Dyke, Greg

▪ 2000

      In June 1999, amid controversy over his links to the U.K.'s ruling Labour Party, Greg Dyke was appointed director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), to succeed Sir John Birt in April 2000. Dyke, a multimillionaire from his earlier career in commercial television, had donated £55,000 (about $91,000) to the Labour Party over five years. His critics argued that this display of partisanship disqualified him from running the BBC, the world's largest public service broadcasting organization, which carried a reputation that had been built on its strict political impartiality. Dyke responded by resigning his membership of the party on his appointment as director-general–designate and by pointing out that he had been completely open at all stages about his donations to the party.

      Born in London on May 20, 1947, Dyke was educated at a local west London grammar school. After leaving school with poor examination grades, he tried various jobs. He was fired as a management trainee for the retail chain Marks & Spencer. He then worked briefly at two local newspapers before studying politics at the University of York as a mature student. Afterward, he worked as the press officer for Wandsworth Council, a local authority in south London, but, again, the job did not work out. His next attempt at a career put him on the road to his fortune. He became a researcher for London Weekend Television (LWT), a commercial television company, and swiftly rose to become an editor of the topical weekly London Programme

      In 1983 Dyke was recruited by TV-am, a new company broadcasting at breakfast time on the U.K.'s main commercial channel in opposition to the BBC. TV-am was in serious trouble, losing viewers and hemorrhaging money. Employing various populist devices, including the introduction of a segment for children dominated by a puppet rodent named Roland Rat, Dyke restored TV-am's fortunes. In 1987 he returned to LWT, becoming its chief executive in 1990. He led LWT's successful bid to retain its franchise; as a result of a share bonus scheme linked to the franchising bid, he became an instant millionaire, with a fortune estimated at £10 million (more than $16 million). When LWT was taken over by the Granada Group in 1994, Dyke worked successively for Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB cable and satellite television company and then for Pearson Television. By that time, the BBC's chairman, Sir Christopher Bland, who had been Dyke's chairman at LWT, was looking for someone to succeed Birt at the BBC. Dyke was his choice, and Bland overcame the controversy surrounding Dyke's application. On his appointment, Dyke stressed that he would resist any “Roland Rat”-style dumbing down of the BBC and committed himself to the retention of the BBC's core public-service values.

Peter Kellner

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