Aircheck Tracker
Profile: Danny Cox. Born in Liverpool under the starsign of Aries, Danny, or Coxey as he was known as a kid, stands 6ft tall, with his view on life taken through blue eyes and his walk through it, taken through Size 11 shoes. He has long been known for his trademark beard, and, self described as 'fat, hairy and friendly', can usually be seen carrying a kebab - rumour has it that he's won the award for 'Kebab Eater of the Year', but this may be backed up by just the merest hint of sarcasm. This sarcasm is further emphasised by the point that he is apparently famous for and has the most annoying habit of - eating. He is most likely to say: 'Hold the chilli sauce, but you can stick some mayonnaise on it.', and least likely to say: 'I'll have the vegetarian option.'.
He is currently single. As he grew up he always wanted to be a DJ, but was lucky enough to get the break he needed, although not straightaway. His first job was working on a sports show operating the teleprinter. Having been influenced to have the desire to sit in a nice studio and play songs all day, his move into the broadcasting business came in 1978.
Said to have the ideal face for radio, Danny was the afternoon show presenter on Derby's Radio Trent 945/TrentFM 102.8 until the parent company's takeover by the GWR group in 1994.
Danny Cox recalls the Trent days: '....they were great days, and most of us still meet up from time to time. I'm still good friends with Andy Marriott (and have worked on a number of projects with him over the last few years), and remember Gary Burton? He once had his name in the listings for the new digital BBC Radio service 6Music. After the launch of Trent 945 we all went out and had a full friendly breakfast - it was a great feeling, we'd been working for a month on dry-runs so it was great to be live...' Trent breakfasts at the Acropolis in Derby Market Place have since become legendary in station circles.
Upon the takeover of Trent in 1994, Danny moved to East Anglian Radio Group station SGR-FM in Colchester to continue presenting what is believed to be the afternoon show. It is believed that Danny moved to SGR (Suffolk Group Radio) to avoid GWR - but it only worked temporarily! GWR took East Anglian Radio over too, swallowing Radio Broadland and SGR's stations too! Following his time at SGR in Colchester, for Christmas Day 1996, Danny moved to Capital Radio-owned Fox FM in Oxford where he started presenting mid mornings 9:00am - 12:00noon and Saturday breakfast 6:00am-10:00am, but his weekday slot was later shunted forward an hour from 10:00am-1:00pm.
Since moving to Oxfordshire some years ago, he's lived in Garsington, Long Hanborough and Ducklington and enjoys exploring the Oxfordshire countryside, discovering new pubs and restaurants. He also enjoys a nice portion of fish & chips and a good burger! One of his trainers is positioned proudly on the wall of The Boot in Barnard Gate but he's still in mourning for his favourite burger bar, the now closed Brett's Burgers near Oxford railway station - which shut a few years ago.
One of Danny's claims to fame is that he once featured in the background of an episode of 'Inspector Morse' - Danny still shows tape recording to his friends on regular occasions. He's also a well know face on TV locally too anyway! However, one of the main things he'd rather not admit is that, once, whilst nipping out of the studio to get a coffee, whilst a tune played on air, he got trapped in a lift. A radio presenter's worst nightmare - being away from the studio as a track fades away...
Apart from radio (and food), his big passions are websites and movies. Danny reckons he'll watch anything as long as it's at least 90 minutes long and has titles at either end. He hopes to be remembered for inspiring others.
Danno, as he's known today, has done and continues to do his fair share of television work. Having been the first face on Oxford's local TV service, he went on to spend a year presenting it's nightly live 'Oxfordshire Hour' programme. Having done this, he then moved into fronting TV travel bulletins for 4 ITV1 regional news programmes. Broadcasting from Carlton TV's Birmingham studios, he appeared on and self-operated output for Carlton West, Carlton East, Carlton South and WestCountry TV. Danny brought the graphics up and threw in a few ad-libs to pad for time where required. Bulletins were aired after the evening's main local news bulletins but he also appeared within the show where news stories took on a relevant travel focus.
During the 1980s and early 90s, Danny was an employee of Picture Box Productions as a voice over artist and presenter. He's particularly well known for fronting the showreel of media automation system Omnibus, a piece of equipment which has been demonstrated, with his voice, to TV broadcasters around the globe. This was filmed in the East Midlands over the course of a week, and mainly at night. He's appeared in a media guest capacity on satellite channels and on the ITV1 overnight Jobfinder service for Central Television.
His radio CV reads from sectors across the industry - as well as Trent FM and SGR Colchester, he's written travel bulletins for BBC Radio 2 and Five Live, and has also appeared on BBC stations for Leicester, Lancashire, Manchester, as well as commercial stations Broadland 102 (Norwich), KLFM (Kings Lynn), Leicester Sound & the once mighty gold station GEM-AM (East Midlands).
Rob Lubbock writes: 'I'm a good friend of Danny Cox, I have known him since 1991, when I first moved up to the East Midlands from East Anglia. When I moved up I listened to Trent FM 102.8 for Derbyshire, instead of Trent FM 96.2 for Nottingham. Danny was doing the morning show and also The Weekly Top 30. I was staying in Hathern, Leicestershire. I preferred Derby's Trent as it had a great line up - Dick Stone on Breakfast, Danny on mornings, and Andy Miller in the afternoon, squeezed in between the Music Jam of course! When Danny left Trent to go to SGR Colchester in August 1993, to be Station Manager, he did the 10am-2pm show, and also I believe, the Saturday Breakfast Show 6-9am for a while.
I last saw Danny in 2001 at Fox FM. I am hoping to see him again soon, as we still Jingle swap and anorak! Great website Ian and excellent Trent FM 102.8 pages. Great stuff!!!! Cheers, Rob Lubbock, Loughborough, Leicestershire.
Jo Bennett wrote in August 2004: 'I was just wondering what has happened to Danny Cox from FOX FM (Oxfordshire). I have loved listening to him for years but now he's suddenly disappeared and FOX FM just doesn't seem the same without him. If you know of anything, it would be good to know that he is OK.
Danny left Fox FM earlier in 2004 to take up the post of Media Manager with the 'National Traffic Control Centre' (NTCC). Danny runs his own production company making commercials and IDs for radio stations across the country. One of his 2004 outings was on Power FM in Hampshire and his voice has also been heard voicing commercials for Ocean FM, Power FM and Capital Gold - all these stations are owned by Capital Radio Group, owners of Danny's old station Fox FM. He's also launched www.first4calls.com offering cheap international calls, and also now on line is his graphic design business www.londonlogo.co.uk - so it would appear he is keeping himsself busy.
Whereabouts: Having been at the NTCC for just a short period of time, he received a call from BBC Oxford (95.2 FM) with an opportunity he felt was 'too good to miss'. The station was re-launched from Monday 4th October 2004 - with Danny Cox from 10:00am-1:00pm weekdays and with a brand new Sunday show from 5:00pm-8:00pm too. Danny's weekday show features personal stories from listeners across the county and a complete entertainment guide with celebrity interviews. The Sunday show will be what is described as 'an unbeatable mix of the best music from the last three decades combined with up-to-the-minute travel news.'