Syd Burke
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1938
Syd Burke | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Edmund Burke 1938 Jamaica |
| Died | 30 July 2010 (aged 72) London, England |
| Education | Cornwall College; Excelsior High School; North London Polytechnic |
| Occupations | Broadcaster, photographer and journalist |
| Known for | Radio programme Rice 'n' Peas |
| Relatives | Aggrey Burke (brother) |
Edmund Burke (1938 – 30 July 2010), known as Syd Burke, was a broadcaster, photographer and journalist, who moved to the UK from Jamaica to study photography in 1960, after having studied engineering, and later hosted London Broadcasting Corporation's (LBC) Rice 'n' Peas, a popular magazine programme.
He was the brother of psychiatrist and academic Aggrey Burke.
Burke was born in Jamaica, the eldest of six children.[1][2] He first attended Cornwall College in Montego Bay, and then Excelsior High School, where he was head boy.[2]
Career
He moved to the UK in 1960 to study photography at the North London Polytechnic, after having studied engineering in Jamaica.[2] Burke was soon working as a professional photographer, while also starting a career as a broadcaster.[3][4] During the 1970s and 1980s he became well known in the UK as one of the first black journalists and the host of London Broadcasting Corporation's (LBC) Rice 'n' Peas, a popular magazine programme, which he presented for seven years, and which he described was from "a black point of view".[5][6][7]
Burke's contribution to community programming is sometimes cited alongside that of Mike Phillips and Alex Pascall, who presented BBC Radio London's Black Londoners.[8][9] Burke also wrote as a journalist.[10]
Following a career at LBC, he ran a training programme for young broadcasters.[2]
In late January 1983 Burke joined the newly established independent television network Channel 4 as a continuity announcer.[11] Other television work that Burke was involved with in the 1980s included appearing on BBC Two's programme Ebony, reviewing the British press.[12][13]
A photograph by Burke appeared in the catalogue of the 1997 exhibition Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966 – 1996.[14]
Personal and family
Burke married Veronica and they had three sons.[16] One of his younger brothers is psychiatrist and specialist in transcultural psychiatry Aggrey Burke.[2]