Year specials and Dame Edna Live at the Palace.
From March 1997 as a voice-only presenter he launched the daily half-hour-long quiz show 100% on five days a week for the new television station Channel 5.[17] He made 1100 shows over several contiguous series for a period of nearly 5 years, pulling in good ratings for the channel, but the show was finally dropped at the end of 2001 as part of a station revamp. For financial reasons no editing time was available, so shows had to be transmission-ready at the end of each recording. A normal recording day saw 10 shows being made, but on one day a record number of 12 shows was recorded.
He also recorded 35 100% specials and 38 late-night versions of the show. He asked over 117,000 questions during the show's run.[18][19][20]
From May 2000 he also took over as in-vision host of an additional daily half-hour Channel 5 quiz show One to Win. This also had good ratings and ran to 208 shows over two series.[17]
As well as his broadcast work, since 1967 he has voiced and presented commercials, conferences and conventions, training and internal communication films, product launches and awards ceremonies. Major clients have included IBM, Campaign magazine, BMW, the Royal College of Nursing and Volvo Cars.
He has also narrated over 100 audiobooks for the Talking Book service of the Royal National Institute of Blind People,[25] for Listening Books' Sound Learning educational initiative[26] and for other publishers.
Throughout his life he has written casual articles and occasional obituaries for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, The Independent and The Oldie[27] and five of his audio dramas—A Bark of the Fox, Essay on Betrayal, The Trumpet in the Hall, Peter in the Sky, and an adaptation of Godfrey Smith's novel The Business of Loving—have been produced by BBC Radio 4.[28][29]
Christopher John Tarrant, is an English broadcaster, television personality and former radio DJ. He presented the ITV children's television show Tiswas from 1974 to 1981, and the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? from 1998 to 2014. He was a Capital Radio host from 1984 to 2004. Tarrant received an OBE in 2004 for his charity work, in particular his campaigning on behalf of disadvantaged children.
Kenny Everett was an English radio DJ and television entertainer. After spells on pirate radio and Radio Luxembourg in the mid-1960s, he was one of the first DJs to join BBC Radio's newly created BBC Radio 1 in 1967. It was here he developed his trademark voices and comical characters which he later adapted for television.
Michael Terence Aspel is a retired English television newsreader and host of programmes such as Crackerjack, Ask Aspel, Aspel & Company, Give Us a Clue, This is Your Life, Strange but True? and Antiques Roadshow.
Capital London is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. Its brief was to entertain, while its opposite number, London Broadcasting (LBC), was licensed to provide news and information. In search of a larger audience in 1974, Capital Radio rapidly moved from a general and entertainment station with drama, features, documentaries and light music to a more successful pop music-based format.
Angela May Rippon is an English television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter.
Timothy Leslie "Tommy" Boyd is a British radio presenter.
Alan Dedicoat is an English announcer for programmes on BBC One. He is known as the "Voice of the Balls" on the National Lottery programmes, providing a voiceover for the draws since 1995. He was a BBC Radio 2 newsreader until his retirement from this role in March 2015. Dedicoat is the announcer on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing and its American version, Dancing with the Stars.
Jenny Powell is an English television and radio presenter. After appearing on No Limits, she went on to present series such as Wheel of Fortune, UP2U, Gimme 5, Live Talk, Wordplay and Daybreak.
Jon Briggs is an English television, radio presenter and narrator. He is known for his voice-over work and as the British voice used by Apple Inc.'s Siri virtual assistant software.
Lisa Soraya Aziz is a British news presenter. She is best known as the presenter of the Morning News on LBC. Before this she worked for ITV Westcountry as a co-presenter for the evening news programme The West Country Tonight. She later resigned from that post. She also presented the news on TV-am and Sky News, and was one of the first Asian presenters to be seen on television. In 2004, she was the recipient of an EMMA award for Best Television News Journalist. Aziz currently presents the breakfast show on the UK's first 24-hour rolling news radio station LBC News.
Tricia Ingrams was a journalist and interviewer best known as a reporter and presenter of Thames Television's regional news programme Thames News.
Tracey Crawford is a former British television continuity announcer and radio presenter.
Nigel Williams, sometimes known as NJ Williams is a British broadcaster and voice over artist.
LWT News was a regional news service provided by London Weekend Television, serving the Greater London area in various formats between January 1982 and 3 January 1993.
This is a list of events in British radio during 2013.
Neville Wanless was an English broadcaster from North East England, best known for his work at Tyne Tees Television.
This is a timeline of Capital London, from its initial period as an Independent Local Radio station for Greater London to the present day CHR network serving most of the UK.
Ronald Edward Derek Onions OBE was an English broadcast journalist who in the 1970s pioneered a new style of radio news on the emerging local independent stations in Britain. Inspired by US radio stations heard while he was working in New York, Onions established significant change in news presentation with regular hourly bulletins which were brisk, vivid and immediate. His populist, almost tabloid, presentation was in contrast to the cautious, traditional and less frequent bulletins of the national broadcaster. The style quickly became established throughout the United Kingdom.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
