Richard Keys
| Richard Keys | |
|---|---|
Richard Keys |
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| Born | 23 April 1957 Coventry, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Presenter |
| Television | TV-am Sky Sports talkSPORT |
Richard Keys (born 23 April 1957 in Coventry) is an English sports presenter with a career starting in 1976 when he moved initially to London.
He has worked ever since for BBC, ITV, CHANNEL 4, SKY, talkSPORT, AL JAZEERA, FOX Sports, ESPN Star Sports and has presented over 4,500 football matches with Premier League games,World Cup Finals,[1] Champions League Finals, FA Cup Finals, UEFA Finals and League Cup Finals in England and Scotland among them.
Furthermore he has presented other sports such as Golf, Tennis, Boxing, Rugby, Cricket, Darts, Snooker and Cycling.
Career
His career started in London in 1976 when he began working for the Fleet Street Sports Agency (HAYTER’s)[2] until 1978.
He later moved to Liverpool and worked in Radio City as a football commentator.
In 1982 he moved to Manchester to work in Piccadilly Radio as Sports editor and Football commentator.
In 1984 Richard Keys moved back to London, where he joined the ITV network as the main anchor at the breakfast show called TV-am.[3] Whilst working at TV-am he also commentated on football matches for ITV and cycling for Channel 4 including 2 Tour de France’s.
Mr Keys was one of the presenters for the Sports Channel on British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) in Spring 1990. When BSB merged with Sky in 1991, the channel was renamed Sky Sports. He presented TV-am for the final time on 28 December 1990 before leaving for Sky Sports full time.
There he presented Sky Sports coverage [4] of Premier League football since the league's inception in 1992.He was the presenter of the flagship Super Sunday and also presented Sky's Monday Night Football, which coincided with Sky gaining rights for the UEFA Champions League.Later Mr Keys fronted all of Sky Sports Champions league coverage.
In 2008 Mr Keys also presented the UEFA Euro 2008 for Al Jazeera Sports.[5]
Resignation from Sky Sports
In February 2011 Keys resigned after twenty years with Sky Sports, having made crude, sexually offensive remarks when he believed he was off-camera. Keys' regular co-presenter Andy Gray also lost his job.[6] Richard Keys has now joined talkSPORT radio [7] where he presents on the 10am – 1pm slot daily.
Later in 2011 Keys returned to television broadcasting launching the boxing channel Boxnation [8] with boxing promoter Frank Warren.
Personal life
From the age of four, Richard Keys had a passion for football, ever since his father took him to watch Coventry City play Swansea Town in old Third Division South. He went to school at Whitley Abbey comprehensive school, in which he was head boy. He captained Warwickshire boys as well as Coventry school boys.
Richard Keys met his wife Julia in 1980 and they married in 1982. They had 2 children Jemma in 1985 (currently an actress) and Joshua in 1989 (currently an assistant producer in the USA).
Awards
In 2003 Richard Keys has received an Honorary title from Coventry University (Honorary Doctor of Letters – Dlitt) for outstanding services to sports broadcasting.[9]
In 2012 Richard Keys and Andy Gray received the best sports programme prize for their talkSPORT show at the Sony Radio Academy Awards (in parenthesis equivalent to the radio Oscars).[10]
He has also received a variety of best sports presenter awards from different publications.
Charity Work
Richard Keys and Geoff Shreeves Raised over £8,000,000 in 11 years for Nordoff-Robbins (A musical charity for Children with Autism).[11][12]
In addition Mr Keys and his wife Julia Keys are patrons for the Willow Foundation a charity for people with special needs, founded by the former Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson, in memory of his late daughter Anna.[13]
Also Mr Keys is a patron to the Surrey based charity Children with special needs foundation.
In 2002 Richard Keys and Andy Gray raised £64,000 for charity in the popular ITV show “Who wants to be a millionaire”.[14]
References
- ^ http://epltalk.com/2010/01/10/andy-gray-and-richard-keys-added-to-fox-soccer-channel-world-cup-coverage/
- ^ http://hayters.com/pages/about.html
- ^ http://www.tv-am.org.uk/presenters
- ^ http://metro.co.uk/2009/10/27/richard-keys-635875/
- ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-1024319/Why-FA-board-rebels-didnt-Burton-centre.html
- ^ http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Andy-Gray-sacked-Watch-the-video-footage-of-Sky-Sports-star-s-crude-remarks-to-Charlotte-Jackson-which-led-to-dismissal-after-warning-following-sexist-remarks-to-Sian-Massey-with-Richard-Keys-article681537.html
- ^ http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/presenter/richard-keys
- ^ http://www.touchline.tv/tv/boxing/richard-keys-returns-to-tv-with-boxnation
- ^ http://alumni.coventry.ac.uk/Page.aspx?pid=936
- ^ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/andy-gray-and-richard-keys-win-833233
- ^ http://footballextravaganza.org/about/
- ^ http://marshall.photoshelter.com/gallery/FE-Dinner-2012-Premier-League-at-20/G00002sA4c8LoUk0/
- ^ http://www.willowfoundation.org.uk/WhoWeAre/CelebritySupporters/RichardKeys
- ^ http://millionaire.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Celebrity_specials
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