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Dave Lee Travis
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Dave Lee Travis (born David Patrick Griffin in Buxton, Derbyshire on 25 May 1945) also known professionally as DLT, is a British radio presenter, best known for his career on BBC Radio 1.
is attended grammar school in Manchester and his first job was as a graphic designer.
Lee Travis began his radio career at the offshore pirate station Radio Caroline and although offshore pirate radio was outlawed by Act of Parliament in 1967, as a direct response to their popularity, BBC Radio 1 was launched, and that's exactly where DLT was headed.
is' Radio 1 career began in 1968, presenting the Pop North show from Manchester.
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Encyclopedia
Dave Lee Travis (born David Patrick Griffin in Buxton, Derbyshire on 25 May 1945) also known professionally as DLT, is a British radio presenter, best known for his career on BBC Radio 1.
Early life
Travis attended grammar school in Manchester and his first job was as a graphic designer.
Radio
Dave Lee Travis began his radio career at the offshore pirate station Radio Caroline and although offshore pirate radio was outlawed by Act of Parliament in 1967, as a direct response to their popularity, BBC Radio 1 was launched, and that's exactly where DLT was headed.
1968-1993
Travis' Radio 1 career began in 1968, presenting the Pop North show from Manchester. In 1969 he took over a Sunday morning show from 10am-midday. In 1971, he was promoted to the weekday lunchtime show from 11am-1pm, moving back to Sunday mornings in 1973 and also presenting the Radio 1 Club on Thursdays from 5-7pm.
In the 1970s, he adopted the on-air nickname of "The Hairy Monster", but changed this to "The Hairy Cornflake" when he started presenting Radio 1's Breakfast Show.
In 1975, he took over the weekday teatime slot from 4.30-5.45pm (extended to run 4.30-7pm in 1977). He then took over the Breakfast Show from Noel Edmonds in May 1978 and continued in this slot until December 1980.
In 1976, an on-air parody of the US hit "Convoy" (by C. W. McCall) led to a release of the song "Convoy GB" as a single, recorded with fellow DJ Paul Burnett under the name Laurie Lingo and the Dipsticks. The song reached number four in the charts and Travis appeared as the song's narrator "Super Scouse" on Top Of The Pops.
His popular quiz "Give Us A Break", which was snooker based and in particular the sound effect "quack quack oops" became famous Radio 1 features, and were resurrected for his current weekend morning show on the Magic Network.
January 1981 saw Travis move to weekday afternoons from 2.30-4.30 pm. Later that year he moved back to the weekday lunchtime slot from 11.30am-2pm, before moving to a Saturday morning show in 1983 from 10am-1pm, then Sunday mornings from 10am-1pm in 1987 taking over both Saturday and Sunday in September 1988.
Travis spent twenty years presenting the BBC World Service music request programme A Jolly Good Show.
On-air resignation
On 8 August 1993 DLT resigned on-air during his Sunday morning show, stating that he could not agree with changes that were being made to Radio 1. Travis told his audience that changes were afoot that he could not tolerate - "....and I really want to put the record straight at this point and I thought you ought to know - changes are being made here which go against my principles and I just cannot agree with them...".
1993-2007
On leaving Radio 1, DLT hosted a networked Sunday morning show (10am - 1pm) across some of the UK's commercial radio stations. He also went to Classic Gold where he hosted the 10am - 1pm morning show (later 9am - 12pm), before moving to breakfast 7am - 9am and then back to mornings 9am - 11am.
In 2002, he left Classic Gold to work for Garrison Radio for the Army.
From March 2003 to March 2007, Travis returned to the BBC, but this time to present a Sunday morning show from 9am-12pm on BBC Three Counties Radio, his local BBC radio station.
In 2005 he was briefly heard on Spain's Spectrum FM, presenting a Saturday morning show, but that ended later the same year owing to poor listening figures.
Present day
Since 2006 Dave has been on the Magic Network, a network of 8 radio stations across the north of England on AM and DAB Digital Radio, where he hosts Saturday and Sunday 10am - 1pm.
Television
Travis' popularity on the radio, namely at Radio 1, led to a number of opportunities in television.
Presenting
DLT presented the German TV show Beat Club, where he introduced such acts as Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Steamhammer.
On BBC television, he presented episodes of Top of the Pops in the 1970s and 1980s.
Between 1982-1986, he also presented the highly successful TV Show - Tea with DLT. In the show DLT drank different types of tea with members of the public. The show was so popular the rights were bought in Lithuania and Canada.
He was also the United Kingdom commentator for the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest.
He spent 1980- 1985 as an occasional presenter of Boxing on BBC TV. This ended after a misunderstanding involving dressing room toilets led to him being knocked out by Mike Tyson live in front of the cameras at Wembley Stadium. David Gower took over for the remainder of the season.
Appearances
On 14 February 2000, DLT was the subject of the This Is Your Life programme on British TV.
Other TV appearances include The Weakest Link, Noel's House Party, Mrs. Merton, Stars Reunited, Kick Start, Go Getters and Today with Des and Mel.
Noel's House Party Gotcha
Travis was famously the victim of a practical joke (or Gotcha) by Noel Edmonds on his TV show Noel's House Party. His radio quiz was unknowingly hijacked by two fake pub quiz teams which gave absurd answers to every question. His 'reaction' at the reveal had to be recorded twice because his initial outburst was full of swearwords. He said to Noel 'You are a dead man! I don't want your gotcha!'
Travis had his "revenge" the following week when, by arrangement with the Noel's House Party production team, he hijacked Noel Edmonds's show live on air, culminating in Edmonds ending up in the Great House's infamous gunge tank.
Trivia
Travis was named Pipe Smoker of the Year in 1982.
In 1987, he published a book of his own photographic efforts called A Bit Of A Star, which he dedicated to his late father.
DLT appeared in the video for the Comic Relief version of the The Proclaimers song I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), performed by Peter Kay and Matt Lucas.
External links
- - including photos and audio clips from DLT's shows.
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