Paul Gambaccini - Broadcasting Career

Broadcasting Career

Gambaccini's broadcasting career commenced at WDCR-AM, a former student-operated Top 40 station in Hanover, New Hampshire, owned by Dartmouth College, which was one of the most influential college stations on the air in America during that era. He served as WDCR's music director. Gambaccini may have first achieved wider prominence when his tips for playlisted songs likely to see greater chart action were published in the May 11, 1968 issue of the international trade publication Billboard, alongside similar tips from radio programming talent at major commercial stations across the U.S.

"The Great Gambo", as he was later known, then started broadcasting in the UK on BBC Radio 1 September 1973 which he did for 13 years, first as a music reporter on the John Peel Saturday Show (Rockspeak). He then started his own US chart show, 27 September 1975, where the first song he played was "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen. He was the presenter of the Billboard US Top 30 singles chart in the UK every Saturday afternoon till 1986 when he moved to independent radio. In 1990 he returned to Radio 1 but was removed by controller Matthew Bannister in 1993. In 1992, Gambaccini became a founding presenter on the UK's classical music station Classic FM, where he presented the weekly Classical CD Chart show. He left for BBC Radio 3 in 1995, where he presented an hour-long morning programme, in a slot formerly used for Composer of the Week. Gambaccini increased the audience share, but came under attack as an example of the reforms that the controller was trying to introduce, but which did not go down well with the existing audience. Some listeners welcomed his presence, according to Radio 3 controller Nicholas Kenyon, as their musical tastes had developed from Radio 1's content. He returned to Classic FM in 1997.

Alongside his work in music radio, he contributed regularly to BBC Radio 4's long running arts programme Kaleidoscope For 13 years Gambaccini reviewed films for breakfast television, first on TV-am and then GMTV. In the early 1980s he presented The Other Side of the Tracks on Channel Four, which ran for three series, His other television appearances include Pebble Mill at One, Call My Bluff, Music for the Millennium, and The South Bank Show.

In 1998, he joined BBC Radio 2, His first show 18 May 1998, once again opening the first of his weekly shows America's Greatest Hits with "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen. In 2002, he quit his role at Classic FM, to present a weekly chart show on London's Jazz FM until 2004. He was also a contributor to the London station LBC when it was taken over by Chrysalis.

He has worked widely across the BBC network and BFBS in addition to gracing many television shows, mostly related to music, film, and the arts. He narrated the BBC Radio adaptation of Espedair Street, the Iain Banks novel.

He has presented the annual Ivor Novello Awards since 1990, the Parliamentary Jazz Awards since 2005 and the Music Industry Trust's Man of the Year Dinner since 1999 and the Sony Radio Academy Awards for a ten-year stretch from 1998 to 2008.

In August 2008, he returned to Classic FM, to present a 12 part series Paul Gambaccini's Hall of Heroes on Sunday evenings between 9 and 10pm. Nicknamed The Professor of Pop, in March 2008, he took over as chairman of the Radio 4 music quiz Counterpoint from Edward Seckerson which he continues to present to this day, having recently presented Series 26.

Gambaccini also briefly appeared on L, the 1978 Godley & Creme album, during the first track, "The Sporting Life", as the "Bad Samaritan" voices.

Gambaccini was co-author of 'The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles' and related titles, with Tim and Jo Rice, alongside Radio 1 colleague at that time, Mike Read, between 1977 and 1996. Gambaccini's own books include 'Love Letters', 'Radio Boy', 'Top 100 Albums' and 'Track Records'. 'The Ultimate Man', a musical co-written with Alastair King and Jane Edith Wilson, was produced at the Bridewell Theatre in London in 2000.