John Churchill Dunn

John Churchill Dunn, professionally known simply as John Dunn, (March 4, 1934 in Glasgow, Scotland - November 27, 2004 in Croydon, Surrey, England) was a veteran disc jockey, well known for his work on BBC radio.

His career spanned more than 30 years and he was named Radio Personality of the Year three times. Dunn started his broadcasting career in the RAF, before joining the BBC External Service as a studio manager in 1956. He then became an announcer for domestic BBC radio in the 1960s, famously stating "Here is the news - in English" after Emperor Rosko's first show on the first day of BBC Radio 1 in 1967.

Dunn became the regular presenter of "Breakfast Special" with the start of the new networks, but in 1972 he effectively swapped places with Terry Wogan - Wogan taking over the breakfast show, whilst Dunn moved to the 3 pm to 5 pm afternoon slot "The Dunn Thing". This didn't last too long, and in 1974 Dunn spent a year presenting "Late Night Extra". In the mid-1970s, Dunn oddly disappeared from the schedules for a while, but he moved to his long running drivetime programme in 1976. Its time slot varied - initially it ran from 4:45-6:45 pm, for a while it ran from 6 pm to 8 pm, but in 1986 it was moved to 5 pm to 7 pm.

Throughout most of the 1970s and the early 80s [dates please] Dunn also presented the Radio 4 Children's programme '4th Dimension'. This was a magazine programme comprising a mixture of documentary features, drama series and stories.

In 1979 John provided the BBC TV commentary at the Eurovision Song Contest, held that year in Jerusalem.

He remained in the early evenings until 1998, when he announced that he was semi-retiring & that Johnnie Walker was to be taking over the show. (Walker had been a stand-in presenter for Dunn during 1997 and early 1998). From then on, he still continued to present documentaries for the network, as well as editions of "Friday Night is Music Night" In 1998, John Dunn was awarded a Gold Sony Radio Award for the best drivetime music programme. He made radio history in 1996 when he presented his show live from Antarctica.

He was married with two daughters, and lived in Croydon, Surrey. When he died he had been suffering from cancer for some time.

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
before=First Presenter
title=BBC Radio 2
Breakfast Show Presenter
years=1967-1972
after=Terry Wogansuccession box
before=Terry Wogan
title=Eurovision Song Contest UK Commentator
years=1979
after=Terry Wogan

External links

* [http://www.radioacademy.org.uk/record.jsp?type=celeb&ID=14 John Dunn's Radio Academy Hall of Fame Profile]
* [http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3816647 "The Scotsman" obituary]