Frank Mitchell (presenter)
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Frank Mitchell (b. 24 July 1965, Burren, County Down as John McClorey) is a Northern Irish broadcaster and journalist. He is currently a presenter, weather presenter and reporter for UTV Live, the main news programme on UTV in Northern Ireland. His also a presenter on the UTV-owned radio station U105.
Frank began his broadcasting career in the early 1980s at Downtown Radio. His career at Ulster Television began in 1987 when he joined the station as a continuity announcer and newsreader.
In 1993, with the launch of UTV Live, Frank was chosen to present the weather forecast on the main evening bulletin at 6.00pm every weeknight. He was the first presenter to introduce an in-vision weather forecast at the station, and remains the main weather presenter at the station.
As part of his evening forecasts, Frank invites the audience to work out the location of the "Weather Watching Camera", a film shot in a town or village somewhere in Northern Ireland (or, on occasions, the Republic of Ireland) through providing a cryptic clue. He also reads out greetings to "Weather Watchers", usually people who are celebrating their birthday or a wedding anniversary that day. While other presenters of the evening weather forecast introduce "Weather Watcher" greetings, only Frank runs the "Weather Watching Camera" feature as part of his forecast.
Due to his role as UTV Live weatherman, Frank gave up his duties as a continuity announcer in 1993. However, he has been heard as a daytime emergency announcer to cover for schedule changes as a result of rolling ITV News coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Soham murders trail shown on UTV.
Frank's presenting duties on UTV Live were expanded in 1999 when he became one of the hosts of UTV Life, a half-hour programme which preceded the main UTV Live bulletin at 18.00, covering lifestyle features and light-hearted reports. UTV Life was integrated into an hour-long UTV Live in April 2002, and Frank remains one of the co-presenters of the 17.30-18.00 section of the programme.
Frank Mitchell is a keen GAA supporter, and has reported on Gaelic Athletic Association football and hurling matches for UTV Live. When UTV obtained the rights to show matches and highlights of the Ulster Senior Football Championship from 1994 to 1997, Frank was a reporter and commentator for the series. Frank was also a co-host and reporter for UTV's GAA discussion series End to End between 2001 and 2004.
As well as being known as UTV's resident weatherman, Frank's other main presenting job at UTV has been the entertainment series School Around the Corner between 1995 and 2005. The series featured groups of children from primary schools across Northern Ireland. Frank would talk to children, usually from the younger classes, about their school and their lives, and introduce musical or acting performances by other pupils of the school. Each participating child received a certificate for appearing on the programme. School Around the Corner was originally shown on RTE in the 1960s and revived on the network in the mid 1990s, was produced for UTV by the independent production company Tyrone Productions.
On Monday 18th September 2006, Frank took over as presenter of the 09.00-12.00 show on UTV's radio station U105, replacing Ronan Kelly. In a press release given to the Belfast Telegraph, Frank said, "Radio was my first love, and it's a pleasure to be taking over as the presenter of U105 Morning". Frank's appointment as a regular presenter on U105 followed a period of covering the station's Breakfast show in the absence of regular presenters Ivan Martin and Richard Young in the summer of 2006.
Frank is married and has a daughter, Laura. he is also god father to Ríain and Conor. He supports Manchester City Football Club and the GAA county side Down.
