Richard Skinner

Skinner presenting Live Aid in 1985.

Richard Skinner (b. 1951) is a British broadcaster known mainly for his work with Radio One, BBC One and later with Capital FM and Virgin Radio. He started working for the BBC on the Newsbeat news programme in 1973 which he presented until 1980 before moving on to music-only programmes. From 1981 he presented the Rock On magazine show on Saturday afternoons and Round Table on Friday evenings. From 1983 he also presented Saturday Live, and in August 1984 was one of the presenters of the 15-hour Rock Around the Clock marathon, which included presenting New Order playing live for Saturday Live in a TV and FM radio simulcast. In September 1984 Skinner took over the Sunday afternoon Top 40 show from David Jensen who had moved over to commercial radio. On BBC television, he presented both Top of the Pops (December 1980 - August 1985) and the re-vamped Whistle Test (1984-1986), and also opened the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in July 1985. Bob Geldof had previously announced the creation of the Band Aid project for the first time on Skinner's Radio 1 show in 1984. He moved to Capital Radio in 1986, but returned to Radio One in 1988, eventually hosting Saturday Sequence until 1991. In 1993 he joined the newly founded Virgin Radio and hosted the station's first programme in April of that year. He also hosted the opening show for Absolute Radio 70s in November 2011.

Relationship with John Peel

Radio One

Although Skinner has said that "Radio 1's DJs hated Newsbeat" it's unlikely that Peel was among these as this was referred more to those who had the lunchtime slot. As a promoter of 'new wave' rather than 'pop', the two would have shared similar tastes in music. Like Peel, Skinner also featured studio sessions although these were mainly from bands who may have been previously featured by Peel and had already broken into the mainstream, notable examples being Undertones, Depeche Mode, the Cure, Soft Cell, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Killing Joke.

Peel was guest on Skinner's Round Table programme five times, after he had taken over the show in mid-1981. The show was produced by John Walters. On Skinner's early evening show on 28 August 1984, Peel and John Walters reflected on their weekend in Plymouth at the start of the Radio 1 week in the South West.[1] Peel also made contributions to Skinner's Saturday Live show during 1984.

Top of the Pops

Skinner began presenting Top of the Pops in December 1980 although aside from the 1981 and 1982 multi-presenter Christmas shows did not co-present a show with Peel until August 1984, standing in for David Jensen, and later in January 1985, when producers were obviously trying out different 'partners' for Peel after Jensen had left (eventually settling on Janice Long).

Please complete with direct reference to Skinner from JP, if known.

See also

• Top Of The Pops (Appearances)
• Round Table

External links

• Wikipedia
• BBC Berkshire profile
• Radio Rewind profile page (with sound clips)