Douglas Cameron

Douglas Cameron (born 29 October 1933) is a British broadcaster and newsreader who for over 30 years broadcast on LBC, most notably on the breakfast programme with co-presenter Bob Holness in the 1980s. Cameron's radio awards include induction into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame in recognition of his 42-year broadcasting career.

Early life Cameron was born in Scotland, and worked as an accountant in Edinburgh, before starting out in broadcasting. then after a year became a continuity announcer and newsreader with STV. In February 1962, he formed one of STV's first news-reading trios, alongside Michael O'Halloran and Raymond Boyd, and unlike their contemporaries of the time, they read the news from printed scripts, rather than Autocue.

Cameron left STV in 1964 and joined the BBC in London as a network announcer. He also presented schools and further education programmes during this time. In 1968 Cameron became a newsreader on Radio 4's nightly news opt-out programme South-East, before joining the Today programme in 1971, alongside co-presenters Jack de Manio and John Timpson.

Meanwhile, commercial radio was being launched. Today editor, Marshall Stewart, moved to LBC and Cameron soon joined him, leaving the BBC in 1974 to join Independent Radio News (IRN) as a newsreader and sub-editor. He became IRN's principal morning newsreader, before he moved to co-present LBC's flagship breakfast show, the AM Programme, firstly with Allen MacKenzie and then Clive Roslin. Bob Holness delivered the travel and traffic reports from Helicopter 417 before moving to co-present the AM Programme with Cameron in 1975, a partnership that would last for 10 years. By the early 1980s the programme was bringing in 2 million listeners and was more popular in the capital than Radio 4's Today programme. The breakfast show was designed to become lighter as it passed through the morning. Cameron put the success of AM down to the light and shade of hard news combined with everyday features such as medical and cooking segments.

In 1989, LBC split into two frequencies; LBC Crown FM and London Talkback Radio on AM. Cameron co-presented the breakfast programme with Bob Wellings on London Talkback. The new station employed a number of celebrities to present new programmes, with Cameron later remarking, "If people like that bring in money at the box office, then they are worth every penny. But they didn't with us."

London Talkback relaunched as London News Talk 1152 in October 1994 and Cameron co-presented the breakfast show with Brian Hayes. On the subject of talk-radio shock jocks, Cameron was quoted as saying "They should remember they're there for the listeners, not to gratify their own egos." Throughout this period, he would refer to the station on air as LBC News Talk in an attempt to keep the LBC name alive. However, by October of the same year he had returned to reading news bulletins.

Personal life Cameron lived in Bearsden before embarking on a career in broadcasting. The couple have a son, Michael (born c. 1965), and a daughter, Judith Rose (born c. 1968).

Cameron has been involved in local events, such as presenting awards, hospital open days, opening fetes and commentating on the Hillingdon half-marathon. He made a guest broadcast on Northwick Park's hospital radio station, Radio Northwick, in 1972 on a visit to see friend Alfie Bass.

Honours Cameron was awarded the Independent Radio Personality of the Year by the Variety Club in 1979 and 1984, and a Sony award for UK Radio Personality of the Year in 1987. This was the first time it had been awarded to an independent radio broadcaster. The following year, in 1988, he was listed on Sony's Roll of Honour of Radio's All Time Greats.

In January 1999, Cameron received an MBE for services to radio. In 2003, after announcing his retirement, Cameron received an induction into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame in recognition of his 42-year broadcasting career.