David Hamilton (broadcasting)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Hamilton was born 'David Pilditch' in Manchester, on September 10, 1938. He adopted his mother's maiden name as a showbusiness name.
Since his broadcasting career began in 1959, Hamilton has hosted over 10,000 radio shows and more than 1,000 TV shows.
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[edit] TV career
His first job after leaving Glastonbury Grammar School aged 17, was as scriptwriter for the TV series "Portrait of a Star". In 1960 he became a television announcer for ABC TV in Manchester and during the early sixties hosted "The Beat Show", which featured bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. He also hosted tours with David Cassidy and The Bay City Rollers and in 1967 appeared with Ken Dodd in the TV series "Doddy's Music Box". This was where his nickname Diddy originated from. Throughout the sixties he hosted TV series for Tyne Tees Television, Anglia Television, Westward Television and Southern Television. Hamilton was also a TV announcer for Thames Television throughout the 1970s, and he had a cameo as himself in this capacity at the start of an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Between 1987 and 1992, Hamilton presented the tea time quiz All Clued Up. Around this time he was also a continuity announcer on the now defunct satellite channel Lifestyle which was owned by WHSmith. [1]
[edit] BBC Radio
Hamilton's first role on BBC Radio was in 1962, when he presented The Beat Show. This featured all the leading pop groups of the day and was recorded at the Playhouse theatre in Manchester on Monday evenings. The show was transmitted on the BBC Light Programme on Thursday lunchtimes. It ran up until 1965.
He presented the final episode of Housewives' Choice in 1967. He was first heard on the then newly launched BBC Radio 1 in November 1967, presenting Family Choice. This show was simultaneously broadcast on BBC Radio 2.
By the late Sixties, David was presenting many shows for BBC Radio, such as Music through Midnight, Roundabout, Pop Inn & Radio 1 Club.
In 1973 Hamilton was offered his own daily radio show on BBC Radio 1 every weekday afternoon from 2:00 to 4:30pm.
In January 1975 the BBC made financial cutbacks, which meant his afternoon show was broadcast simultaneously on both Radio 1 and Radio 2.
From November 1977 Tony Blackburn took over Radio 1's afternoon show and Hamilton's afternoon show was heard solely on BBC Radio 2. In 1980 Hamilton took over Radio 2's weekday 12:00 to 2:00pm lunchtime show and then in 1981 took over the weekday 4:00 to 5:45pm afternoon show. In early 1986 this show began broadcasting from 3:30 to 5:00pm.
In April 1986, Radio 2 was relaunched by its head of music Frances Line, who threw out playing contemporary rock and pop music in favour of a more 'golden oldie' feel. Hamilton quit in November that year, claiming that the music policy had become "geriatric" and that "there's only so much Max Bygraves and Vera Lynn you can play".
[edit] Commercial Radio
Since January 1987 Hamilton has been heard on many commercial stations in the UK. He joined Reading's Radio 210 and presented its daily 8:00 to 11:00am mid-morning show before joining Capital Gold in November 1988 to present its daily 10:00am to 12:30pm mid-morning show. He then moved to the 12:00 to 2:00pm lunchtime show. In addition to that, he also presented a weekly oldies show which was heard on various ILR stations around the UK. This was usually heard on a Sunday afternoon.
In late 1994 Hamilton presented the Breakfast show on Melody FM (now Magic 105.4) for four years before moving to London's Liberty Radio to present an afternoon show and on the Classic Gold Network, taking over from Simon Bates on the weekday evening show in 1999 up until 2001.
As well as Classic Gold, in 2000 he joined PrimeTime Radio, presenting the weekday mid-morning show, where he remained until its demise in 2006. In addition to this, in October 2001 he left Classic Gold & presented the breakfast show on Birmingham's Saga 105.7 FM before moving to Nottingham's Saga 106.6 FM in early 2003. From 2004 - 2006, he was heard on Various Saga Radio stations around the UK, presenting his Million Sellers show, which would usually go out on a Saturday lunchtime, and was repeated at midnight.
[edit] Current Work
From June 2006 David was heard on Big L every weekday afternoon from 1-5pm. He left this show in the summer of 2007, but his Million Sellers show can still be heard every weekday evening from 9-10pm. His Million Sellers show can also be heard on a number of local commercial stations across the UK, usually on a Saturday or Sunday evening.
David can also be seen regularly on BBC1's Match of the Day and BSkyB's Football First as he is the Matchday Compère at Fulham Football Club.
