McKinnell was born in Denton and grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne, where the attended the Sacred Heart Comprehensive School in Fenham.
The Fenham transmitter, for west Newcastle and Gateshead situated close to the studios on Barrack Road, also broadcasts television, national radio, BBC National DAB, Digital One, the MXR North East 12C multiplex, 100-102 Real Radio on 96.2, Metro Radio on 103 and Capital North East on 105.6.
The estate including the site of the abbey was sold by the Crown to Robert Brandling in 1609, and was sold on by the Brandling family in 1709 to John Ord of Fenham.
He was the second son of Thomas Ord of Fenham and Anne Bacon and inherited the family estates at Fenham and Newminster Abbey on the death of his elder brother John, in 1745.