Dominic Byrne
Contents
Dominic Byrne
Dominic Anthony Byrne, aka "Egg Head" or "Slaphead", due to his bald head, was the newsreader on The Chris Moyles Show.
Early life and career
Dom was born in Norwich on 10 November 1972. He likes to make it known he moved soon after, but to quite where we aren't so sure. He describes himself as 'having lived all over the place'. After leaving college Dom went to uni in Bournemouth, albeit for just 2 weeks. He was offered a job in a radio newsroom so quit, £1000 in debt after buying a big hi-fi and big TV.
BBC Radio 1
Dom was a freelance reporter before he joined Radio 1 in 1997. He first worked (briefly) alongside Chris Moyles when he read the overnight news on Chris's 4-7am show. This large sound file from October 97 has a snippet Dom of at the beginning of it, talking in his posh news voice. Following work as a Newsbeat reporter, Dom returned to the studio as part of the regular presentation team a couple of years later. He would often fill in for Carolyn Atkinson and read the news on Chris' afternoon show, where he struck up a good rapport with Chris and Dave. They even made him his own advert, voiced by Mark Goodier, advertising 'The Greatest Hit Blunders Of Dominic Byrne' - a spoof CD full of his news reading cock ups. Hear the ad here. Following a move to Entertainment News, he made a brief return to Chris' afternoon show in 2003, participating in Huey Lewis & The News - an odd short-lived feature that interspersed Huey tracks with the latest showbiz headlines.
The Chris Moyles Show
Dom joined the show permanently in January 2004. He was part of the team that launched the all new Chris Moyles Breakfast Show, describing the first day as "early, and fantastic". Since moving to Breakfast, Dom has become a hugely popular member of the team - and the source of many funny moments. They include his Hunt For David Hoff in Hawaii, and the time he rang the Eiffel Tower as part of investigative feature Get Dom On It. His spoof feature One Road Travel parodied local radio by just reporting one road a day.
Dom was rather gullible on the show, often falling for the rest of the team's practical jokes, including the time that they convinced him that the guest, hypnotist Paul McKenna, was reading his mind by describing what car he was thinking of buying (the information had been provided by Dom's wife).
Dom regarded his proudest moment on the show as performing dressed as a giant dog to 15,000 people at One Big Weekend in Birmingham. This as part of spoof rap band Mouldy Lookin' Stain. He was also the co-founder and singer in popular beat combo Folk Face, who performed in the Jazz Tent at the 2005 Glastonbury festival before sadly splitting. Dom says if he could control the Radio 1 Playlist for one day, he'd have 'Folk. Lots of folk'. Dom is a huge U2 fan and also does impressions. They included the late Jade Goody, Jim Brennan, Tim Westwood, Jools Holland and Ronnie Corbett. Dom has also interviewed many famous celebrities for the show, including Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, David Schwimmer, Uma Thurman and Pierce Brosnan. He is known for his hard hitting questions, such as 'What's your favourite cheese?'.
Post-Radio 1 work
In March 2013, he joined commercial radio station Capital FM to read the news on their flagship breakfast show. He left the station in June 2014.
Radio X
In September 2015, it was announced that he would be joining Chris Moyles on the Radio X Breakfast Show when it launches on 21 September 2015.
Television work
On television, Dominic provided the voice of Zorst in the CBeebies show Space Pirates in 2007. From 2007 to 2012, he was the presenter on Newsbeat's Oddbox; a short programme broadcast on BBC News looking at strange news stories from that week. He also presented Dragons' Den Online, an online version of the hit BBC Two series Dragons' Den.
Personal life
Dom lives with wife Nic. The couple have been married since March 2001 and have two children: son Finton, born in July 2003, and daughter Xanthe, born in November 2005. Chris has nicknamed the former Carpet (as in 'carpet burn') and famously told Dom that he should have got an iPod instead of a child.
Away from broadcasting, he runs a voice training course. [1]
Trivia
- Despite being from Norwich, he hates the Norfolk accent.
- He claims to be a vegetarian, but eats chicken, duck and fish.
- He supports Liverpool FC and his favourite colour is red.
- He likes to visit Whipsnade Zoo and in particular, Barclay the sea lion.
- He once soaked the crotch of radio personality Dave Pearce whilst flipping beer mats.
| The Chris Moyles Show (Radio 1) | ||
| Team Members: | Final Lineup: | Chris Moyles, David Vitty, Dominic Byrne, Tina Daheley, Aled Haydn Jones, Freya Last, Pippa Taylor Tarrant, Other contributors |
| Past: | Rachel Jones, Carrie Davis, Matt Fincham, Juliette Ferrington, Samantha Moy, Jocelin Stainer | |
| Regular Features: | Dave's Tedious Link, Rob DJ's Monday Night Pub Quiz, Car Park Catchphrase, The Golden Hour, McFly Day | |
| Downloads: | Full Shows (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), Podcasts | |
