| Colin
Murray |
| Born |
March
10, 1977 (1977-03-10)
(age 30)
Belfast,
Northern Ireland |
| Known for |
His night-time BBC Radio 1 show,
Presenting Fighting Talk
on BBC Radio Five Live,
Sports presenting on Five |
| Occupation |
Radio
and Television
Presenter |
| Website |
Radio1
profile |
Colin Murray (born March 10, 1977) is a BBC
Radio 1 DJ
and presenter on BBC Radio Five Live and BBC
TV from the Dundonald
area of east Belfast,
Northern
Ireland.
His career path includes digging graves at the age of 16,
working in McDonald's
and print journalism for the The
News Letter and publications in Canada, as well as
running the music magazines Buzz and BLANK.
|
Contents
- 1 Radio
- 2 Television
- 3 Other
activities
- 4 References
- 5 External
links
|
Radio
Colin Murray joined BBC Radio 1 with Donna Legge in 1999 as one of the
original hosts of Radio 1's Session programmes. Their show was
broadcast every Thursday night between 8.00 and 10.00 in Northern
Ireland only, focusing on the best new music from the province. They
quickly built a good rapport and went on to deputise for John Peel, Steve
Lamacq and Mary Ann Hobbs. By 2001 Murray was
also branching out into deputising for daytime radio hosts, and in
October 2001 he spent two weeks filling in on Late Drive for Dave
Pearce. By 2002 he had caught the eye of Channel 4
and in February 2002 ceased deputising at Radio 1 to host Channel 4's
Morning Show-RI:SE.
However, RI:SE didn't turn out to be a ratings success and in
December 2002 Murray was unveiled as the replacement to Steve
Lamacq on the Evening Session. However, this move was only a
temporary measure by Radio 1 since in July 2003 XFM signing Zane Lowe
took over the 8-10 pm slot on a full time basis.
By late 2003, Murray had teamed up with Edith
Bowman (his former co-host from RI:SE) to host the Colin
and Edith show. From September 2003, the show went out between 10am and
1pm every Saturday and Sunday in the slot now held by Vernon
Kay. During his partnership with Bowman they also deputised for Sara
Cox on the Breakfast Show. Murray also presented a late night
music show on Channel
4, under the 4music strand. The show, Ear Candy,
was a mix of music, interviews and comedy skits. However the comedy
skits were described as "weak observations, poorly performed", and
after an editorial meeting, Murray decided to concentrate solely on the
music.
By March 2004, Colin and Edith moved to weekday daytimes
taking over the Lunchtime Show from Mark
and Lard. On their 2 years on the Lunchtime Show, they grew their
audiences to 5 million - a 10 year high. In June 2006, Radio 1
announced that Colin and Edith would part company, with the latter
continuing on the lunchtime show solo and Murray taking over a new
weeknight 10pm - Midnight show, once held by John Peel. The new late
night show began on 25 September 2006 and includes a
mix of New Music and alternative classics. Features include Colin's
Mobile Disco, College Drop in, The Black Hole of Radio 1, Free
Association and Four Reasons Why. The show is usually live, unless
Murray does a football match on Five, in which case Nihal covers
the show.
Recent reports have claimed that the BBC pulled a commercial
for Murray's radio show which featured him being released skywards
attached to 500 helium balloons, in light of an accident suffered by Top Gear
host Richard Hammond, but the
BBC have denied these reports, saying that the aforementioned
commercial will simply not be shown, and that other commercials had
been filmed and will be shown instead.
Murray currently presents BBC
Radio Five Live's Fighting Talk,
a sport related, comedic panel game of competitive banter, similar in
style to ESPN's
Around the Horn,
and has deputised for both Simon Mayo and Julian
Worricker on Five
Live.
On 30
April 2007,
he won a gold award at the 25th Sony Radio
Academy Awards for Music Broadcaster Of The Year. He is one of the
various people thanked on the Final
Straw and Eyes Open,
albums by Belfast band Snow Patrol, being one of the
first DJs to give the band national airplay.
Television
TV work has included presenting shows on BBC Three -
including Glastonbury coverage - and on Channel 4,
where he reported for RI:SE and presented Born Sloppy with
Sara
Cox. In 2005
he became the new co-presenter of late night American Football on five, with
expert pundit Mike Carlson. However he had to leave
in the 4th week of the 2006 season due to his new work commitments at
Radio 1 with a show that finishes at midnight (an hour before the NFL
on five starts).
He also commentates broadcasts of the European
Poker Tour, alongside John Duthie. He appeared alongside Edith
Bowman on Sky
Sports 1's hit show Soccer AM. He has
presented reports for Jo Whiley's The Cut
and presented EastEnders Revealed
on BBC
Three. He has also recently begun presenting Sudoku Street-Cred on UKTV G2. When
the Red
Bull Flug Tag was held in Belfast Colin Murray was the presenter.
He is also the anchorman for Five's UEFA Cup
coverage, often alongside Pat Nevin, moving John Barnes to a roving
reporter role.
He performed in Comic Relief does
Fame Academy in March
2007 where he
finished fourth. Johnny Vaughan took over the Fighting
Talk hotseat for one day only in place of Colin
Murray on 10th March 2007 and Nihal stood in for him on Radio 1 from 7 March to 15 March.
In May 2007 Colin filmed a series of twenty new quiz shows
with production company Twofour for Channel Five, called Payday, in
which 8 contestants battle to win a years salary.
Other activities
While in Canada, he became a fan of baseball's Toronto
Blue Jays. His passions involve the aforementioned NFL (specifically,
the Chicago
Bears), Poker,
Watersports,
World Wrestling
Entertainment (WWE) wrestling, Boxing and his love of Liverpool
F.C. Murray had 5 stars tattooed on his left wrist when Liverpool
F.C. won the European Cup for the 5th time.
He co-directed Chris Cox 2007 Edinburgh
Fringe Festival Show, Everything Happens For A Reason.
He also DJs at student union events around the
country. He was the first ever act to perform (DJ) at the University of
Central Lancashire's new Students' Union building, 53
Degrees, at its opening in 2005.
Colin has also compered at the Leeds leg of the last three Carling
Weekend music festivals.
References
External links
Preceded by
Christian O'Connell |
BBC
Radio Five Live
Fighting
Talk Presenter
2006 - |
Succeeded by
incumbent |
