Rob Bonnet announces BBC retirement

Rob Bonnet will be retiring later this year after nearly 50 years working for the BBC…

Rob Bonnet:

“I shall look back with great affection for my time at the BBC which has allowed me to cover many important stories, meet countless outstanding sportsmen and women, form many friendships and visit numerous events all over the world. I have been proud to work for the world’s leading public service broadcaster and on Today, where I have been very happy in an office which has a special camaraderie as well as being the most influential and skilfully produced and presented radio news programme on the BBC.”

Rob Bonnet was first heard on the BBC in 1975 on Contact, a twenty-minute weekly programme for students by students on BBC Radio Brighton, but got his first official role at the station in 1977 as a station assistant. He moved to Radio Norfolk in 1980 where he started working on sports broadcasting before moving to London to work on Radio 1’s Newsbeat in 1982.

Rob Bonnet – BBC News in January 1995

Rob returned to Norfolk in 1985 for his first TV role presenting sport before getting a job as a TV sports correspondent in 1987 based at London’s BBC Television Centre where he covered major sports events around the world, presented the sports bulletins on BBC One weekend news and won an RTS award on behalf of the Nine O’Clock News for coverage of the IOC’s awarding of the 2000 Olympic Games to Sydney.

In 1995 he joined BBC Breakfast as a sports presenter and also hosted the sports interview programme ‘Extra Time’ on BBC World TV. Then in 2007, he began working as a sports presenter on the Today programme.

Rob will retire after the Olympic Games this summer.

Tim Davie, BBC Director-General:

“Rob has been one of the voices of sport on the BBC for decades. From BBC Breakfast, coverage of World Cups and the Olympics, and more recently the Today programme, he has been a mainstay for our audiences and it is fitting that he will finish with this year’s Olympic Games and another wonderful summer of sport. Rob is a presenter and broadcaster held in the highest regard across the BBC and the sporting world. We wish him all the best for his retirement and for the future.”

Rob Bonnet and Jennie Bond on  BBC News in January 1995