Patrick was born in London in June 1967. His broadcasting career began in hospital/local radio. He then moved to television, working as a network continuity announcer on BBC One and BBC Two (August 1994 – November 1998).
…Steel, Bill
Bill Steel is mainly remembered as Tyne Tees Television’s chief announcer and one of the main presenters of the evening news magazine programme, Northern Life, when it started in 1976.
…Canham, David
David was a continuity director/announcer with BBC Wales TV (summer 2000 – autumn 2002). He performed the final link with the BBC One balloon symbol in March 2002, before the channel was rebranded; during the junction, he also treated viewers to a final glimpse of the balloon-themed channel clock.
He later moved to London to take up a continuity announcer/transmission controller role with BFBS Television, where he remained for three years. He has extensive experience in transmission control, having worked at BSkyB, Molinare and Viasat. During his time at Viasat, he played a role in introducing a tapeless server-based playout infrastructure.
David also provided voiceovers for Teachers TV.
Roddick, Gordon
Gordon was an announcer on Scottish Television (1961 – 1973). He then became a transmission controller. He left STV in 1992 to join BBC Scotland, where he was a radio announcer and newsreader. Gordon also sat in the television announcer’s chair at BBC Scotland on a few occasions. He left BBC Scotland in 2000.
Darval, John
John was one of the original team of announcers at Channel 5 when it launched in March 1997. He was responsible for the Sunset Beach cult craze on Channel 5 daytime. John operated Beaver the puppet on Milkshake, where he was also known as John the Voice, when the childrens’ strand launched in September 1997.
John left Channel 5 in 2002, although he still provided relief cover occasionally. He later worked for Smooth Radio in the West Midlands and BFBS TV continuity and transmission control.
Oliver, Nick
Nick was an occasional announcer for Yorkshire Television, although his full-time role was at the transmission control desk at the Granada Media Group’s northern transmission centre, serving YTV, Tyne Tees, Border and Granada.
Balshaw, Samantha
(Formerly Samantha Howkins). Samantha was a TSW in-vision continuity announcer and assistant transmission controller. She moved to London to work for Carlton in 1993 and then for Meridian in Southampton. In 2003, eight years after joining Meridian, Samantha took some time off to look after her children. In 2006, she joined Sky as a transmission controller, working on the movie channels.
Loring, Richard
Richard joined the RTÉ TV announcing team in October 2002, working on both television channels. He also worked as a transmission director. In November 2005, Richard took up a transmission editor post with Setanta Sports. He moved to Technicolor in July 2006 and a transmission controller post. By April 2008, he had moved on to become a transmission team leader. In July 2012 he moved to Ericsson in London, taking on a projects team coordinator role, where responsibilities included project management, planning and delivering several channel migrations and additional services as well as testing of new delivery platforms simultaneously across domestic, European and LATAM regions.
In July 2013, Richard moved to Sky as an operations manager within the London-based playout division. In May 2017, he returned to Dublin to work for BT as a team manager within service management.
Cooper, Mike
Mike spent the first four years of his career at BBC Radios WM and Shropshire. He was also a freelance continuity announcer for Central (1993 – 1996). In January 1994, he moved south to work for SSVC (now BFBS) as a self-op announcer and transmission controller.
Mike says: “Having moved south I contacted Carlton and freelanced as an announcer for them from March 1994 until March 1997, then jumped across to the other side of the glass to become a transmission controller for ITV 1 working for LNN. I’d actually started as a transmission controller on a freelance basis in December 1996, then became a staff member in May 1997. To round things up, I stayed with LNN until October 2002. In that time I tried unsuccessfully to move into the newsroom as a director, and my frustration eventually led to finding an opening as a freelance director at ITN alongside my full-time job! I eventually left LNN a week before the rebrand to ITV 1 took place and Carlton/LWT disappeared forever.”
Later, Mike worked at the BBC as a news director. He then went on to spend almost three years doing the same at Sky News. In 2008, he moved back behind the microphone to work full-time as a voiceover artist. In addition to voicing TV programmes, he has returned to continuity: for a time at Film24, and on an ongoing basis for History.
Symon, Jim
Jim is a well-known Scottish radio and television broadcaster. He was an in-vision announcer for Scottish Television (1983 – TBC). He later freelanced as an out-of-vision announcer for both Scottish TV and Grampian TV (dates TBC). He combined this work with the position of transmission controller for SMG’s (Scottish Media Group) television division – a post which he left in 2000.
Jim’s voice is well known to viewers across the UK as he’s voiced several television advertisements. He was also chosen to be the voice of a new, talking version of the ever-popular Action Man toy.
Since leaving the core staff at SMG, Jim has returned to radio. He has presented the late-night music programme on Westsound Radio based in Ayr; he later presented on radio station Clyde 2.
He still occasionally presented for Scottish and Grampian TV.