Where Are They Now? What Past LBC Presenters Are Doing Today
Senior Editor and Researcher
Have you ever wondered what some of the previous presenters of LBC went on to do after leaving one of the UK’s biggest radio stations?
LBC, originally the London Broadcasting Company, was the UK’s first licensed commercial radio station, launching in 1973.
The station has since become one of the most popular digital stations in the UK, with around 3.9 million weekly listeners, as of 2022.
As a talk-focused radio station, LBC relies heavily on its presenters to build relationships with audiences nationwide.
Some of the world’s biggest household names worked on the platform in the early years, from Adrian Love to Jon Snow, Peter Allen, Rosie Boycott, and Bel Mooney.
While some presenters left the station on bad terms, others branched off to explore other interests or networks.
Today, we will provide a behind-the-scenes look at what some of the most famous LBC hosts did after leaving the channel.
Douglas Cameron
Born in 1933, Douglas Cameron was a consistent part of the LBC broadcasting team for more than 30 years.
He joined the station in 1974 and immediately began co-hosting the flagship breakfast show for the channel, known as the AM Programme.
At the time, the AM Programme was the only four-hour breakfast show in Europe. It earned two million listeners in the 1980s and was even more popular than Radio 4’s Today show.
Cameron left the LBC team in 2003, announcing his retirement from the broadcasting industry.
However, he did return to the network in 2003 for a one-off two-hour breakfast show celebrating the network’s 30th anniversary with cohost Bob Holness.
He also briefly returned to LBC’s breakfast program in 2013 for a one-off news bulletin.
Douglas received an induction into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame, thanks mainly to his presence on LBC.
Today, he’s simply enjoying his retirement.
Jon Snow
Probably one of the better-known news presenters in the UK today, Jon Snow was one of the original presenters on the LBC radio channel when it first launched.
He only briefly stayed with the channel before becoming an ITN correspondent in 1978.
Until 1986, he served as ITN’s Washington correspondent before becoming the primary presenter of the Channel 4 television news in 1989.
By 1992, he had become the main ITN Election Night program anchor. He also returned to radio briefly in 2002, hosting Jon Snow Reports on the Oneworld Radio channel.
Over the years, Snow has boasted an incredible career. In 2004, he published his autobiography, Shooting History, and presented a multi-award-winning documentary in 2011.
Interestingly, Jon Snow has declined an OBE because he believes working journalists shouldn’t receive awards from the people they report on.
Robin Houston
British voiceover artist and radio host Robin Houston started his career as an announcer and stage manager before becoming one of the pioneers of modern commercial radio.
In October 1973, he was one of the founding presenters and producers of Capital Radio, one of the first two commercial stations to emerge in the UK.
When Capital Radio closed its newsroom, Houston moved to LBC, becoming a daytime program presenter.
In 1975, Robin took over the station’s early evening show for classical music lovers, which came to be known as Robin Houston’s Nightline.
The next year, he started hosting LBC’s daily drivetime show, Newsbreak, to cover more contemporary news stories.
Today, Robin Houston occasionally presents for LBC but spends most of his time on the BBC World Service Radio channel.
As a voiceover artist and announcer, he also provided the voice for over 850 ITV television shows.
Tommy Boyd
Timothy Leslie Boyd, better known as Tommy Boyd, has had a fantastic career on the airwaves.
During the late 1970s, he started hosting a Saturday morning show, Jellybone, for children on the LBC radio, which featured phone-in segments and news quizzes.
Boyd began hosting the Nightline phone-in program, replacing Jeremy Beadle on Sunday nights in 1980.
Boyd was even awarded the Royal Variety Club Radio Personality of the Year award for his presence on the nighttime program.
For a short time, Boyd also hosted the Lazily Stacey Sunday afternoon program on LBC, with Anne Diamond, before leaving the station in 1999.
After leaving LBC, Boyd took a permanent position with TalkSport. He began experimenting with Sunday night slots where calls would usually go to the air unscreened.
This eventually led to the new show, The Human Zoo. In 2004, Boyd joined the BBC Southern Counties Radio station, where he presented a Saturday night show.
The host also went on to hold positions on Play Radio UK. Today, he is a regular presenter on the Brighton Regency Radio station.
Andrew Pierce
Andrew Pierce joined LBC as a morning political show host in 2008. The show ran for four years before Pierce eventually left LBC.
However, he continued to share his political and media reviews with cohost Kevin Maguire on shows with the BBC, ITV, and Sky News.
In 2014, Pierce returned to LBC, hosting the Saturday Morning Breakfast show. Since leaving LBC again, he joined the GB News team as a presenter.
Pierce also acted as the chair of the Iris Prize, a five-day public event in Cardiff, which showcases screenings of 30 short films.
The award ceremony is the world’s biggest LGBT short film prize. It awards a filmmaker £30,000 for their next film in the UK.
Katie Hopkins
One of the most controversial hosts to be sacked from the LBC, Katie Hopkins remains a British media personality and political commentator.
Initially, she hosted a Sunday morning talk show on the radio channel from April 2016 to May 2017.
After only one year with the station, LBC fired Hopkins immediately due to her inappropriate commentaries and behavior towards minorities.
Despite being removed from LBC, Katie continued pursuing her media position. In 2018, she joined The Rebel Media, a far-right Canadian website, where she began publishing columns for online readers.
In 2020, she was permanently suspended from Twitter for violating its hateful conduct policy.
Maajid Nawaz
Another LBC presenter who left the station on bad terms, Majid Nawaz, hosted Saturday and Sunday programs on LBC starting in 2016.
He was officially let go from the LBC in 2022 after controversy arose from his tweets about COVID-19 vaccinations.
A month after leaving the LBC station, Nawaz signed an agreement with American Free’s unique social media channel, GETTR.
His role on the platform is to produce exclusive content for viewers (including live streams and videos) without the threat of censorship.
The platform acts as an alternative to Twitter, which is popular among conservative politicians.
In 2022, Nawaz also led a campaign against the Spotify platform, saying the channel was guilty of censorship.
Nawaz is also producing a lifestyle show, Warrior Creed, for GETTR, which was designed as an interactive live event focusing on “physical and spiritual training,” conversations, and appearances.
Nigel Farage
One of the most famous figures in the UK to ever present on LBC, Nigel Farage, hosted The Nigel Farage Show between 2017 and 2020 on the station. He even continued to present on the station while pursuing his political career.
In 2020, LBC announced it was ending its contract with Farage but thanked him for his “enormous contributions” to the station.
In 2020, Farage established his financial newsletter, Fortune and Freedom. In 2021, he joined the Dutch Green Business advisory board.
In 2021, Farage also announced he was retiring from politics. However, he published an op-ed in The Daily Telegraph the same year, contemplating a return.
Outside of politics, Farage has made videos for the Cameo platform and launched the Vote Power Not Poverty campaign to secure a referendum on the government’s pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2022.
Nigel also became an entrepreneur, introducing a range of three gins for sale made in Cornwall.
The Evolving Careers of LBC Presenters
While it’s difficult to know where every previous LBC presenter has ended up, this list should provide insight into some of the most famous figures.
Many LBC presenters above have embarked on exciting and diverse pursuits after their time with the station. Some have stayed in the media, while others have begun enjoying retirement.
We haven’t covered presenters who have passed away since leaving the station.
We’ve also left out Steve Allen, one of the most recently sacked presenters from the LBC, as his removal from the channel only happened a short while before the time of writing.
