Nicky Campbell: My life in media

Nicky Campbell, 46, presents the breakfast show on Radio Five Live with Shelagh Fogarty, which last month won the Sony Gold award for news and current affairs. Campbell was born in Edinburgh to Irish parents and adopted at birth. He moved to London in the mid-1980s and became a household name as a Radio 1 DJ and the presenter of Wheel of Fortune, Top of the Pops and Watchdog. He is married to Tina Ritchie, a former head of Virgin Radio News. They have four young daughters.

What inspired you to embark on a media career?

I had a fascination with radio from a young age. When we were teenagers, my friend Rob Harley, who now writes The Green Wing, the actor Iain Glen and I used to spend our days "being people" on local radio phone-ins. On leaving university, getting into radio just seemed like the next thing to do. "Being people" has been for all of us life's greatest challenge.

What was the family newspaper, and did you read it?

We took The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express, but long before the latter was full of non-stories and tiresome obsessions. It used to be the middle market leader. Times change.

And what were your favourite TV and radio programmes?

Morecambe and Wise. Football. Rugby. Top of the Pops. The Old Grey Whistle Test. The BBC news was sacred in our house. Monty Python's Flying Circus was a profane pleasure on a Friday night with my dad.

Describe your job

I am a broadcaster and journalist although my wife Tina, who formally trained as such, has the deluded belief that you need to have reported on tedious court cases and council chambers for at least three years before you can even call yourself one. Sorry, I skipped that bit. I was presenting the Radio 1 Roadshow and Top of the Pops at the time.

What media do you turn to first thing in the morning?

I get up at 3.45am to be in by 4.30 to prepare the breakfast programme I present with Shelagh Fogerty from 6-9am. So the first radio I hear is Five Live's excellent Up All Night, although I find the title pretty depressing sometimes. I have a pile of all the nationals to read when I get to the office and I scan or read every single one, including all the sports sections, but excluding the Daily Star and Express.

Do you consult any media sources during the day?

Constantly. I am never off the BBC News Online site, I dip into MediaGuardian online all the time and keep a constant eye on News 24 and Sky.

What's the best thing about your job?

Off the air - the sense of camaraderie at five in the morning. On air - telling listeners about an important story as they wake up to the world. In a general sense I am very lucky to have done lots of different things in my broadcasting career.

And the worst?

Up at 3.45am on a Monday when the alarm beeps.

What is the proudest achievement in your working life?

Being asked to become a patron of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering after writing a book about adoption. Shelagh and I were of course very proud of our recent Sony award.

And your most embarrassing moment?

Introducing the master of the west Kent hunt before a fox-hunting interview. It was early, brain and tongue did not engage and it went horribly, hideously wrong. Listeners still rib me for it.

At home, what do you tune in to?

Everything. From the Islam Channel to QVC, BBC4 to Sky Travel. And my digital radio in the kitchen makes surfing a joy.

How do you feel you influence the media?

Not one iota.

What is your Sunday paper and do you have a favourite magazine?

I get most of the Sundays, which costs a bloody fortune but I turn first to the News of the World, then The Observer, and then The Telegraph. For sheer entertainment I enjoy The Spectator on a Friday evening with a large gin and a bowl of nuts. Is that just a bit sad?

Name the one career ambition you want to realise before you retire

To have one of the many songs I've written actually recorded by someone. Hopefully, the fine actor and singer Mark Moraghan will be doing just that later this year - so I can either retire then, or think of a new career ambition.

If you didn't work in the media, what would you do?

Be a musician or actor.

Who in the media do you most admire, and why?

Doug Carnegie who heard me on Radio 1 in 1988 and on the strength of it gave me a job in current affairs TV. He is editor of the BBC's forthcoming The One Show and is the most talented and genuine person I've encountered in the media.

The cv

1981: Works at Northsound Radio in Aberdeen as a jingle writer, later hosting the breakfast show

1986: Moves to London for his big break at Capital Radio

1987: Joins Radio 1 presenting a Saturday night show and soon settles into his weekday evening slot, Into the Night. Later presents the Sunday morning, afternoon and drivetime slots

1988: Begins presenting Wheel of Fortune and Top of the Pops

1997: Defects from Radio 1 to Radio Five Live

2001: Begins presenting Watchdog

2002: Wins Sony Gold for Five Live's breakfast coverage of 9/11 (he has four in total)

2004: Publishes Blue-Eyed Son, an account of tracing his birth parents and extended family in Ireland

2006: Sings in celebrity show Just The Two of Us, with Beverley Knight

Nicky Campbell is currently presenting For the Rest of Your Life, weekdays at 3pm on ITV1