• Photography
• Radio
• Contact Me / Links

Radio

I have been involved with various radio stations since September 2000, I first got into radio presenting at Portsmouth University, at the time I listen to a lot of radio, and inspired by the likes of Chris Moyles, Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley and Robin Banks, I aspired to be a bit like them.

I have always loved music, especially Indie and Rock, so I felt in my element presenting at a university radio station.

There were quite a few highlights of my time at Pure FM, in 2003 we had a 28 day Restricted Service License, 28 of the most fun days of my life. I was also the station manager for my final year at Portsmouth University, before graduating in 2005.

In my final months at university, I started to worry about what would happen next, and sent out loads of Demo CD's to every radio station I could think of in the area local to my home town of Epsom.

Soon after graduating, I joined Epsom Hospital Radio, which was a bit of a culture shock, as my audience suddenly aged by about 30+ years. But over the years that followed, I learned how to do a show which I feel is genuinely interesting to people I know, not just my friends at University who I made listen.

Another CD ended up at Virgin Radio (now Absolute Radio), who gave me three weeks work experience as a runner.

In 2007, I got a job at the BBC, based in the Network Radio London Control Room, I was mainly doing an admin role, booking studios and Control Room resources such as ISDN lines for down the line interviews. A part of the job was a little hands on though, running some contribution studios in Western House which can involve anything from showing guests in to do an interview to one of the BBC local radio stations, to setting up a singer / band to play music live during their interview with a local BBC radio station, to assist in setting up a studio to record an interview for use by one of the networks.

In 2011, these contribution studios moved to be looked after by the Production Equipment Centre, and as a part of that, I moved to the Production Equipment Centre team. The Centre prepares and maintains equipment for production staff to make recordings outside of the BBC's studios.

The Production Equipment Centre job is split between the Centre, the Contribution Studios and also Technician Duties. The Technician role is wide ranging from setting up meeting rooms for presentations, PAT Testing equipment and looking after Office Viewing and Listening equipment, and repairing these systems when they break.

Since joining the BBC, I have leant a lot technically about radio, which is one of the reasons I am now the Chief Engineer at Epsom Hospital Radio.

My Radio Show

The highlight of my week is my radio show on Epsom Hospital Radio. Every Sunday afternoon, I try to have as much fun as I can between 4 and 6pm, trying to make the patients laugh and playing some amazing music.

Before each show, I visit the wards to get some requests from the patients, which I mix together with some classic hits from the '50s to the current day.

I have some regular features such as "On This Day" - a guide to happened today in years gone by. Most of the music I play is from the '80s and before, so I play one "Indie Anthem" which gives me to play a brilliant track which I truly love.

I also have a feature called "New Music from Local Artists" which is sort of self explanatory. If you or someone you know is local to Epsom, and is in a band, please feel free to send in your music, you can find out more by visiting the Local Bands page on the Epsom Hospital Radio Website.

Finally, I try to have a bit of fun with the week's news, I try to make a joke out of some of the stories which have been in the news over the past weeks, from the big events to celebrities making fools of themselves.

I also have a feature called "Crazy Stories Of The Week" where I read out some of the more bizarre stories of the week, usually I don't need to come up with any jokes as they are already quite funny.

I am one of Epsom Hospital Radio's trainers, if I have a trainee with me, I usually try to encourage them to come up with some material, depending on how comfortable they are.