Dave Lee Travis
Born	David Patrick Griffin[1] (1945-05-25) 25 May 1945 (age 79)[2] Buxton, Derbyshire, United Kingdom
Occupation(s)	Radio and television presenter

Dave Lee Travis (the professional name of David Patrick Griffin,^[1] born 25 May 1945),^[2] also known professionally as DLT, The Hairy Monster and from 1978 The Hairy Cornflake), is a British radio presenter, best known for his career on BBC Radio 1.

Early life and career

Born in Buxton, Derbyshire,^[3] he was raised in Manchester.^[4] His father was a stage manager and he attended Manchester Central Grammar School for Boys.^[5]

His first job was as a graphic designer, and then working as a designer of shop interiors and a photographer.^[3] But at night and on the weekends he began working as a DJ at the Oasis Club in Manchester, making use of a Dansette autochanger.^[6] Giving up his other jobs, he went on a self-created and promoted UK tour of clubs, ballrooms and theatres presenting his own DJ shows. Consequently, he was asked by Herman's Hermits to become the touring manager and warm-up DJ on their next tour of the United States,^[2][7][8] supporting Bobby Vee and Freddy Cannon.^[9] On his return to the UK, Travis returned to the North of England and continued to promote his own shows in Blackpool, Bury and surrounding areas.^{[citation needed]}

Radio

Radio Caroline

In September 1965, Travis started at the offshore pirate radio station Radio Caroline South from the MV Mi Amigo off the Essex coast, later moving onto Radio Caroline North from the MV Fredericia off the Isle of Man until mid-August 1967.

BBC Radio 1

In 1967, offshore pirate radio was outlawed by the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act. After a short period working on television in Germany on the Beat Club pop programme,^[2][3] he returned to Manchester to present the daily radio show Pop North on Radio 1, and he also did some Saturday afternoon programmes in the 4–5:30pm slot. In 1969, he took over a Sunday morning show from 10am-midday. In 1971, he was promoted to the weekday lunchtime show from 11am-1pm, moving back to Sunday mornings in 1973 and also presenting the Radio 1 Club on Thursdays from 5–7pm. He had a time presenting The Sunday Afternoon request Show 3-5pm.

On television, he provided the UK commentary for the Eurovision Song Contest 1971 in Dublin, Ireland, and in 1985 presented the Eurovision Song Contest Previews on BBC1.

In 1976, he took over the weekday teatime slot, 4.30–5.45pm (extended to run 4.30-7pm in 1977). He then took over The Radio 1 Breakfast Show from Noel Edmonds in May 1978 (coincidentally when the BBC Chart went from Top 50 to Top 75) and continued in this slot until December 1980. It was when he took over from Noel Edmonds that the heavily-bearded presenter, who had previously adopted the nickname 'The Hairy Monster' since the early 70s, began referring to himself as 'The Hairy Cornflake'.

In 1976, an on-air parody of the US hit "Convoy" (by C. W. McCall) led to a release of the song "Convoy GB" as a single, recorded with fellow DJ Paul Burnett under the name Laurie Lingo and the Dipsticks. The song reached number four in the charts and Travis appeared as the song's narrator "Super Scouse" on Top Of The Pops.

The sound effect "quack quack oops" became a distinctive Radio 1 feature, and was resurrected for his current weekend morning show on the Magic Network.

January 1981 saw Travis move to weekday afternoons from 2.30 to 4.30pm. Later that year he moved back to the weekday lunchtime slot from 11.30am to 2pm, before moving to a Saturday morning show in 1983 from 10am to 1pm, then Sunday mornings from 10am to 1pm in 1987, taking over both Saturday and Sunday in September 1988.

On-air resignation

On 8 August 1993 Travis resigned on-air during his Sunday morning show, stating that he could not agree with changes that were being made to Radio 1. Travis told his audience that changes were afoot that he could not tolerate – "....and I really want to put the record straight at this point and I thought you ought to know – changes are being made here which go against my principles and I just cannot agree with them..."^[10] Around this time, Travis expressed his annoyance with fictional TV characters Smashie and Nicey to Q magazine, stating "That Smashy and Nicey crap—is that funny?".^[11] It had been widely assumed from the time of new Controller Matthew Bannister's appointment that Travis would be one of the first victims of a cull.

A Jolly Good Show

From 1981 to 2001, Travis presented the BBC World Service music request programme A Jolly Good Show (taking over from Noel Edmonds). In June 2011, Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the programme had given her a lifeline. The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who had spent 15 years under house arrest from 1989, told the BBC A Jolly Good Show had made her "world much more complete".^[1] Travis said he was "touched" but "not surprised" that she had remembered it.^[12]

Since 1993

On leaving Radio 1, Travis hosted a networked Sunday morning show (10am–1pm) across some of the UK's commercial radio stations. He also went to Classic Gold where he hosted the 10am–1pm morning show (later 9am–12pm), before moving to breakfast 7am–9am and then back to mornings 9am–11am.

In 2002, he left Classic Gold to work for the Army's Garrison FM.

From March 2003 to March 2007, Travis returned to the BBC, and presented a Sunday morning show from 9am–12pm on BBC Three Counties Radio, his local BBC radio station.

In 2005 he was briefly heard on Spain's Spectrum FM, presenting a Saturday morning show, but that ended later the same year due to poor listening figures.

Since 8 July 2006, Travis has been on the Magic Network, a network of eight radio stations across the North of England on AM and DAB Digital Radio, where he hosts The DLT Show 10am–1pm on Saturdays and, since 4 February 2007, at the same time on Sundays as well with his co-host "Dangerous" Dan Black.

Travis is a member of the Radio Academy Hall of Fame.^[2]

Television

DLT presented the German TV show Beat Club, where he introduced such acts as Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Steamhammer.

On BBC television, he presented editions of Top of the Pops in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also the presenter of The Golden Oldie Picture Show in the mid-1980s, an attempt by the BBC to create videos for classic pop songs that pre-dated the video age.

In 1993 he hosted the children's television show Go Getters.^{[citation needed]}

He was also the United Kingdom commentator for the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest.^[13]

On 14 February 2000, Travis was the subject of the This Is Your Life programme on British TV.

Other TV appearances include The Weakest Link, Noel's House Party, Mrs. Merton, Stars Reunited, Kick Start, Dave's Lee's and Travis's and Today with Des and Mel.

Travis appeared in the video for the Comic Relief version of the The Proclaimers song "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", performed by Peter Kay and Matt Lucas.

Noel's House Party Gotcha

Travis was famously the victim of a practical joke (or "Gotcha") by Noel Edmonds on his TV show Noel's House Party. His radio quiz was unknowingly hijacked by two fake pub quiz teams which gave absurd answers to every question. His 'reaction' at the revelation had to be recorded twice because his initial outburst was full of swearwords. He said to Noel, "Edmonds, you are a dead man! I don't want your Gotcha!"^{[citation needed]} Travis had his "revenge" the following week when, by arrangement with the Noel's House Party production team, he hijacked Noel Edmonds's show live on air, culminating in Edmonds ending up in the Great House's infamous green gunge tank.

Allegations of sexual assault

In October 2012 it was alleged by two former BBC employees that he sexually assaulted a number of women during his time at the BBC.^[14] One of the women, who was 17 at the time, claimed in the media after making a formal statement to police that Travis put his hand up her skirt in 1977.^[15] The other, presenter Vivien Creegor, claimed Travis "jiggled her breasts" when she was live on BBC Radio 4 in the 1980s.^[14][15] Travis, who hosted the Radio 1 Breakfast Show from 1978 to 1980, said in a statement: "I categorically deny that there is any substance in either allegation and I’m genuinely surprised that allegations of this nature have been made. I totally refute [sic] any impropriety."^[14][15] On 15 November 2012, he was arrested at his home by the Metropolitan Police as part of the Operation Yewtree inquiry.^[16][17] He was the fourth person to be arrested as part of the investigation.^[18] On 16 November, Travis made a statement stating "This is nothing to do with kids, all right? That's the first thing. Because that to me is the most important thing in the world and I do not wish to have my name sullied around something that bloody evil, to be honest. Yes, there's an ongoing police investigation about me and two grown women, all right?"^[19] On the same date, Magic AM announced that Travis would not be broadcasting on their station until the issue had been resolved.^[19]

On 15 August 2013 it was announced that he had been charged with several counts of indecent or sexual assault. ^[20]

Personal life

Married, he lives in Mentmore, Buckinghamshire, with his wife.^[3]

Travis's interests include photography and classic cars.^[3] In 1987, he published a book of his own photographic efforts called A Bit of a Star, which he dedicated to his late father.^[21] In the 1970s, Travis was a regular drag racer.^[9][22]

He is a patron of the PACE Centre.^[23]

References

External links

• Bio at the Radio Academy Hall of Fame
• Dave Lee Travis at IMDb
• Biography at Radio Rewind — including photos and audio clips from DLT's shows.
• The DLT Show Facebook Page

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