The broadcaster Danny Kelly, one of talkSPORT’s best-loved football voices, has died at the age of 69.
His death was confirmed on Tuesday, with talkSPORT, where he had been a fixture for well over a decade, leading the tributes. His close friend and fellow broadcaster Danny Baker said Kelly had died on Monday afternoon, calling him “my great friend, supreme broadcaster and funniest man I ever knew”.
You might also like
Kelly joined talkSPORT in 2007 and became one of its signature phone-in hosts, fronting shows such as The Full Time Phone-In and Trans-Europe Express and trading jokes and strong opinions with callers up and down the country. A lifelong Tottenham supporter, he never hid where his heart lay, and the station shared one of his favourite on-air lines, “I love football, Stan. I love it.”
He had been candid about his health. Earlier this year he told listeners he had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and was stepping back for treatment, urging anyone with symptoms not to put off seeing a doctor. No cause of death has been given.
The tributes came quickly from across sport and radio. His talkSPORT colleague Ian ‘Moose’ Abrahams called him “one of the best broadcasters I’ve worked with”, while the pundit Simon Jordan remembered “a brilliant broadcaster, editor, writer and friend” who had fought his illness with characteristic spirit. talkSPORT said Kelly had been “a cherished part of talkSPORT for so many years”.
From the NME to the phone-in
Kelly’s career ran far wider than sport. Born in Islington in 1956, he made his name in music journalism, editing the New Musical Express at the turn of the 1990s before taking the helm at the monthly magazine Q, where he was named magazine editor of the year.
He kept reinventing himself. In 1997 he founded the company behind the football website Football365, then moved fully into broadcasting, and from 2021 he co-hosted the Tottenham podcast The View From The Lane. In our view at Portsmouth And, it was that range, from indie records to Saturday afternoon football, that made him such good company on air.
Kelly leaves a long list of colleagues and listeners who grew up with his voice in their ears. Readers can find more reaction and the day’s other stories on our rolling sport and football news, as the tributes continue to come in.
For many fans he was the sound of the evening phone-in, warm, sharp and never dull, and that is how he will be remembered.
