Phil Gayle is a British newsreader and freelance journalist, currently for DW News. Former credits include The Big Breakfast and the ITV News Channel. Gayle's other TV credits include First Edition, Crimewatch Daily, Seven Days and That's Esther; as well as several LWTcurrent affairs programmes including The Week and The London Programme.
Radio
Gayle was born in Birmingham. Before working in television, Gayle was a DJ on local radio stations. Between 1986 and 1988, he worked at BRMB Radio, Birmingham. Music DJ presenting overnight, late night and early morning shows. In 1988, he moved on to Signal Radio, Stoke, presenting a live weekday three-hour night time phone-in five nights a week. He also co-presented the Saturday afternoon sports programme which also included live interviews and music. During 1995 he moved to Rock FM, as a Preston Music DJ on the Sunday evening, post Network Chart show along with two weekend overnight shows. Gayle presented a live current affairs and lifestyle phone-in on BBC Radio Newcastle in 1995 and 1996, breaking several stories which were picked up by national press. The shows would often feature one-on-one interviews, panel discussions, on-the-road reports and live audience debates. Since then, his radio work has taken a one-off form or provided relief for existing presenters. Between 2000 and 2001 he was a relief presenter for several live two and three hour shows on LBC. In 2002 he returned as a relief presenter for Steve Allan on his live mid morning daily show as well as the LBC breakfast show.
Television
In 1997, Gayle joined Channel 4 where he was employed as a newsreader on their long-running light-entertainment early morning showThe Big Breakfast, a show that enjoyed great success for most of its run. This remains the role Gayle is probably best known for. Gayle took over from Peter Smith and would fill this role until 2000 when he was succeeded by Jasmine Lowson, but would return to the show for its final broadcast in 2002. He would also go on to present other programmes for Channel 4 such as First Edition, a 30-minute current affairs programme aimed at school age children and was the second presenter on Channel 4 News. In 1998 he co-presented original broadcast pilot of the live, prime-time show Find A Fortune on ITV, surprising people with inheritances they did not know about, providing situation updates throughout the show and presenting recorded reports in the field. Gayle begin to work for the BBC, where he presented several programmes. Between 2000 and 2001, he co-presented Crimewatch Daily on BBC One – a daily live morning show on crime which included live studio and telephone interviews. In the same year, he also presented a segment on walking holidays in the Lake District on the BBC1 programme Holiday On A Shoestring. In 2001, Gayle moved to rival broadcaster ITV and had a major role in the show That's Esther. Here he would be the on-the-road reporter for the half-hour consumer affairs and human-interest series. He would also act as the main reporter on anti-scalding campaign and interviews with people overcoming the odds during the show's run between 2001 and 2002. Gayle also appeared in numerous LWT news-based programmes. He was the newsreader and reporter on the regional London news programmesLondon Today and London Tonight from 2002–2005, and hosted the monthly current affairs documentary series The London Programme. He also fronted another LWT current affairs programme, The Week. In the same period, he also worked as a newsreader on the now closed digital news station ITV News Channel. For a time, he presented on ITN programmes the and London Today/Tonight. Since 2015, Gayle has been one of the presenters of DW News on Deutsche Welle in Germany.
Later media work
Between 2005–2006, Gayle worked and travelled in Australia. Phil is the brother of lad lit writer Mike Gayle and took part in the 2007 series of ITV's Dancing on Ice where he finished 10th after losing to Ulrika Jonsson in the week two 'skate off'. Prior to moving to DW, Gayle presented the breakfast show from 7am on BBC Radio Oxford and deputised for Moira Stuart as newsreader on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2. He is the voice of safety demonstrations on Sector Aviation's BMI RegionalEmbraer ERJ-135 & 145 fleet, as well as easyJet in their pre-recorded in-flight announcements. He can currently be heard as presenter of BBC Radio 2's overnight playlist programmes.
