Paul Matthew Gambaccini (born April 2, 1949) is an American-British radio and television presenter and author in the United Kingdom. He has dual United States and British nationality, 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 9th July 2016 to 7th October 2023 and America's Greatest Hits on Greatest Hits Radio on Saturday afternoons since February 2020. Paul will present the Paul Gambaccini Collection from 29th October 2023. Inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame in 2005, Gambaccini is the author of more than 15 books.
Education
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 for a degree in politics, philosophy 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 Oxford University, Andrew Hamilton to deliver the inaugural LGBT lecture Out on Monday to the university's LGBT staff, students and faculty.
Broadcasting career
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 May 11, 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, September 1974, which he did for 13 years, first as a music reporter on the John Peel Saturday show Rockspeak. He presented the series All American Heroes from 1974, a series showcasing US talent. In September 1975 he began the show he was to front for the next 11 years, highlighting the weeks' music in the US chart. The show was broadcast every Saturday afternoon until his last show on February 8, 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.
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.
Alongside his work in music radio, he contributed regularly to BBC Radio 4's long-running arts programme Kaleidoscope between 1975 and 1998.
For 13 years Gambaccini reviewed films for breakfast television, first on TV-am and then GMTV. In the early 1980s he presented The Other Side of the Tracks on Channel 4, which ran for three series. His other television appearances include Pebble Mill at One, Call My Bluff, Music for the Millennium, and The South Bank Show.
In 1998, he joined BBC Radio 2. His first show was on April 18, 1998, once again opening the first of his weekly shows America's Greatest Hits with "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen. In 2002, he quit his role at Classic FM, to present a weekly chart show on London's Jazz FM until 2004. He was also a contributor to the London station LBC when it was taken over by Chrysalis.