Paul Coia

Paul Balmoral Coia (born 19 June 1960 in Glasgow) is a Scottish television presenter and continuity announcer who was the first voice on Channel 4.

Coia was schooled at Merrylee Convent, John Ogilvie Hall and St Aloysius' College and then at the University of Glasgow before going into hospital radio and eventually getting a job as a disc jockey at Radio Clyde. His ambition was to become a dentist but it remained unrealised as his exam results were not to the level required.

In the late 70's a young Paul Coia DJ'd at Paisley Tech students union, now the university of West of Scotland. In the history of Paisley Tech Coia said that he "owed his big break to the Tech's resident DJ, Danny Disco. Coia said, "This guy who looked like a toilet brush with binoculars gave me his soul record collection. I never looked back." In the early 1980s Paul Coia became a continuity announcer for Scottish Television. After dropping his script and continuing by ad libbing, Paul was given his own chat show, ‘Meet Paul Coia’.

In 1982 he joined Channel 4 on its launch, was the first voice heard on air. Unusually for continuity of the time, Coia could also be seen in-vision, usually late-night, especially immediately before closedown. Subsequently, he became a presenter of BBC One's daytime magazine programme, Pebble Mill at One.

During 1987, Coia made his second chat show, this time for Grampian Television The Paul Coia Show which was broadcast as well on Scottish television, and he also made his first gameshow, Split Second.

In 1988 Coia became the host of the BBC gameshow Catchword, memorable for the fact that seemingly every contestant endeavoured to employ the words floccinaucinihilipilification or pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis or antidisestablishmentarianism during their efforts. He has since presented a number of other quizzes on various satellite and cable channels.

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