Paul Gambaccini

Paul Matthew Gambaccini (born 2 April 1949) is an American-British radio and television presenter and author. He is a dual citizen of the United States and United Kingdom, having become a British citizen in 2005.

Known as "The Great Gambo" and "The Professor of Pop", Gambaccini was a BBC Radio 1 presenter for 16 years, including 11 years on a weekly show counting down the Billboard Top 30 songs. A regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's long-running arts programme Kaleidoscope, Gambaccini was a long-time TV morning show correspondent for British television, and makes regular appearances on other British TV magazine shows.

Gambaccini was the host of the 12-part Classic FM series Paul Gambaccini's Hall of Heroes, and chairs the Radio 4 music quiz Counterpoint. He was presenter of Pick of the Pops on BBC Radio 2 from 9 July 2016, to 7 October 2023 and America's Greatest Hits on Greatest Hits Radio on Saturday afternoons since February 2020. He now presents the Paul Gambaccini Collection on Radio 2 which began on 29 October 2023. Inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame in 2005, Gambaccini is the author of more than 15 books.

Born in the Bronx, New York City, Gambaccini studied at Dartmouth College, where he obtained a degree in history in 1970.

Gambaccini then migrated to the United Kingdom and attended University College, Oxford, where he studied philosophy, politics and economics. He has since returned to Oxford, where he delivered a series of lectures in January and February 2009, as the News International Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media. In February 2010 he was invited by the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, Andrew Hamilton, to deliver the inaugural LGBT lecture Out on Monday to the university's LGBT staff, students and faculty.

Gambaccini's broadcasting career began at Dartmouth College, where he was music director of the now-defunct WDCR, a college-owned-and-operated Top 40 radio station. Gambaccini may have first achieved wider prominence when his tips for playlisted songs likely to see greater chart action were published in the 11 May 1968, issue of the international trade publication Billboard, alongside similar tips from radio programming talent at major commercial stations across the United States.

Having left Oxford, Gambaccini considered further study in law at Harvard or Yale, but had the opportunity of writing for Rolling Stone magazine, as British correspondent. He attributes his broadcasting career to this post—especially an interview in 1973 with Elton John which brought him to the attention of BBC Radio producer John Walters who arranged for him to host on BBC Radio 1. Gambaccini then started broadcasting in the UK, on BBC Radio 1, from September 1974, first as a music reporter on the John Peel Saturday show Rockspeak^{[citation needed]} and as presenter of All American Heroes. The following year, he started a show focussing on the weeks' music in the US chart which was to continue for over a decade. The show was broadcast every Saturday afternoon until his last show on 8 February 1986. Thereafter, he moved to independent radio to host American Countdown. In 1990, he returned to Radio 1, but left during the tenure of controller Matthew Bannister in 1993.^{[citation needed]}

In 1992 Gambaccini became a founding personality on the UK's classical music station Classic FM, where he hosted the weekly Classical CD Chart show. He left for BBC Radio 3 in 1995, where he broadcast an hour-long morning show, in a slot formerly used for Composer of the Week. He returned to Classic FM in 1997.