Graham Torrington (born 1960) is a British

radio presenter A radio personality is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host (North American English), radio presenter (British English) or radio jockey. Radio personali ...

and broadcaster.

Radio work

Romantica

After starting out as a hospital radio presenter, Torrington joined Birmingham's

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 ...

in the 1980s to cover an overnight programme for Steve Dennis. He was with the station for several years during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and through most of his tenure there presented a late night programme of love songs called ''Romantica''. The show had previously been hosted by Charley Neal, who went on to become a weather presenter at Central Television. Torrington presented the programme on Saturdays for a while after Neal, but moved to host the station's lunchtime show in 1989, as well as a Sunday morning programme. ''Romantica'' was presented by Nick Hennigan for a while, but the show was relaunched with Torrington in 1990 and aired on Sunday evenings. ''Romantica'' used an instrumental version of

Luther Vandross Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American Soul music, soul and Contemporary R&B, R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer. Over his career, he achieved eleven consecutive RIAA certification, RIAA-certified ...

's '' Any Love'' as its opening theme tune. Torrington continued his weekday presenting, moving to the Drivetime show, then in 1992 he started hosting a late night show from Mondays to Thursdays. This programme contained a love songs strand titled ''The Love Zone''. Torrington left the station in 1993 after its acquisition by the Capital Radio Group when he and several other presenters were axed by incoming managing director Richard Park. He moved to Buzz FM, taking ''Romantica'' with him, and he was made the station's Programme Controller. He later launched Kix 96 in Coventry.

Late Night Love

The majority of Torrington's radio career has been within the

commercial radio Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship, for example. It was the United States' first model ...

industry. Presenting on stations such as

and more recently on

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysal ...

(formerly

GCap Media GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed on 9 May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index ...

's) ''The One Network'' where Torrington presented the nightly relationship show, ''Graham Torrington's Late Night Love'' for 12 years. The show regularly attracted more than 1 million listeners across the UK on 41 radio stations and earned Torrington a Sony

Radio Academy The Radio Academy is a registered charity dedicated to "the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK broadcasting and audio production". It was formed in 1983 and is run via a board of trustees, with a chair and a deputy chai ...

Award and the award for "Best Talk Show Host" at the New York Radio Festival Awards in 2008. Following Torrington's move to the BBC, fans of ''Late Night Love'' campaigned for him to return to late night radio, which prompted Torrington to start producing a weekly podcast version of the show. ''Late Night Love'' made a brief return to radio in 2012 when Torrington joined

Smooth Radio Smooth Radio may refer to: * Smooth Radio (2010), the original national network in the UK * Smooth Radio (2014) See also * Smoothfm smoothfm is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Nova Entertainment. From original l ...

to present the programme on Sunday evenings. The programme began in January 2012 and aired for three months. The show is now broadcast on Berkshire and North Hampshire's Glow Radio

BBC Radio

Torrington joined

BBC Radio Bristol BBC Radio Bristol is the BBC's local radio station serving the cities of Bristol and Bath and the unitary authorities of Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC ...

in 2008, and hosted the mid-morning talk-based radio programme on BBC Radio Bristol from 2009 to 2011. In May 2010 ''Graham Torrington's Late Night Relationship Show'', which was a new take on the previous "Late Night Love" broadcast on

(formerly GCap Media's) ''The One Network'', returned to BBC local radio in the West Country. The show was broadcast across seven BBC radio stations BBC Devon, BBC Cornwall, BBC Bristol,

BBC Somerset BBC Radio Somerset is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Somerset, England. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Blackbrook area of Taunton. According to RAJAR, the station has a ...

, BBC Wiltshire, BBC Gloucestershire, BBC Jersey and BBC Guernsey between 10pm and 1am on Saturday and Sunday nights. Following his time with Smooth Radio in early 2012 Torrington joined Birmingham's

BBC Radio WM BBC Radio WM is the BBC's local radio station serving the West Midlands. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Mailbox in Birmingham. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 193,000 ...

as a presenter, hosting a late night weekday programme of music and conversation from 16 April 2012. He also returned to BBC Devon to present ''Graham Torrington's Late Night Love Songs'', a programme syndicated to stations across the West Country on Saturday and Sunday evenings. From Sunday 14 October 2012 till Thursday 29 October 2020, he has presented a late night programme called ''Late Night Graham Torrington'' on BBC Radio WM and

BBC CWR BBC CWR (Coventry & Warwickshire Radio) is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Coventry and Warwickshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV, and via BBC Sounds from studio ...

airing from Sunday to Thursday nights.

BBC Hereford and Worcester BBC Hereford & Worcester is the BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, which were one county from 1974 to 1998. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and online via BBC Sounds from studios on Hylt ...

BBC Radio Stoke BBC Radio Stoke is the BBC's local radio station serving Staffordshire and South Cheshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, Freeview and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Hanley area of Stoke-on-Trent. According to RAJAR, the station has a week ...

and BBC Radio Shropshire have also aired the show since January 2013. From May 2015 the show was also extended to broadcast on

BBC Radio Nottingham BBC Radio Nottingham is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Nottinghamshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on London Road in Nottingham city centre. According to RAJAR, the station has ...

BBC Radio Leicester BBC Radio Leicester is the BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Leicestershire, City of Birmingham, South Staffordshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth and Rutland. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at ...

and

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 ...

. Torrington's last show for the BBC was aired on 29 October 2020. Other Radio Work September 2017 joined Super Yacht Radio to voice track an evening show From studios in Palma De Mallorca to the Global Super Yacht Community In February 2021 he joined

Boom Radio Boom Radio (also Boom Radio UK) is an independent, commercial, national radio station in the United Kingdom. Owned by Boom Radio Ltd, the station is aimed at baby boomers, the generation of people born between 1946 and 1964. Launched on 14 Febr ...

broadcasting from his home in Catalonia, Spain. On 15 August 2022 it was confirmed he would join North Derbyshire Radio to cover Late Night Love for three weeks while regular presenter Richard Spinks was away. From 3 October 2022 he joined MKFM in Milton Keynes to present '' Late Night Graham Torrington'' from Sundays to Thursdays, with MKFM planning to syndicate the show at a later date. He also continues to present on

on Fridays and Saturdays.

Television work

Torrington's TV work includes appearances on national gaming TV channel Gala TV and as host of ''Looking For Love'', which aired on ITV's Meridian and

Anglia TV ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated b ...

regions.

Awards

*World Medal – New York Festival Radio Programming Awards (2000) *Silver Sony Award (2002) *Best Regional Programme – Royal TV Society Awards (2002) *Best Talk Show Host – New York Festival Radio Programming Awards (2008) *Best Radio Personality (Network/Syndicated) – New York Festival Radio Awards (2018)

References

External links

Graham Torrington on Boom Radio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torrington, Graham 1960 births Living people Mass media people from Birmingham, West Midlands British radio DJs BBC radio presenters