Graham Lawrence Knight (17 February 1949 – 3 September 2009) was a British broadcaster, journalist and author.

Personal life

Knight was born in Sorrento Maternity Hospital, Moseley,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England. He died in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

, England, survived by two children, Matthew and Paul and his wife Cherry. He was an avid collector of autographed books, many of whom were of authors he'd interviewed. He also collected spectacles. In 1977, he joined the Nottingham Sports Car Club and was a commentator for their September Donington Park race meeting. He also sprinted a Mini at Curborough.

Career

Cadbury's

Before moving into journalism, Knight worked in the packaging team at Cadbury's in Bournville, where he met his wife.

Radio

Hospital Radio

Graham started his career in broadcasting by volunteering on hospital radio in Birmingham.

Radio Trent

After moving to Nottingham in the mid-1970s, Graham was one of the founder DJs on Nottingham's

Radio Trent Trent FM was an Independent Local Radio station which broadcast to Nottinghamshire. The station merged with two other East Midlands stations, Leicester Sound and Ram FM to form Capital FM East Midlands (part of Global's Capital FM Network) on ...

as it launched in July 1975, where he presented the Phone-in Show, 'Trent Talkback'. Other DJs included John Peters, Jeff Cooper, Kid Jensen and Guy Morris. Graham also had semi regular shows on the English speaking Austrian station

Blue Danube Radio Blue Danube Radio (BDR) was an English-language radio station broadcast by the Österreichischer Rundfunk (; ORF). History Blue Danube Radio went live on 23 August 1979, created principally for the United Nations community at UNO-City in Vien ...

, as had his colleague at Trent,

Dale Winton Dale Jonathan Winton (22 May 1955 – 18 April 2018) was an English radio DJ and television presenter. He presented the shows '' Supermarket Sweep'' from 1993 until 2001 and again in 2007, the National Lottery game show '' In It to Win It' ...

BRMB Radio

He returned home to Birmingham when he joined commercial station

BRMB BRMB is a British radio station based in Aston, Birmingham, which is owned and operated by Murfin Music International. It broadcasts on 89.1FM in Aston and surrounding areas, on DAB throughout Birmingham, and online via the station's website a ...

to present the evening show.

BBC Radio Derby

Graham joined

BBC Radio Derby BBC Radio Derby is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Derbyshire and East Staffordshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, AM broadcasting, AM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from s ...

in 1983 and presented the mid-morning show for 14 years.

BBC Radio 2

Graham presented the Weekend Early Breakfast show on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

for four years, between 1988 and the end of 1991.

Retail

From 2002 to his death, Graham owned and ran a specialist

Tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

Coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

and

Chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

shop in

Sherwood Sherwood may refer to: Places Australia *Sherwood, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane * Sherwood, South Australia, a locality *Shire of Sherwood, a former local government area of Queensland * Electoral district of Sherwood, an electoral district fr ...

called 'General Store', selling a range of packed and loose teas and coffees, including his own blends, and unique imports such as 'Georgian Old Lady' and 'Georgian Old Gentleman'.

Other organisations

Graham had been a regional board member of the National Trust, and played a critical part in setting up the Derwent Valley Trust during its creation of the National Heritage Corridor in Derbyshire between 2001 and 2007 whilst studying for an MA in Conservation Management. He also helped establish a journalism section on the Amnesty International website and co-wrote the book Outings in the Peak District with Lindsay Porter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Graham 1949 births 2009 deaths Mass media people from Birmingham, West Midlands BBC Radio 2 presenters British radio DJs