John Kennedy O'Connor (born 1964) is a television and radio broadcaster, author and entertainment commentator. He was born in North London, but is a naturalized citizen of the United States. He has written, reported and broadcast for numerous media organizations, as well as writing, creating and producing media events for a number of international corporations all over the world. He is best known for his work within the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

as a TV commentator and host. He is currently the news anchor for NBC and CBS Northern California channels KIEM-TV and KVIQ-LD, anchoring the morning, 5PM, 6PM and 11PM news broadcasts, Monday to Friday.

Eurovision Song Contest involvement

In 2005,

Carlton Books Welbeck Publishing Group, formerly Carlton Publishing Group, is a London-based independent book publisher of fiction, narrative and illustrated non-fiction, as well as gift and children's books. Established in 2019 by Executive Directors Mark Sm ...

published his book ''The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History'', in conjunction with the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...

, initially produced in English, German, French, Swedish, Dutch and Danish editions, with a separate English publication in Australia. A Finnish version followed in 2007 as did a Russian version in 2009. The book has been updated, expanded and reprinted three times in the UK, the 2010 edition published by Carlton Books, UK, in April 2010. . The first edition of the book, published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

, was listed in the Top 10 book sales of both Amazon UK and Amazon Germany in May 2005, after being featured during the broadcast during an inset with the contest hosts

Maria Efrosinina Mariia Oleksandrivna Yefrosinina ( uk, Марія Олександрівна Єфросініна; born 25 May 1979), professionally known as Masha Efrosinina ( uk, Маша Єфросініна), is a Ukrainian television host and media person ...

and

Pavlo Shylko Pavlo Yurievich Shylko (Ukrainian: Павло Юрійович Шилько) (also known as DJ Pasha, born 6 August 1977 in Mezhdurechensk) is a Ukrainian radio and television presenter. He co-hosted Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with Maria Efros ...

. O'Connor's second Eurovision work "The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official Celebration" was published by Carlton Books in April 2015 () The book was also published in German and Swedish editions. Since 2012, O'Connor has been the special host of San Marino RTV's Eurovision coverage, presenting the preview shows. In 2013, he was the first spokesperson of the final. On 17 May, O'Connor presented a ''

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pri ...

PopMaster PopMaster (briefly known as Celebrity PopMaster from 2007–2008) is a popular music quiz on the ''Ken Bruce Show'' on BBC Radio 2 that has aired on weekday mornings since February 1998. It usually takes place at around 10:30 every weekday. The que ...

'' on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

, with Ken Bruce and

Paddy O'Connell Guy Patrick O'Connell (born 11 March 1966 in Guildford, Surrey) is an English television and radio presenter, working mainly for the BBC. He presents BBC Radio 4's ''Broadcasting House'' programme each Sunday morning. He is also an occasional ...

as the two contestants. In 2014, together with his CreativeLive co-host Jamarie Milkovic, he provided English commentary for San Marino RTV live from Copenhagen and did so alone in 2015 for the second semifinal. During the Eurovision finals, he also reported for ABC News Australia, ABC Radio National Australia and once more guested on The Ken Bruce Show on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Breakfast on BBC1. In 2018, John Kennedy was one of the judges for '' 1in360'', the talent show to choose San Marino's entry for the ''

Eurovision Song Contest 2018 The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the 63rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Lisbon, Portugal, following the country's victory at the with the song "Amar pelos dois" by Salvador Sobral. Organised by the European B ...

'' in Lisbon and once again presented for San Marino RTV the preview shows; he also acted again as the spokesperson.

Radio

Until the station closed, O'Connor was the American correspondent for digital station

Gaydar Radio GaydarRadio is a podcast on Mixcloud streaming service, which used to be a Digital radio in the United Kingdom, British digital radio station for homosexuality, gay men, lesbians and gay friendly people, on Digital audio broadcasting, DAB multip ...

in the UK, reporting for the ''Neil and Debbie Breakfast Show'', covering live events including The

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

s, The

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

s and The Oscars, as well as reporting on the gay march held on 17 May 2009 in the Russian capital for Sky News. O'Connor has regularly reported for the UK TV channel

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the he ...

and for

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is o ...

in New York and ERT in Athens to the UK, and has been a guest on

BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media an ...

and

BBC News 24 BBC News (also known as the BBC News Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel for BBC News. It was launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 5:30 pm as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic tele ...

on TV and "Today" on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

with John Humphrys,

's ''Steve Wright in the Afternoon'' with host Steve Wright and actress

Brooke Shields Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and model. She was initially a child model and gained critical acclaim at age 12 for her leading role in Louis Malle's film '' Pretty Baby'' (1978). She continued to model into ...

on Radio. He has also contributed to many other

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

programmes, including

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadcasting of sports events, covering sport in ...

, '' The Big Toe Show'' on

BBC Radio 7 BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scotland, Scottish radio station, radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same na ...

, numerous local BBC Radio stations including guest spots with Nicky Campbell, Judi Spiers, Richard Bacon,

Paul Henley Paul Henley is a British radio and television journalist. He has worked for the BBC since 1992 and contributes to programmes such as ''Crossing Continents'' for BBC Radio 4. He was a runner up in the Foreign Press Association Awards in 2005. He ...

Ted Robbins Edward Michael Robbins (born 11 August 1955) is an English comic, actor, television presenter and radio broadcaster. He has performed as a warm-up artist for numerous pre-recorded comedy shows that have been filmed before live studio audiences i ...

, Liz Kershaw and featured on the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...

and LBC Radio. UK

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

's Jon Snow interviewed O'Connor live from Chicago when news of a scandal relating to the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 broke in May 2008. In Ireland, he has guested on Key 101 FM Radio with Eurovision winners Dana and Paul Harrington,

RTÉ One RTÉ One ( ga, RTÉ a hAon) is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís ...

's '' Rattlebag'', Newstalk Radio and regularly contributes to BBC Radio Ulster. In Australia, O'Connor has become a regular contributor to various

ABC Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors a ...

programmes, including the now defunct '' Perspective'' programme, hosted by producer Sue Clark, providing commentary on British and International Politics as well as popular culture issues. Among other stories, O'Connor reported on the underlying racism of the 2008 US General Election,

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony ...

's accession as British Prime Minister and the international media coverage of the

2007 Australian federal election The 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Australian Senate, Senate were up for elect ...

, for the programme. He has also regularly appears on ABC's '' Radio National Breakfast'' Show with Fran Kelly and many local radio stations in Australia and was the featured guest on an hour-long special on the

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greater emphasis on broad ...

ABC station.

Television

In May 2010, O'Connor appeared with

Justin Lee Collins Justin Lee Collins (born 28 July 1974) is an actor and former radio and television presenter from Bristol, England. Collins began his career as a stand up comedian in the 1990s when he was in his late teens. He then presented a number of TV s ...

on UK Channel Five, advising Collins on his quest to represent a country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in the show ''Eurovision: A Song For Justin''. During the 2010 contest in Oslo, Norway, O'Connor appeared on

Aljazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazee ...

TV,

& BBC News Channel with James Dagwell on ''E24'' and after a one-on-one interview, won ''

'' on BBC Radio 2's Ken Bruce show, playing against

in a Eurovision spoof of the regular feature, a feat he repeated in 2012 against the BBC Moscow Correspondent Steven Rosenberg. He also featured across

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since con ...

and

BBC Local Radio BBC Local Radio (also referred to as Local BBC Radio) is the BBC's local and regional radio division for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of forty stations. History The popularity of pirate radio was to challenge a change within ...

live from Oslo. In 2011, O'Connor featured in the documentary ''

The Secret History of Eurovision ''The Secret History of Eurovision'' is a television documentary produced by Brook Lapping Productions and Electric Pictures in association with Screen Australia, charting the history of the Eurovision Song Contest and its impact on European pol ...

'', shown in More4 in the UK. Since 2013, O'Connor has been the lead on-screen host for the educational broadcaster CreativeLive, fronting a variety of multi-day live broadcasts from the platforms San Francisco studios. At the end of 2014 it was announced on Twitter and on PBS.org that O'Connor was recording a series for PBS on international architecture and was filming the first episode in Kuala Lumpur and San Francisco with

César Pelli César Pelli (October 12, 1926 – July 19, 2019) was an Argentine-American architect who designed some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. Two of his most notable buildings are the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpu ...

as the subject. The six-part series (also featuring Norman Foster and I.M.Pei) aired across the US in the summer of 2015. In August 2015, O'Connor was recording a travel series focussing on India, Nepal and Myanmar. In February 2020, O'Connor became the host of ''FacebookLive'', broadcast bi-weekly on the social network's blueprint platform. In May 2021, O'Connor became host of the irregular corporate online newscasts ''The Zero Trust Exchange'', produced by

ZScaler Zscaler () is a cloud security company, with headquarters in San Jose, California. The company offers cloud migration services. History Zscaler was founded in 2007 by Jay Chaudhry and K. Kailash. In August 2012, Zscaler secured $38 million in ...

. From February 2022, O'Connor became the news anchor for NBC and CBS Northern California channels KIEM-TV and KVIQ-LD, anchoring the Morning, 5PM, 6PM and 11PM news broadcasts, Monday to Friday. The broadcasts being produced by Cox Media through Redwood TV News.

Newspaper

O'Connor's written work has been published in the United Kingdom in (among others) the '' Sunday Express'', ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'', ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves ...

'', ''

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised for its prominent critici ...

'', '' Northern Woman'' and ''

The News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national red top tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one o ...

''. In the United States, he had a syndicated column originating in San Francisco, primarily published in ''Playlands'' magazine, a local guide to entertainment and has been interviewed by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

'', the '' San Jose Mercury News'', the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...

'' and other American daily papers. He has been profiled in '' Meetings & Conventions Magazine''. For the 60th anniversary Eurovision, ''The Telegraph'' ran O'Connor's (accurate) predictions for the result in the run up to the competition. The Star also ran a detailed discussion of the UK's contest chances for 2015. Previously, Oikotimes.com ran a series of seven articles written by O'Connor in January 2011, tracing the history of Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest. Concurrently, the UK ''

'', reporting on the BBC's selection of the group

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

to sing for Britain in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2011 The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, following the country's victory at the with the song " Satellite" by Lena. Organised by the European Broadcasting U ...

, quoted from an article written by O'Connor for ESCInsight.com. In 2006, O'Connor was featured in the UK editions of '' Metro'' for their "60 Seconds Interview" column. In 2007, O'Connor contributed on camera items for both the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...

and

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...

for broadcast, in addition to video spots on

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

's Big Story. Online, he has been interviewed by ESCToday.com and Oikotimes.comEurovision Song Contest , Belgrade (Serbia) 2008 – Articles
/ref> about the

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, John Kennedy 1964 births Living people English male journalists English people of Irish descent English radio personalities English writers English expatriates in the United States Eurovision Song Contest people British gay writers English LGBT writers Writers from London British LGBT journalists British LGBT broadcasters English male non-fiction writers