Bill Steel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bill Steel is a television and radio broadcaster from North East England. He has also acted, briefly appearing in Coronation Street.
He began his working life at the General Electric as an accountant, and moved into television in the 1960s, first working in the Tyne Tees Television Transmission department. Later he progressed into the advertising section, which involved doing voice over work for local adverts.
In 1967 he left his native North East England and moved to Manchester where he presented the ABC Weekend News. ABC's Manchester base was closed in 1968, and its staff were redeployed to the company's brand new London broadcaster Thames Television. There, Steel worked in various departments, most of which he had previous experience, such as commercial voice overs, newsreading, and transmission control. Bill, also through the voice overs, ended up doing a short spell of continuity announcing for Thames, before returning back to the North in 1971.
Employed once again by Tyne Tees, Bill worked as one of a number of presenters on Tyne Tees News and also the evening 20-minute round-up, Today At Six.
Today At Six was axed, however Bill was kept on, this time as sole presenter of the station's new flagship news programme, Northern Life. Bill hosted this nightly news programme from 1976 until 1980. He then switched to continuity announcing, taking over as Head of Continuity in 1988 when he inherited that role from Neville Wanless. He remained as the senior continuity announcer until March 1996 when the stations owners, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television, moved the department to their own studios in Leeds.
Bill continued to work for the company as a features reporter until the end of 1996, when his contract with Tyne Tees wasn't renewed.
At Tyne Tees he had also presented many programmes including Songs of the Sixties and Lookaround. He also appeared on many local programmes as a features reporter during the late 1980s and 1990s; including Tyne Tees Weekend and Tonight, a regional magazine programme from 1986.
Bill Steel has also had plenty of experience as a radio presenter. He was the first breakfast show DJ for the North East's first commercial radio station, Metro Radio in 1973. He worked for Metro and Tyne Tees at the same time until he quit Metro in the early 1980s.
Before knowing his time at Tyne Tees was drawing to a close, Bill accepted an offer to present a once-a-week Sunday afternoon request programme for Gateshead-based Century FM in 1994. Once his television presenting ended, his role at Century was increased; with Bill moving onto other weekend and evening programmes.[1]
In 1997 he returned to television with a brief appearance as Bernard McKenna in the ITV soap Coronation Street
