Career
Stuart started his professional broadcasting career with BBC Radio Birmingham in 1970, moving to the then developing commercial radio network with the launch of Radio Hallam in Sheffield in 1974.
He spent six years at Radio Hallam and while there he also appeared from time to time on the regional ITV station Yorkshire Television).
In 1980 Stuart was part of the launch team at Coventry's Mercia Sound. He stayed at Mercia for 15 years, initially as Sports Editor and afternoon show presenter, going on to be Managing Director and Programme Controller. In that time he also worked for BRMB in Birmingham, RAM FM in Derby and Leicester Sound.
In 1995 he returned to the BBC to host radio and TV programmes in the Midlands, including the Breakfast Shows on BBC WM and BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.
After some years freelancing for radio and TV stations broadcasting to the UK and to Ireland, and a short time with the ill-fated commercial radio group Laser Broadcasting, he returned to front-line presenting on BBC local radio in 2009. Since then he has presented programmes for BBC Radio Derby, BBC Oxford and BBC Hereford & Worcester. He now hosts the weekday Breakfast Show for BBC Radio Northampton and he can also be heard on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.
On television Stuart has presented the Saturday evening edition of Midlands Today on BBC One and the Sunday lunchtime TV programme 'The Midlands At Westminster' on BBC Two (the forerunner to The Politics Show).
He has worked for the UK national radio stations BBC Radio Five Live and TalkSport and for the Irish national commercial station Today FM. He has also been a reporter for the TV stations Sky Sports News and Setanta Sports.
Stuart was made an MBE for services to broadcasting in 1995. He has won three Sony Radio Academy Awards - the most coveted awards in UK radio – one of them the Gold Award for the UK’s best speech-based Breakfast Show in 1997. His BBC WM Breakfast Show won Silver and Gold Sony's in successive years (1996 and 1997).
He received gold and bronze awards at the International Radio Festival of New York for the programme formats of Mercia Sound and Leicester Sound and, in 1999, he received an Honorary MA from Coventry University in recognition of his work as a broadcaster and for his services to the community in Coventry and Warwickshire. At the end of 2007 he graduated with a BA Honours in Humanities with Literature after six years study with the Open University.
In 2010, his Sunday Breakfast Show on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire received a Merit Award in the Sandford St. Martin Religious Radio Awards for a series called "Dear God" in which listeners were invited to send in their messages to God, some of which were broadcast on air. They ranged from the upbeat to the loneliness of bereavement and were pinned to a board displayed first at the radio station and later in Coventry Cathedral. Stuart's Sunday Breakfast Show was also a finalist in the 2012 Jerusalem Awards for it's "Rev's Records" feature in which faith leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Coventry, chose some of their favourite music.
During an edition of the "Sky Blue Live" programme on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire in February 2013, Stuart took a call from a Coventry City supporter who had left that night's match (at Crewe) two minutes before the end and had missed seeing Coventry score two late goals to win 2-nil. The fan's disbelief when Stuart corrected his understanding that his team had failed to score, with Stuart trying to interrupt him by repeating his name ("Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan...", etc...), saw an audio clip of the call go viral, reaching a world-wide audience via Audioboo, YouTube, the BBC's main website and the online editions of several newspapers. The story was included on page 3 of The Sun, and the clip was re-broadcast on many radio & TV stations round the word, including the BBC national stations, Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 5 Live. It was also included in the "Football Focus" (BBC1) and Soccer A.M. (Sky Sports) TV shows.
Alongside his broadcasting career, Stuart is a conference moderator and facilitator and he also hosts awards events and black-tie functions.
In 2008, Stuart stepped down after two years as Chairman of the Coventry Branch of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce. He is a former member of the Chamber's main board.
Read more about this topic: Stuart Linnell
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