Expressing a desire to move into television, he ceased working full-time for LBC at the end of 1976. While still presenting occasionally for LBC and making early appearances on television, from 1977 to 1979 he became a regular music presenter on the BBC World Service radio channel, broadcasting from Bush House in London, on "The Robin Houston Request Show", "Sounds International" and "Anything Goes". For over 14 years, from September 1978, he presented the lunchtime bulletins of "Thames News" on Thames Television, covering the ITV region of London and the home counties. From April 1980 he also presented the nightly late "Thames News" bulletins, broadcast immediately after News at Ten. He continued to be seen twice-daily on "Thames News" until the end of Thames Television's contract in December 1992. He read over 5,500 news bulletins in that time. In the early 1980s he also regularly voiced the nightly United Press International Television News relay from London for television stations around the world. He was one of very few broadcasters to work for both the Thames Television and London Weekend Television franchises at the same time. While presenting "Thames News" on weekdays he was also an in-vision continuity announcer and promotions voiceover for London Weekend Television from 1977 to 1979 and for 15 years he was the voiceover announcer for the majority of the entertainment and awards shows produced by LWT between 1977 and 1992. As such he established a style and expertise appropriate for the time which has since been much copied, but seldom matched. In the same period, and until 1997, he also announced entertainment and awards programmes for Thames Television, for a number of other ITV companies and for BBC Television. As an announcer he provided the voiceovers for over 850 ITV television shows: For BBC Television he also announced Clive James' New Year specials and "Dame Edna Live at the Palace". From March 1997 as a voice-only presenter he launched the daily half-hour-long quiz show "100%" on five days a week for the new television station Channel 5. He made 1100 shows over several contiguous series for a period of nearly 5 years, pulling in good ratings for the channel, but the show was finally dropped at the end of 2001 as part of a station revamp. For financial reasons no editing time was available, so shows had to be transmission-ready at the end of each recording. A normal recording day saw 10 shows being made, but on one day a record number of 12 shows was recorded. He also recorded 35 "100%" specials and 38 late-night versions of the show.