Ian Damon (born Ian Davidson 5 June 1935) is a British radio personality.
Born in
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, Australia and after 8 years as a broadcaster on
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
stations
2RG and
2LF, Damon decided to tour Europe and Canada settling in
Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt, near the border with Essex, just west of the ...
, Hertfordshire in the UK during which time, he presented a regular show on Radio Stortford (Bishop's Stortford Hospital Radio), a volunteer-run organisation broadcasting via GPO landline to the Herts and Essex Hospital, Rye Street Hospital and Elmhurst Care Home, all in Bishop's Stortford and for a while, the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex.
He joined the offshore
Radio London/Big L on the
MV Galaxy replacing
Tony Blackburn
Anthony Kenneth Blackburn (born 29 January 1943) is an English disc jockey, singer and television presenter, whose career spans over 60 years.
Blackburn first achieved fame broadcasting on the pirate stations Radio Caroline and Radio Londo ...
in 1967; and was given the name of 'Wombat' by
Tony Brandon. On its demise, Damon freelanced and was engaged as a continuity announcer by
ATV London
ATV Network Limited, originally Associated TeleVision (ATV), was a British broadcaster, part of the ITV (Independent Television) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to ...
and
ABC Manchester. He also contributed to
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 ...
's 'Roundabout' programme. He returned to Australia for 5 years awaiting the start of independent radio, during which time Damon announced for both radio and television stations including being a member of the "Snob Mob" at
2CH in Sydney.
Damon came back to the UK, worked for
Southern Television
Southern Television was the ITV broadcasting licence holder for the South and South-East of England from 30 August 1958 to 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited. However, in 1966, during the application pr ...
and was part of the original team at
Capital Radio
Capital London is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Global Media & Entertainment as part of its national Capital (radio network), Capital Network.
As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Bri ...
for over 5 years using his real name of Ian Davidson. He was the face of the "Fun Bus" – broadcasting live and promoting the station all around London and the Home Counties. On his London Link programme, Damon broadcast to radio stations around the Commonwealth from Australia to Canada, Hong Kong to Barbados.
In the 80s and 90s, after a stint at
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 ...
in Austria, Damon worked for provincial stations in England including
Pennine Radio,
LBC
LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadc ...
,
Essex Radio,
Radio Mercury,
Radio 210,
KFM Tonbridge and
Delta FM/ Wey Valley Radio. Before moving to Norfolk in 2002, Damon was at
County Sound
County Sound Radio was an Independent Local Radio station covering Surrey and north-east Hampshire in the United Kingdom. One of its closing forms in 2012–2014 formed Eagle Extra occupying 1566 MW following an internal split between older an ...
radio in Guildford.
From May 2005 to September 2008 Damon presented Sunday programmes on Big L 1395.
Originally Damon presented the Solid Gold Sunday 1400 – 1800 when the station was called Radio London International (named after the original offshore station). A change of management meant Ian's show was moved to a later slot and the programme changed format. However, in the summer of 2008 Damon's programme returned to its original slot and format but this was only to be for a short time as when the station faced financial difficulties Damon left due to the agreed promised payment not being forthcoming for his services.
Damon also was part of Pirate BBC Essex broadcasting from the LV18 lightship in Harwich in 2004 and again in 2007 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the closure of the offshore stations.
In August 2009 Damon joined community station Wayland Radio to host a weekly Sunday afternoon show for the station before the station closed due to lack of finance.
In July 2014 Damon joined the annual short term station Red Sands Radio to host a weekly Sunday afternoon soul show for the station's Solid Gold Sunday outlet
Most recently, Ian joined community radio station Maidstone Radio in 2019. He currently presents a one hour weekly show of oldies from the 50s to 60s on Sunday afternoons.
References
External links
personal websiteWayland Radio official websiteBig L 1395 official websiteBig L Sunday Programme Listen again featurePirate BBC Essex 2007Pirate BBC Essex 2004Meet Our TeamMaidstone Radio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Damon, Ian
English radio personalities
Pirate radio personalities
British radio DJs
Living people
Australian radio personalities
1935 births
British radio presenters
Offshore radio broadcasters