Paul Burnett

Paul Burnett, born 26 November, 1943 in Hulme, Manchester, is a British radio disc jockey, who began his radio career while in the Royal Air Force in the Persian Gulf in 1964. In 1966 he joined offshore radio station Radio 270 [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series1/pirate-radio.shtml BBC Inside Out - Yorkshire & Lincolnshire: Monday 18th October, 2004] ] , broadcasting from off Scarborough and aiming at Yorkshire. After the banning of the offshore stations he moved in 1967 to Manx Radio on the Isle of Man, but he soon joined Radio Luxembourg, where he hosted the chart show and discovered many recordings, which had been thought lost, of William Joyce's propaganda broadcasts to Britain, made from the Luxembourg stations during the Nazi occupation of the Grand Duchy.

In 1974 Burnett joined BBC Radio 1 hosting a Sunday morning show and sitting in on the station's Top 20 show. From July 5 1976 he hosted the weekday lunchtime show after Johnnie Walker left the station and moved to California. Here he had the responsibility of revealing the new singles chart every Tuesday lunchtime. His popular show included several features such as Pub of the Day, Fun at One and Is, Was, Should Have. Burnett became a regular presenter of Top of the Pops and presented the Radio 1 Roadshow during the summer. In 1981 he moved from lunchtimes to later in the afternoons, but his daily show ended in 1982 to allow Steve Wright's show to be extended. He briefly presented a Saturday morning show before leaving Radio 1 altogether.

In 1978, an on-air parody of the US hit "Convoy", Convoy GB (by Laurie Lingo & The Dipsticks) led to a release of the song as a single along with fellow DJ Dave Lee Travis. The song reached No.4 in the charts and Paul Burnett appeared dressed as a chicken on Top Of The Pops.

During the 1980s Burnett was heard on BBC Radio 2, Pennine Radio (now The Pulse of West Yorkshire) in Bradford, Southern Sound (now Southern FM) in Sussex, and Capital Radio. In 1988 Capital split its frequencies and he joined Capital Gold.

Burnett was also the long-time host of 'The Vintage Chart Show' on the BBC World Service.

He later moved to Classic Gold, where he presented at lunchtimes and early afternoons. He left the station when it merged with Capital Gold to form the new Gold network in August 2007.

In the last week of August 2007 Paul was heard on Big L International 1395MW Sky0190 as a replacement for afternoon DJ Steve Garlick, who was on holiday.

On 9 November 2007 Paul broadcast with Dave Lee Travis on KCFM from Hull, and on 16 November 2007 he did the show as their 'Live Legend' of radio. For the following four weeks he had a three hour weekly spot on the station - "Burnett Live" - which broadcast live on Fridays from 11.00 am to 2.00 pm. Tony Blackburn replaced Paul Burnett in this slot in January 2008.

As of the week-ending 25 April 2008 Paul is continuing to be heard nightly on Hull's KCFM 99.8 - Burnett...Live and Late! (Monday-Thursday 11.00pm to 2.00am) (Fridays 10.30pm-2.00am) At the moment, appearances on the station are on an alternating three/four week on-off basis.

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