Pete Price

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Pete Price bigraphy, stories - Broadcaster and media personality

Pete Price : biography

25 January 1946 –

Pete Price (born Peter Lloyd Price on 25 January 1946) is a Welsh-born British media personality and radio presenter, based in Merseyside, England. He is best known for the Sunday night talk radio show Pete Price: Unzipped, broadcast across sister stations City Talk 105.9 and Radio City 96.7. The show is aired live from 10pm to 2am and follows an open forum format. Price’s weeknight phone in, Late Night City airs live between 10pm and 2am, from Monday to Thursday and is simulcast on City Talk 105.9 and Radio City 96.7.

He is also a comedian, author, patron for Claire House Children’s Hospice and columnist for the Liverpool Echo. He is well known for being openly gay which is often the subject of prank calls to his radio show. He is dyslexic and often has trouble reading texts or emails on air. To complement his radio show Price also gives out a personal phone number for listeners to talk to him in confidence.

As a secondary project he collaborates with Liverpool-born writer Jimmy Mulville to write the spoof right-wing "James Delingpole blog" for the Daily Telegraph.

Controversy

Pete was praised for abandoning his midweek show on one occasion in February 2004 to go to the aid of a 13-year-old caller who was threatening to kill himself. In his Liverpool Echo column, Pete has claimed that he was once asked to murder someone, but declined.

In January 2006, Pete’s show on sister station Magic 1548 hit the headlines in Liverpool when a regular caller known as "Terry" stopped responding live on air during a debate. After Merseyside Police refused to check on the man’s safety, Pete again abandoned the show (music was played after he left the St. John’s Beacon studios) to travel to the man’s home. Unfortunately, as he arrived, Pete saw an ambulance outside the house. Concerned listeners had already gained entry into the man’s home and found that he had died from a suspected heart attack.

Soon after this, the Monday-Thursday show left Magic 1548 and was moved to Radio City 96.7's late night phone-in. 

Also in September 2007, an extract from his autobiography was published in the Liverpool Echo, which revealed that Price had abused cocaine, although he "handed himself in" to the police shortly after through shame.

In October 2007, it was reported by the Liverpool Echo that Price had received a "homophobic" death threat via text live on air. The sender was arrested shortly afterwards when police were contacted immediately after the receipt of the threatening text. They also reported that "on another occasion, a man tried to break into Radio City’s headquarters, because he had become convinced Price had tried to kill John Lennon"

In January 2008 Pete tried to find his natural father by using the networking skills of an imprisoned Sicilian Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano in the hope that "The Don" can help him trace his dad. His biological mother, upon restoring contact with him, give him a photograph of his biological father: a Sicilian prisoner of war held near Warrington. Pete himself said that the Mafia must have the best information network in the world.

Radio career

Pete Price’s [[Superlambanana]] After several years as the cook on a cruise ship, he became a DJ for BBC Radio Merseyside at the age of twenty-one. Shortly after, Price made his first appearance on the comedy scene at Liverpool’s ‘The Shakespeare’, working at various venues which include The Palladium and the QE2. In the 1980s, he became a presenter on his former station’s rival, 194 Radio City, and has remained so in its various incarnations since. He continues to star in pantomimes in Liverpool and Merseyside, as well as working for national newspapers including The Independent and The Times. As a broadcaster he has worked with national BBC Radio One and Radio City for over 20 years, and continues to host his late night talk show on Radio CIty 96.7 – the programme is also carried by sister station City Talk.