Colin Murray

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Colin Murray bigraphy, stories - Commentators

Colin Murray : biography

10 March 1977 –

Colin Murray (born Colin Wright on 10 March 1977) is a British sports and music radio and television presenter. In 2010, he became host of BBC Television’s Match of the Day 2 on BBC Two, while still anchoring shows on BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sport and Fighting Talk and was still presenting on BBC Radio Ulster. He has previously hosted regular Channel 5 television and BBC Radio 1 shows . In 2007, he was named Music Broadcaster Of The Year at the Sony Radio Academy Awards.

The Session RI:SE Colin and Edith

In 2006 Murray began his first role on BBC Radio 5 Live hosting the sports themed Saturday morning comedy panel game Fighting Talk, and also began presenting Channel 5’s live UEFA Cup football coverage on midweek evenings. In 2006 he moved shows on Radio 1, departing Colin and Edith to front the late night weekday evening music vehicle, The Colin Murray Show. In 2008 he also began presenting The Late Show with Colin Murray, a once a week late night music show for Radio Ulster. In 2009 he left Radio 1 to take on the additional roles at 5 Live – hosting Kicking off with Colin Murray on Friday nights, and 5 Live Sport on Sunday afternoons. In 2010 he moved from presenting live football on Channel 5, to fronting the BBC’s Match of the Day 2 Sunday night highlights show.

Other work

Murray has continued his journalism work into his presenting career by writing a monthly ‘radio diary’ piece for The Guardian newspaper. In 2005 Murray created the radio documentary, The Trouble With Drugs. In October 2009, Murray published his first book, A Random History of Football, ISBN 978-1-4091-1290-7, through Orion Publishing, a compendium of random and relatively unknown stories about football. In 2007, Murray directed magician Chris Cox’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, Everything Happens for a Reason. Murray has also compèred at the Leeds Festival since 2004. In 2003 he co-hosted the Kerrang! Awards with Edith Bowman.

Outside the UK, Murray has been a weekly fixture on The Fan 590’s breakfast programme in Toronto, Canada; he appears on Fridays with frequent FT panelist Greg Brady and Jim Lang wherein he discusses the week’s big sporting topics in the UK, as well as the upcoming weekend’s Premier League (or either international, FA Cup or League Cup) action.

Life and career

1977–1993: Early Life

Murray was born in 1977 in the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald in Castlereagh Borough (a suburb of the Greater Belfast urban area in Northern Ireland), and grew up in Dundonald’s Ballybeen estate. Belfast Telegraph, 8 June 2002 He was educated at the Regent House Grammar School in Newtownards, and later at Dundonald High School, leaving after GCSEs. Hyperactive since childhood, Murray was asked to leave the grammar school due to what was perceived by teachers as a tendency to disruption – always asking awkward questions or telling jokes – traits he later identified as ideal for his future career in presenting, and which he felt should really have been nurtured by teachers.

1994–2002: Early career and Radio debut

After leaving school, Murray went on to study journalism full-time. He started work as a news journalist, working both in Northern Ireland as a trainee for The News Letter, before in 1994 moving to Toronto, Canada, for a year, working on a fellowship for the Toronto Sun. Belfast Telegraph, 26 January 2008 After returning from Toronto he moved into music journalism, writing for newspapers about rock and pop bands, including establishing a long standing column in the Irish Sunday People, before moving into music magazine business with a new title called BLANK. After Murray set it up and acted as co-publisher, Blank became the highest circulating music magazine in Ulster. After Blank was merged with another title, Murray left the magazine.

Session in Northern Ireland The Session RI:SE RI:SE