Nick Bailey
Biography
Nick’s voice was the first to be heard when Classic FM started broadcasting on 7 September 1992 as the first National Commercial Radio Station in Britain.
Nick, the son of actor Robin Bailey, was born in London and started his career at the age of 19 as a newsreader on Radio Caroline, the original pirate radio station, portrayed recently in the film The Boat that Rocked. When the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act made the “pirates” illegal, Nick emigrated to Australia as a “ten pound pom”, where he stayed for five years, working on radio in the outback and North Queensland before presenting a late night programme in Brisbane.
During the era of Family Favourites he worked for the British Forces Broadcasting Service in Gibraltar, Cologne and three years in Berlin at the height of the cold war. For five years Nick presented the flagship morning current affairs programme in Hong Kong, and was BBC Radio 5’s Hong Kong correspondent when he was invited to join Classic FM.
His awards include a Sony Gold for best breakfast show and Radio Programme of the Year for Classic Romance. Also two awards from New York, for his programme on Sir Malcolm Arnold, and Vietnam – 30 years after the war. In 2008 Nick launched Classic FM’s charity, Music Makers, by taking a party of listeners to trek the Great Wall of China, and has since walked the Inca Trail for the same cause.
Apart from Classic FM Nick is a regular host for P&O’s Music Festivals at Sea.
Meet Nick
What is your favourite piece of music in the Classic FM Hall of Fame?
What is your most memorable on-air moment?
Apart from opening the station, doing an outside broadcast from Calais in 1994 prior to walking through the Channel tunnel for charity.
Which composer or artist would you most like to have to dinner?
Rachmaninov. But he would have to play for his supper. First movement of Rach 3 would do nicely.
