Eddie Mair was born in Dundee, Scotland. His father was a lorry driver and his mother was a nurse. His amateur broadcasting career is reported to have started by using the tannoy in the school playground. His professional career began after rejecting a University place in order to present on Radio Tay, a local Dundee station. He joined the BBC in 1987 as a sub-editor for Radio Scotland. He moved on to present Good Morning Scotland and Reporting Scotland, then Eddie Mair Live for Radio Scotland. In 1993 he hosted Breakaway, the weekly 'travel and leisure' programme on BBC Radio 4. He then joined Radio Five Live when it began in 1994 presenting the Midday with Mair news show. From 1996 to 2000 he presented the BBC /PRI programme The World .
Mair was the host of the light-hearted weekly current affairs programme Broadcasting House when it was launched in April 1998, until 2003 when he took over PM and the programme was handed to Fi Glover. On both programmes Mair developed his trademark style of mixing serious journalism with witty and satirical commentary.
In 2005 Mair won the News Journalist award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards. He was also listed as the 5th most powerful person in British radio in a 2005 poll in the Radio Times.