David Gell

David Gell

David Gell was a DJ on Radio Luxembourg, and later on the BBC Light Programme, Radio One, and Radio Two.

Born in Canada on 23 August 1929, he worked for radio station CFAC in Calgary before relocating to Europe.

He presented many popular programmes for the BBC, including the Top Ten Game produced by Johnny Beerling, a midweek show which toured the country inviting audiences of 200 to vote for their favourite discs of the week from 1965. Each week David would play ten new releases, followed by the ten most popular songs from the previous week, together with a Second Chance Disc, which had previously been played but did not register enough votes to make the Top Ten. The show ran until it was dropped in early 1966.

Around 1958-1959 he was the host of Manchester-based Granada Television's quiz show Concentration and also hosted the children's quiz show Junior Criss Cross Quiz. From 1968-1970, Gell was the commentator for the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest,[1] he had previously provided the BBC Radio commentary for the 1965 Contest.

Gell later presented another 'voting' show for the BBC on Radio Two, namely European Pop Jury, where teenagers from several European countries would sit in judgement of two songs from each participating nation. The programme aired monthly and would typically feature the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

David had a toned down mid-Atlantic accent, and a warm, professional style, with strong audience rapport.

By 1980 David Gell had returned to broadcasting in his native Canada where he remained until retiring in the 2000s.

Although no longer broadcasting, David is involved with his daughter Rosemary. C. Gell's company Golden Muse Productions, which specialises in musical theatre.

Preceded by
Michael Aspel		 Eurovision Song Contest UK Commentator
1970		 Succeeded by
Dave Lee Travis

References

goldenmuseproductions,com

  1. ^ "The Eurovision Song Contest (1970) (TV)". IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313355/. Retrieved June 22, 2008. 


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