Steve Penk is a British

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

presenter. He was born in

Rusholme Rusholme () is an area of Manchester, England, two miles south of the city centre. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 13,643. Rusholme is bounded by Chorlton-on-Medlock to the north, Victoria Park and Longsight to the east, Fa ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. Penk has worked for various national and local UK radio stations. Aged just 16 he started his radio career at

Piccadilly Radio Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West is an Independent Local Radio station based in Manchester, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio Network. It broadcasts to Greater Manchester and North West Engl ...

in 1978 (subsequently rebranded

Key 103 ''For the Network, see Hits Radio. For the National DAB station, see Hits Radio UK.'' Hits Radio Manchester is an Independent local radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Greater Manchester ...

), where his breakfast show delivered record ratings, the highest in the station's history to this day. In 1997 Penk moved on to work at

Capital Radio Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. ...

London presenting the mid-morning show. On his programme he regularly did his famous radio wind-ups. It was during one of these wind-up calls that Penk had the idea to call the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He was able to get through the No. 10 switchboard and managed to get Blair on the air for a few minutes. Blair later mentioned during Prime Minister's Questions that Penk had prank-called him that morning, and at that point it became a global media story. In 2001, Penk moved to

Virgin Radio Virgin Radio launched in the United Kingdom in 1993. In 2008, Virgin Radio UK was sold to TIML, a subsidiary of The Times of India group, and the name was changed to Absolute Radio; the Virgin Radio name was not included in the sale. In 2001, ...

where he replaced Chris Evans on the breakfast show and increased the audience by 300,000 listeners in the first three months. Penk then returned to Capital FM in 2002 to present a networked late show. After a year presenting the late show on

networked to a number of other stations, Penk returned to

, however, he left at the end of 2006. Penk returned to the airwaves on Fox FM in Oxfordshire in March 2007 as its new breakfast show presenter. However, he announced on 15 January 2008 he would be leaving the station by March 2008 due to 'internal politics'. He also presented/Hosted a number of Primetime TV Shows for ITV. ''TV Nightmares'', ''The Way They Were'', ''When Athletes Attack'' and made guest appearances on ''Blankety Blank'' and a few series of '' TV's Naughtiest Blunders'' on

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 pu ...

. On Thursday 4 September 2008, it was announced that Penk had bought the entire share capital in the radio station

96.2 the Revolution Revolution 96.2 was an Independent Local Radio station serving the Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside areas of Greater Manchester. Following its sale to Bauer Radio, the station was closed and merged with the Greatest Hits Radio network in November ...

. Almost immediately after the purchase, Penk made major changes both to the schedule and to the playlist. The changes led to outrage from some listeners to the station and departure of some of the station's DJs. However, after changing the station's format Penk managed to quadruple the audience. In January 2014, he sold 96.2 the Revolution. In 2015 Penk launched the Steve Penk Wind-Up Channel on DAB+ in Manchester (England), featuring wind-up/prank calls 24/7. In 2016 Penk created and launched "Radio Dead", a globally unique radio station that only plays artistes who are deceased. Penk closed Radio Dead along with another internet based station that he owned at the end of November 2019. In 2019 he started a podcast of his BBC Radio 4 Extra series Radio Nightmares featuring mistakes and bloopers from all types of radio broadcasting across the world. He stood in on the 10pm Saturday night show on Greatest Hits Radio in June 2021.

Television appearances

* ''TV Nightmares'' * ''Would I Lie To You?'' * '' Russian Roulette'' * ''

Blankety Blank ''Blankety Blank'' is a British comedy game show which started in 1979 and is still running today, albeit with some sizeable gaps. The original series ran from 18 January 1979 to 12 March 1990 on BBC1, hosted first by Terry Wogan from 1979 ...

'' * ''The Way They Were: Coronation Street Special'' * '' TV's Naughtiest Blunders'' * ''

This Morning This Morning may refer to: * ''This Morning'' (TV programme), a British daytime television programme * ''This Morning'' (radio program), a Canadian radio show which aired from 1997 to 2002 * '' CBS This Morning'', an American morning show, succe ...

References

External links

* .
DJ Penk quits Virgin Radio - BBC News - 31/01/02.

Virgin drops Penk from breakfast show - BBC News - 25/01/02.

Surprise call for PM - BBC News - 21/01/98.Request for radio mistake clips - RadioToday - 28/05/19.

New podast to launch - Podnews - 01/07/2019.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penk, Steve 1961 births Living people People from Rusholme DJs from Manchester English radio DJs Virgin Radio (UK)