Bill Steel

Who is Bill Steel?

Bill Steel is a television and radio broadcaster from North East England. He has also acted, briefly appearing in Coronation Street.

He began his working life at the General Electric as a trainee accountant, and moved into television in the 1960s, first working in the Tyne Tees Television Presentation Department as an assistant Transmission controller and at the age of 23, a presentation director. Later he progressed into the advertising section, which involved doing voice over work for over 10,000 local adverts produced by Tyne Tees.

In 1967 he left his native North East England and moved to Manchester where he presented the ABC Weekend News. Bill later moved to ABC's Midlands operation and became its chief announcer until 1968 when the station's staff were redeployed to the company's brand new London broadcaster Thames Television. There, Steel worked in various departments, most of which he had previous experience, such as commercial voice overs, newsreading and transmission control. Bill, also through the voice overs, ended up doing a short spell of continuity announcing for Thames, before returning to the north in 1971.