Sir Michael Terence Wogan (/ˈwoʊɡən/; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in Britain for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday breakfast programme Wake Up to Wogan regularly drew an estimated eight million listeners. He was believed to be the most listened-to radio broadcaster in Europe.

Wogan was a leading media personality in Ireland and Britain from the late 1960s and was often referred to as a "national treasure". In addition to his weekday radio show, he was known for his work on television, including the BBC1 chat show Wogan, presenting Children in Need, the game show Blankety Blank and Come Dancing. He was the BBC's commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest from 1971 to 2008 (radio: 1971, 1974–1977; television: 1973, 1978, 1980–2008) and the Contest's co-host in 1998. He also presented the BBC's blooper show, Auntie's Bloomers, between 1991 and 2001. In recognition of his television career, in 2006, the British public ranked him number 21 in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars.

In 2005, Wogan acquired British citizenship in addition to his Irish nationality and was awarded a knighthood in the same year and was therefore entitled to use the title "Sir". He presented Weekend Wogan, a two-hour Sunday morning show on Radio 2, from 2010 until his final show on Remembrance Sunday 2015 when his health was beginning to decline. He died on 31 January 2016, aged 77.

Wogan was born on 3 August 1938 at Cleary's Nursing Home, Elm Park, Limerick, Ireland, the elder of two children. He was the son of the manager of Leverett & Frye, a high-class grocery store in Limerick, and was educated at Crescent College, a Jesuit school, from the age of eight. He experienced a strongly religious upbringing, later commenting that he had been brainwashed into believing by the threat of going to hell. Despite this, he often expressed his fondness for the city of his birth, commenting on one occasion that "Limerick never left me, whatever it is, my identity is Limerick."

At the age of 15, after his father was promoted to general manager, Wogan moved to Dublin with his family. While living there he attended Crescent College's sister school, Belvedere College. He participated in amateur dramatics and discovered a love of rock and roll. After leaving Belvedere in 1956, Wogan had a brief career in the banking profession, joining the Royal Bank of Ireland. Still in his twenties, he joined the national broadcaster of Ireland, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), as a newsreader and announcer, after seeing a newspaper advertisement inviting applicants.

Wogan conducted interviews and presented documentary features during his first two years at Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), before moving to the light entertainment department as a disc jockey and host of TV quiz and variety shows such as Jackpot, a top-rated quiz show on RTÉ in the 1960s. When the show was dropped by RTÉ TV in 1967, he approached the BBC for extra work. David Attenborough rebuffed his job application to be a BBC presenter; in 2016, after Wogan's death, Attenborough expressed the view that "to have had two Irishmen presenting on BBC2 would have looked ridiculous". The channel already had an Irish announcer. Wogan began working for BBC Radio, initially 'down the line' from Dublin, first broadcasting on the BBC Light Programme on 27 September 1966. His earliest BBC radio show surviving in the BBC Archives is from 24 December 1966, when he presented Songs for Christmas on the BBC Light Programme. He presented the Tuesday edition of Late Night Extra for two years on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2, commuting weekly from Dublin to London. After being a stand-in presenter on Jimmy Young's mid-morning show while Young took a holiday throughout July 1969, Wogan was offered a weekday afternoon slot which began on 29 September that year, initially on BBC Radio 1, but from early 1970, was also simultaneously broadcast on BBC Radio 2.

In April 1972 he took over the breakfast show on BBC Radio 2, swapping places with John Dunn, who moved to the afternoon show. Wogan achieved record estimated audiences of up to 7.9 million. His first chat show, Wogan's World, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 6 June 1974 to 21 September 1975. His seemingly ubiquitous presence across the media meant that he frequently became the butt of jokes by comedians of the time, among them The Goodies and The Barron Knights. He released a parody vocal version of the song "The Floral Dance" in 1978, by popular request from listeners who enjoyed hearing him sing over the instrumental hit by the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. His version reached number 21 in the UK Singles Chart.

In December 1984, Wogan left his breakfast show to pursue a full-time career in television and was replaced by Ken Bruce.