The Continuity Booth
ITV 1 - Yorkshire
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Helen was an announcer at Granada Media Group's northern transmission centre in Leeds. She voiced announcements on Yorkshire, Tyne Tees, Granada and Border Television until October 2002.
She began her broadcasting career while at school, presenting on Hospital Radio Friarage in Northallerton, then with University Radio Falmer at Sussex University. She went on to work for BBC Radio York, AA Roadwatch and BBC Radio Leeds before joining Yorkshire Television in 1995. Helen has also worked with the regional weather team as a producer-director and presenter. She was a familiar voice on the Wellbeing channel, working on promotions and as a narrator.
Helen is also known in the corporate sector as a presenter and voice-over artist.
In 1989, Tracey began her career voicing and creating commercials, promotions and producing shows for Northsound Radio in Aberdeen. For three years she co-presented the Breakfast Show with Robin Galloway and became the first "Eye In The Sky" for the North East of Scotland. Whilst at Northsound Radio, she began her TV career with Grampian in 1990 and at 19 became the youngest continuity announcer/news reader in the UK.
Moving to Manchester in 1995, she joined Granada Television as a continuity presenter and became the main promotional voice for Granada.
The Broadcast department was centralised in Leeds in 1998 and Tracey became Head Of On-Air for Granada Media Group (Granada, Yorkshire, Tyne Tees and Border TV) managing continuity, weather presenters, promotions and graphics departments.
Tracey has remained at ITV and now heads up the business side of the new ITV Broadcast Business Development team.
Familiar Yorkshire Television voice only announcer who retired from the station c. 1998. John Crosse began his broadcasting career on pirate station Radio London (where he used the pseudonym John Sedd) in the 1960s, and then moved to work for sales company RadioVision, which sold airtime for a couple of pirate radio stations. Later, he read the news on BBC Radio 4, and then joined Yorkshire Television as a continuity announcer in the early-1970s.Neil's broadcasting experience dates back to 1995 when he joined the team at a hospital radio station in Norwich. In 1996, he moved to 103.4 The Beach in Lowestoft; he remained there for a year.
Neil's voice has also been heard on Pirate FM in Cornwall and on Topshop TV at the clothes store's main Oxford Street branch. As well as being head of music and producer at his university radio station during his three years study, Neil also has experience of working with the teams at 'Blue Peter' and BBC Radio 1.
Having graduated with a BA honours degree in broadcasting studies, Neil joined Granada TV's northern transmission centre in March 2001, as a continuity announcer; his voice was heard on Granada, Yorkshire, Tyne Tees and Border Television between March 2001 and October 2002. He also voiced programme promotions across the Granada Media Group, including LWT, Anglia and Meridian.
Neil stayed in Yorkshire for a year after being made redundant in October 2002, presenting radio shows for the Teamtalk group and Magic 828AM.
In 2003 he was approached by Vibe 105-8FM, a regional dance radio station in the East of England, to front their breakfast news. Twelve months after arriving, Neil also became the voice on all of the station's imaging.
After a company takeover, Vibe 105-8FM was re-branded in September 2006 as Kiss 105-8FM. Neil continues to be part of the breakfast show there.
Neil also regularly voices commercials on both television and radio across the UK and Europe. One of his most recent TV commercials was the live UK tour of George Michael.
Announcer at Granada's northern transmission centre, from May 2000 to 28 October 2002. She joined as a trainee announcer, after graduating in Film, Media and Communication from Sheffield Hallam University. She was a regular promotional voice for the Wellbeing Channel and was also heard occasionally on regional promotions made in Leeds. Kerrie moved from announcing to weather presenting after regional continuity ended on ITV 1.Pete joined the Yorkshire Television announcing team in November 1999; he went part-time in late-2000. Based at the northern transmission centre in Leeds, his voice was also heard in the Tyne Tees, Border and Granada regions. Pete also became the voice of all Granada Media Group trailers for Granada, Yorkshire, Tyne Tees, Border, Anglia, Meridian and LWT. Pete's voice was also heard on the ITV Night Network; he would pre-record the announcements on tape in Leeds; the tape was then despatched to LWT in the overnight van for transmission that particular weekend.
At the time of writing (January 2006), Pete is the last professional announcer in Leeds; he still voices regional trailers on a freelance basis.
Pete spoke to TTVRP in January 2006 about other projects: "Since leaving YTV full time, I've appeared in several radio plays, alongside Maggie and, in one, with Redvers. I'm currently working on a pilot radio thriller series 'Into The Shadows' as writer, producer and actor, and I'm still around, doing the occasional bit of presenting for music based radio stations.
"I've been in radio since the mid-1970s, starting at Radio City (Nottingham Hospital Radio). After much hard work, I managed to get the green light to form Millside Hospital Radio at the Kings Mill Hospital, Sutton-in-Ashfield, near Mansfield, in October 1989. Joined Viking FM shortly after that, as commercial producer/writer/voice-over. Also worked on air on YRN's (Yorkshire Radio Network) Classic Gold AM service.
"I can still be heard throughout the country and abroad, on various commercial radio stations, as voice-over. I also write and voice radio commercials for the Lincs FM Group (in fact I was the first v/o on air at Lincs FM, on their first ad break on day one, in 1992). Well known for versatility when it comes to commercials, all sorts of voices, from old men (and old women!!!) through to wacky, character sound-a-likes and singers, which keeps me active!!! (It's also very useful when it comes to radio plays!!!)"
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Voice only continuity announcer at Yorkshire Television in the 1970s who was also the first voice to be heard on pirate station Radio London in 1964. While at YTV, Kay also presented a jazz programme synicated to independent local radio stations in Yorkshire and the North East. Paul died in 1980.
One of ITV's greatest announcers, Redvers Kyle was a continuity announcer at Associated-Rediffusion (later Rediffusion London) Television in London in the 1950s. On the station's final day of broadcasting, Monday 29 July 1968, as chief announcer Redvers Kyle opened and closed the station for the last time. For the final closedown he was joined by Rediffusion weatherman Laurie West and fellow continuity announcer John Kelly.
Redvers didn't hang around for long, and was in fact headed straight up the M1 to Leeds, where he had taken a position as chief announcer at the new Yorkshire Television. He remained at YTV until his retirement in 1993 and during that time also became a familiar voice on the ITV network for both his advertising voice-over work, and his networked voice-overs for YTV-syndicated trailers. Since then, Redvers Kyle has been heard in action on Victor Lewis-Smith's TV Offal programme and has also narrated several audio books.
TTVRP reader Simon Moss writes in to say: "Redvers Kyle was not only a TV announcer, but also a composer! I have a 1963 HMV LP (CLP 1672) The Hunting Of The Snark and a selection from The Bab Ballads narrated by Kyle. He is also credited on the cover as having composed the music which accompanies both sections of the narration. He even co-authored the liner notes!"
Peter was an announcer with TWW and Yorkshire TV in the 1960s before moving on to become one of LWT's best known announcers. Peter joined LWT from its start in August 1968 and was the first person to broadcast from the station's new television centre at Upper Ground, on the South bank of the Thames, when it opened in 1971. Lewis was promoted to become senior announcer in 1977 when the previous incumbent, Alec Taylor, left the company. Lewis stayed in this role (although mainly as a voice only announcer after 1983) until 1996 when he left the station to pursue his business interests as a management consultant based in the United States.
He was persuaded to return briefly in 1998 to record a series of in-vision links to mark LWT's 30th birthday. Peter was also an announcer on HTV West during the 1970s and 1980s. The Lewis family were well known to television viewers in the West - Peter's father, Bruce, was chief announcer at HTV's predecessor, TWW, and Martyn Lewis was famous as a local and then national news reader.
Former offshore pirate radio broadcaster who moved into television announcing, and, since then, has appeared on many ITV regional stations, including long stints at ABC TV, the North and Midlands weekend contractor until 1968. Keith also announced for ATV, Yorkshire Television, Anglia TV, Television South and LWT in the 1970s/1980s. Announcer for Southern TV, 1959 - 1961; ATV and ABC Television. BBC TV announcer, 1965 to 1972; BBC Radio External Services announcer 1975 onwards. Keith went on to specialise in voice coaching - his clients include former Prime Minister John Major.
Image courtesy of Paul R Jackson.
Maggie Mash started her broadcasting career on Forces Radio in Cyprus and then worked for BBC and Independent radio stations throughout the country. From 1988 she was a continuity announcer with Yorkshire Television in Leeds and also worked extensively as a freelance voice-over, presentation trainer and voice coach. She is the voice for the national SATS Mental Arithmetic Tests and the voice of HSBC. 
Nick was an occasional announcer for Yorkshire Television, although his full time role is at the transmission control desk at the Granada Media Group's northern transmission centre, serving YTV, Tyne Tees, Border and Granada.
Karen Petch - a voice only continuity announcer from Yorkshire Television who worked as a relief announcer, in-vision, for Tyne Tees between 1993 (when YTV took over and axed most of TTTV's announcers) and 1996 when continuity closed at Newcastle. She continued as a de-facto out-of-vision announcer after March 1996 when all announcements started to come out of Leeds for Tyne Tees and Yorkshire from the same announcer. Her TTTV work put her in good stead for her newsreading role at YTV later on.
Until October 2002, Bob was one of the main announcers at Yorkshire Television at Granada Media Group's northern transmission centre in Leeds; his voice was therefore also heard on Border, Granada and Tyne Tees Television.
Bob started his career in television at the BBC as a cameraman in the early-1970s. After working at Television Centre for a few years, he was seconded to BBC Radio London. In the late-1970s, he moved to Yorkshire Television in Leeds and worked as cameraman, researcher, promotions producer and, eventually, in the late-1980s became a continuity announcer, working with Redvers Kyle, Graham Roberts and John Crosse.
Bob also presents a weekly country music show on BBC local radio, and has run a full-time cinema since the 1980s - first at Pickering, and now in Wetherby. He is the author of twenty-two books, including two on the history of roller coasters - and a number on the history of radio, including offshore pirate stations, Radio 270 and Radio Caroline North. He has also produced a detailed study of DJ Johnnie Walker's contribution to pop radio - 'Johnnie Walker, Cruisin' The Formats'. In 2006, Bob opened a full-time station - 107.4 Tempo FM in Wetherby.
AKA John Dienn. Voice only continuity announcer at Yorkshire Television in the late-1960s and 1970s, whose first television job was as a Transmission Controller for Rediffusion in the 1950s. He left television to join pirate radio station Radio London in 1964 and stayed there for two years before heading back to television. After leaving YTV, he moved to Thailand to set up a television production company, and also presented on English language radio there. We're sorry to report that Earl passed away in May 2001.
Long serving Yorkshire Television voice only announcer who had been heard on the station since the 1970s; he retired from YTV in 1993.
Graham Roberts is probably best known nationally for his role on BBC Radio 4's popular drama serial The Archers in which he played gamekeeper and local parish councillor George Barford. Graham lived with his wife, Yvonne, a soprano, in a small village near York. Sadly, Graham died in 2004.
(OBE). Ian started his career as an in-vision announcer on Yorkshire Television in 1968 and later moved to BBC TV where he was an announcer, mainly on BBC Two, from 1970 to 1976. He was awarded an OBE in 1993 for services to the community in Japan, mainly for work on behalf of children with special needs.
From 1976 to 1980, he was seconded from the BBC to Japan's NHK network to work on a variety of international programmes, many of which did well in international competitions. Though his main work is now in the area of public affairs, he still does narrations, both commercial and documentaries, and currently hosts a monthly internet TV programme called 'Market Access'.
Ian told us: "Happy memories of BBC announcing. Came to Japan in 1976 to make programmes here and have stayed, working on a number of stations, chiefly NHK and NTV. Now working in public affairs with the BCCJ; and am sometimes back in the UK to make presentations."
LWT voice-only continuity announcer in the late-1990s until 2002. Roger has also announced for Granada TV and Yorkshire TV and is now the main voice of The Hallmark Channel on satellite television. He's also the voice-over for BBC TV's University Challenge. 
One of the most familiar faces on Granada. Colin started with the station in 1968. From the late-1970s until the 1990s he also worked on a freelance basis for London Weekend, Southern, Tyne Tees, Border, Yorkshire, HTV, Anglia and TVS. Colin was the senior announcer at Granada when he left the company in 1998.
Image courtesy of Paul R Jackson.
YTV and Tyne Tees announcer from 1992 to 1994, mainly based at Leeds but with some shifts in Newcastle. Stephen left Yorkshire TV in 1994 and moved to the States where he became, among other things, senior writer for Oprah Winfrey's magazine, O, and a contributing editor at Conde Nast Traveller, as well as freelancing for various other magazines and newspapers including the New York Times, GQ, Bon Appetit, and Gardens Illustrated. Stephen is now a freelance writer based in Sweden.
