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OA
26th April 2022

Mr. Paul Coia - OA Hall of Fame

Mr. Paul Coia - OA Hall of Fame

After 2 long uncertain years, we are delighted to finally welcome Paul Coia into our OA Hall of Fame.  Paul is a Broadcaster, Journalist, Media and Presentation Coach, and is being recognised today for his services to Broadcasting and Communications.

Paul left the College in 1973 and during his student days he volunteered with the Glasgow Hospital Broadcasting Service where he was trained in broadcasting, and a year later he was offered his dream job at Radio Clyde.  The rest, as they say, is history . . .

During his career, Paul has won the prestigious Scottish Radio Personality of the Year trophy. He is the holder of a Webby Live Broadcast award, came runner up in The Golden Rose of Montreux TV Festival, and was nominated for a BBC Gillard trophy. Paul’s voice has been heard on Radio Two, LBC, Smooth Radio, BBC Scotland and Glasgow’s Radio Clyde. He currently presents weekly shows for BBC Radio London and BBC Radio Berkshire.

Paul’s chat show, Meet Paul Coia, ran for four series in Scotland before he joined the BBC and presented the network shows Pebble Mill, Catchword, and Tricks of The Trade amongst others. He has now broadcast on all five terrestrial channels as well as satellite TV.

Not only that, but Paul coaches executives all over the world on how to present themselves to colleagues, shareholders, and journalists through public speaking and media interviews, and in 2017 he returned to the College to give a presentation to our OA Business Network.

As well as being patron of several charities, Paul is a director of Radio Scarborough, a community station staffed by volunteers and he contributes programmes to Hospital Radio Service Glasgow.

And finally, Paul’s voice has been the first one to be heard on the launch of new TV stations, such as Disney’s ABC1 TV Channel, and in 1982 his voice launched the new Channel 4 when he said, “Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to be able to say to you: Welcome to Channel 4”. 

So today, we'd like to say to Paul, “Good morning. It’s a pleasure to be able to say to you: welcome back to St Aloysius and to be part of our OA Hall of Fame”.