Graham Dene

Graham Dene (born 7 April 1949) is a British radio personality.[1]

After a period as a disc jockey on Edgware General Hospital's radio, and at United Biscuits Network,[2] he became famous in the London area as Capital Radio's breakfast presenter in the 1970s, having joined from Radio City in Liverpool. He had the daunting task of taking over the breakfast show from Kenny Everett in May 1975, and stayed there until Mike Smith took over the slot in July 1980. But Smith left to rejoin BBC Radio 1 in 1982, and Dene returned for a second stint as breakfast host from 1982 to 1987. This time Chris Tarrant took over.

Dene joined the original Virgin Radio 1215 at its launch in April 1993. In 2006, he worked at Magic 105.4.[3] In 2008, he was 102.2 Smooth Radio's breakfast host. Dene was also a presenter for BBC Radio Devon and BBC Jersey on its Sunday afternoons chart show.[4] In April 2012, Dene was one of the launch presenters on The Wireless - an Internet-based radio station operated by Age UK and aimed at older people throughout the UK.[5] Since January 2013 he has presented the Saturday lunchtime show on BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey.[6]

In the 1980s, Dene hosted a radio show, Rock Over London, that was produced and distributed to radio stations in the United States, particularly stations that programmed New Wave or new, eclectic music.[7]

In January 2021 it was announced that Graham Dene would be hosting the breakfast show for the new UK radio station Boom Radio, from launch day on February 14th.[8]