Richard Park (born 10 March 1948), is Senior Programming Advisor at

Global Media & Entertainment 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 Chrysa ...

where he advises on all Global brands including

Capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

Capital XTRA Capital XTRA (formerly Choice FM) is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Global. It broadcasts on 96.9 and 107.1 FM in Greater London, and nationally on DAB, Global Player and television platforms. It specialises in hip ho ...

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

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 ...

, Classic FM,

Smooth Smooth may refer to: Mathematics * Smooth function, a function that is infinitely differentiable; used in calculus and topology * Smooth manifold, a differentiable manifold for which all the transition maps are smooth functions * Smooth algebrai ...

and Radio X. He was previously a media consultant and broadcaster in the UK.

Professional career

Voted most influential person in the music industry by Record and Radio Industry Executives in 2001, Park began his career as a Pirate DJ on offshore station

Radio Scotland Radio Scotland was an offshore pirate radio station broadcasting on 1241 kHz mediumwave (242 metres), created by Tommy Shields in 1965. The station was on the former lightship L.V. ''Comet'', which had been fitted out as a radio station ...

in 1966. Later he joined the fledgling BBC Radio 1 network presenting such programmes as The Radio 1 Club and Round Table show. In the mid-1970s, he joined

Radio Clyde Radio Clyde is a group of two Independent Local Radio stations serving Glasgow and West Central Scotland. Radio Clyde is owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK, Bauer, based at studios in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire and forms part of Baue ...

specialising in music and sport programming working his way up to be Head of Entertainment. He hosted a variety of shows and also became the football station's regular

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

commentator, working alongside summariser James Sanderson. Park moved to London in 1987, to become Programme Controller 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 ...

. He was instrumental in promoting

Pete Tong Peter Michael Tong (born 30 July 1960) is an English DJ who works for BBC Radio 1. He is the host of programmes such as '' Essential Mix'' and '' Essential Selection'' on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio streams, for ...

Tim Westwood Timothy Westwood (born 3 October 1957), often known professionally simply as Westwood, is a British DJ and presenter. He was described by ''The Guardian'' in 2022 as "a veteran of the hip-hop scene whose opinions have been able to make or bre ...

and Neil Fox. In 1996, he formed Wildstar Records, uniting Capital and Telstar Records. As Director, he was responsible for signing

Craig David Craig Ashley David (born 5 May 1981) is an English singer. He rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single " Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger. David's debut studio album, '' Born to Do It'', was released in 2000, to great commercial success. In to ...

. In 1997, he was responsible along with executives from

LWT London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 ...

for creating the short-lived television show "Live From The Capital Cafe" which was simulcast on

. Presented by Dani Behr & Jason Bradbury the 90min show broadcast just after 11pm on Friday nights lasted only four weeks, it did not return for a second season. In 2001, after 14 years with Capital, he left to set up his own consultancy company, Park Management. Two years later, he set up Park Records, a joint venture with

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum ...

. He was also Radio Consultant for

Emap Ascential (formerly EMAP) was a British-headquartered global company, specialising in events, intelligence and advisory services for the marketing and financial technology industries. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was ac ...

, working on Magic and Big City networks. In 2004 and 2005, Park appeared on London's LBC 97.3 as presenter of their Weekend Breakfast Show and stood-in for Nick Ferrari & James O'Brien on the mid-morning weekday phone-in. In the Summer of 2005, he also presented a series of Saturday sports shows on

talkSPORT Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

discussing a wide range of sporting topics including football, cricket, rugby and tennis. He appeared as himself in the 2005 Christmas special of ''

The Catherine Tate Show ''The Catherine Tate Show'' is a British television comedy sketch programme written by Catherine Tate and Derren Litten featuring a wide range of characters. ''The Catherine Tate Show'' aired on BBC Two and was shown worldwide through the BBC ...

''.

Lauren Lauren is mostly a feminine given name. The name's meaning may be "laurel tree", "sweet of honor", or "wisdom". It is derived from the French name Laurence, a feminine version of Laurent, which is in turn derived from the Roman surname Laurent ...

and her friends perform a version of the

Black Eyed Peas The Black Eyed Peas are an American musical group formed in Los Angeles in 1995, composed of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo (rapper), Taboo. Fergie (singer), Fergie was a member during the height of their popularity in the 2000s, and ...

' "

Shut Up "Shut up" is a direct command with a meaning very similar to "be quiet" and "be silent", but which is commonly perceived as a more forceful command to stop making noise or otherwise communicating, such as talking. The phrase is probably a sho ...

", which is met with harsh negative comments by Richard. In 2007, after joining Global Radio, he controversially removed the entertainment programming from LBC 97.3 to turn it into a topical talk station. He built up a management and broadcast team for all Global radio brands which now attracts over 25 million listeners a week. He is a Fellow of The

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 ...

''Fame Academy''

Park appeared in both series of

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...

's ''

Fame Academy ''Fame Academy'' was a British television talent competition to search for and educate new musical talents. The winner would receive a chance to become a successful music artist and part of the international franchise ''Star Academy'' known un ...

'' as the "Headmaster", and gained a reputation for both his harsh criticisms of the students, and his long running on-screen feud with presenter

Patrick Kielty Patrick Kielty (born 31 January 1971) is a comedian, presenter and actor from Northern Ireland. He is the host of '' The Late Late Show'' on RTÉ One and presents a Saturday morning programme on BBC Radio 5 Live. His television credits include ...

. This came to a head during the 2005 series of ''

Comic Relief does Fame Academy ''Comic Relief Does Fame Academy'' is a spin-off of the original ''Fame Academy'' show where celebrities students sing as students of the Academy. The programme was launched in 2003 to help raise money for the charities supported by Comic Relief ...

'', where his scathing remarks about the contestants, who were all appearing solely to raise money for charity, caused them to threaten a walk-out. The BBC eventually received 450 viewer complaints after Park made an offensive hand gesture to host

on live television during the Saturday evening charity programme. The incident, broadcast well before the watershed at 7pm, came after Park criticised Kielty for "sycophantically stroking" the egos of the contestants. As the camera cut to co-host

Cat Deeley Catherine Elizabeth Deeley (born 23 October 1976) is an English television presenter. She is currently the main co-presenter for ITV's '' This Morning'', alongside Ben Shephard. Deeley began her career as a co-presenter of the ITV children' ...

, Park was pictured in the background mouthing the word "

wanker Wanker is slang for "one who wanks (Masturbation, masturbates)", but is most often used as a general insult. It is a pejorative term of English origin common in United Kingdom, Britain and other parts of the English-speaking world (mainly Com ...

" before making the accompanying gesture. The BBC issued an apology, and said he had not realised he was on camera at the time. He made a cameo appearance in ''

'' judging Lauren Cooper and her friends.

References

Personal

Married to Anna a successful High Street and Online retailer. They have two children Jonathan and Jack. He also has a son, Paul, and a daughter, Jennifer, from a previous marriage, both of whom enjoy successful careers in media.

External links

The Richard Park Company

Fighting Talk website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Richard 1948 births Living people People educated at Kirkcaldy High School People from Kirkcaldy British radio personalities British businesspeople British association football commentators Offshore radio broadcasters Pirate radio personalities Global Radio