Don Durbridge

Durbridge died in Spain on 9 June 2012. He was survived by his first wife, Yvonne, and also left a daughter, Moira, and a grandson, Teddy.

When Primetime and Saga ceased broadcasting in 2006, Durbridge emigrated to Estepona on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain. His final radio stop was with REM FM (now Talk Radio Europe),where, from May 2007, he presented weekend shows with a mix of music, chat and celebrity guests as diverse as the entertainer Max Bygraves and the jazz loving politician Ken Clarke.

Durbridge pursued his broadcasting career in Malta in the early '90s where he also married his second wife Cheryl, returning to Britain, to the county of Kent, in 1997. It was from there that he relaunched his UK broadcasting career, tossing out the gramophone decks and needles to embrace the digital broadcasting age, and was soon back behind the microphone at Channel Travel Radio in Folkestone giving out cross channel information to motorists on the M20.

In October 1984, he was part of the launch team for Kent's very first commercial radio station, Invicta Sound (now Heart, Kent), where he hosted a mid morning music and chat programme. Invicta Sound's 'debate and discussion' launch format was famously unsuccessful and most of the early presenters found themselves out of work when the schedule was revamped less than a year later.

Durbridge joined Radio Medway in 1979 and was with the station when it relaunched as BBC Radio Kent in July 1983.

Durbridge returned to the BBC in 1974, joining the Light Programme's successor Radio 2 as a continuity announcer and newsreader, his first BBC staff job. He soon became a regular cover presenter, hosting such iconic shows as Two-Way Family Favourites, Friday Night is Music Night, Saturday Night with the BBC Radio Orchestra, Night Ride, Band Parade, Music Through Midnight and Sport on 2, and was also a regular cover presenter for Terry Wogan, Jimmy Young, Ed Stewart, David Hamilton, Charlie Chester and John Dunn.

In 1972, Durbridge was assigned as a BFBS reporter for the Munich Olympics, where he secured a worldwide scoop – an exclusive interview with the swimmer Mark Spitz, who'd won an – unprecedented at the time – seven gold medals at the Games.

Durbridge was also press officer and matchday announcer for Fulham F.C. in the mid-1970s when George Best and Bobby Moore were in the team.

In 1966 he signed up with the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), where his encyclopaedic knowledge of sport kept him in demand as a broadcast anchor and commentator for international boxing and football matches. It also took him across the globe including to Aden (now Yemen) in 1966/67, to Cologne in Germany (1968–69 and again for part of '72) and then to Gibraltar for three years.

Durbridge first broadcast to the nation in 1955 at the age of sixteen as co-host of The Younger Generation on the BBC Light Programme having answered an ad in the Radio Times. He contributed to the network for several years before being called up for national service. On his return in 1962, he married his longtime sweetheart Yvonne, whom he had known for eight years.

Durbridge's father served in the British Army during the Second World War and died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in 1945. His family moved to England soon afterwards. When the young Don arrived in London as a six-year-old, he had a broad Glaswegian accent.

Don Durbridge (13 January 1939 – 9 June 2012) was a UK radio presenter who started his career on the BBC Light Programme, and subsequently worked on the British Forces Broadcasting Service, and on BBC Radio 2,. He also broadcast for many years on BBC Radio Medway, BBC Radio Kent and Invicta Sound in Kent, and latterly on PrimeTime and Saga DAB radio. On PrimeTime he introduced the late night slot, In Mellow Mood, until the station's demise in 2006. He was also the regular matchday announcer for Fulham Football Club in the mid-1970s and for Gillingham Football Club during the 1980s.