Martin Kelner

Martin Kelner
Martin Kelner at Radio Aire in 1982
Birth name	Martin B. Kelner
Born	Swinton, England
Show	BBC Radio Leeds Breakfast
Station(s)	BBC Radio Leeds
Time slot	06:30-09:00 Monday to Friday
Country	United Kingdom
Website	http://www.martinkelner.com

Martin B. Kelner is a British journalist, author, comedian and radio presenter, educated at Stand Grammar School, in Whitefield near Manchester.

Kelner studied Arts and Social Studies at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, but dropped out, and he was employed as a reporter on the Western Daily Press in Bristol and for the Oxford Mail. He then joined the Central Office of Information, for whom he worked in Bristol, Lambeth, South London, and in Birmingham.

Broadcasting

He moved to Radio Hallam in Sheffield to begin his career in radio, reading the breakfast show news in late 1976. There was a brief spell at London's LBC and Manchester's Piccadilly Radio, before Kelner moved to Leeds in 1981 and the fledgling Radio Aire. He left Radio Aire in late 1982, and worked for Yorkshire TV for a time on a programme called Calendar It's The Weekend.

He was also a co-presenter on a show called Living It Up. Other television excursions for Kelner include Brainwave, a daytime quiz show and Pick Of The Week.

Kelner joined the BBC around 1986, presenting his own Saturday night show on BBC Radio 2, various stand-ins across the network, and later his own Saturday afternoon show on Radio Two from 1994 - 1996. Around the same time he was presenting a local radio late night show broadcast from the Radio Leeds studios and broadcast across the BBC Night Network in the north, on which he first gave airtime to radio comedy sketches from Caroline Aherne. She was the Mrs Merton character on his radio show ad-libbing conversations with Martin for around eight years. He also introduced Caroline into network broadcasting on Radio Two and the original BBC Radio Five.

He returned to Manchester to present the breakfast show on 100.4 Jazz FM, where he introduced another great comic talent to the public in the shape of Jake Yapp's Dora Dale, with whom Martin produced the hit BBC7 comedy show, "Pleased To Meet You". This show was nominated for a Sony National Radio Award on 28 March 2007 in the category of "Best Comedy programme".

Until October 2006, Kelner presented the Friday and Saturday late show at the weekends on BBC Radio Humberside, BBC Radio York, BBC Radio Leeds and BBC Radio Sheffield.

Other stations he has worked for include BBC Thames Valley FM, BBC Radio Cleveland, Pennine Radio, BBC Radio Five Live, Talksport, BBC7, and BBC Radio Manchester and Mansfield 103.2.

He currently presents a his own podcast, the Piss Poor Podcast, accompanied by his long serving comedy sidekick Edouard Lapaglie. He also appears on BBC Radio 5 Live as a pundit on Fighting Talk and has contributed to Chart The Week on Richard Bacon's programme. His most regular radio slot is the BBC Radio Leeds Breakfast Show which he co-presents Mondays to Fridays 6:30 - 9:00.

Writing and journalism

Martin's journalism includes a weekly column for The Guardian, Screen Break, taking a lighthearted look at the world of sport on TV, and a fortnightly column about radio. He writes occasional travel pieces for The Mail on Sunday, and has written for The Independent, of which his brother Simon Kelner was executive editor.

Other publications he has written for include GQ, Men's Health, Later (now defunct), RCME, The Observer, Landrover Owner magazine, You magazine, and Public Servant, the local and national government journal. He also has contributed to the YouGov website.

His first book, about the outer suburbs of show business, was called When Will I Be Famous?.

Martin was also responsible for a local publication (1992) in Leeds called The International Pest. A query posted to Martin's website querying the provenance of the magazine revealed that it was published in partnership with Anthony Quinn aka Edouard LaPaglie from his radio shows.

External links

• Martin Kelner's personal website including latest and archived Podcasts.
• Guardian Sports Columnists Index - Select Martin Kelner
• Radio Sheffield Profile
• Archived Kelner broadcasts, radio photo albums and Martin's 'Paper, Scissors, Stone' game.
• An overview of his radio career

Video clips

• Late show at Edinburgh Fringe in 2004

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