My first venture into internet radio came in 2005 when I created a pioneering online chart show, well it was pioneering for it’s time.  Take40UK was a show I produced and hosted and it was syndicated on a number of international AM & FM radio stations from Wolverhampton including one in Brisbane, AUS!. The show sadly only had a short run of one year.

Take40UK – 2005

Following a few years of internet radio absence, I was back producing a regular show all about my love of Formula 1. Having been inspired by listening to Christine Blatchford’s F1Minute podcast, I decided to try ‘F1 Newsflash’, What Christine was doing was great, but I thought I do it better, in my own loud, fast paced style.  Episodes are still online to this day from 2011….

F1 Newsflash – 2012

F1 Newsflash – Dan Wheldon Tribute 2011

F1 Newsflash lasted on/off for two years and in 2012 it used clips from my new show I was doing at the time on Radio Silverstone’s web service RS24/7.

Yes, for just over a year I was the host of ‘A Little something for the weekend’ A weekly look ahead to what’s happening that weekend. It was Gary Champion and Alan Hyde in overall charge at the Home of British Motorsport’s full 24/7 web radio service and when I joined in March 2012 it was swinging with top talent, lots of great shows and it seemed very easy to book big interviews at the time by dropping the name ‘Radio Silverstone’.

With each show in 2012, production values got better and better until it was really a world class show if I say so myself!  39 episodes in total spanning almost every week in 2012 into April 2013. You can still hear most of the shows here.

A Little Something for the Weekend – 2012

Following a short break from all motorsport radio for the 2013 season, I approached Jake Sanson with a proposal to build a motorsport radio brand… that brand is Downforce Radio !

March 2006 I moved to Vancouver and before I’d even got there I was was already doing my research, collecting station program director’s name, contact numbers, email addresses, listening to their output on the web so that when I arrived I could hit the ground running with job applications. And almost immediately I was offered by what was ‘The Beat 94.5’ (Now Virgin Radio) to come in for a chat, Didn’t get the job but the fact my plan to get noticed was working and that gave me a huge confidence boost for about 6 months.

It was another station ‘Z95-3’ who invited me in for a chat, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting to get the job, I was delighted enough just to be asked in for the interview!  wow I thought, imagine me working in a place like this, having gone from an internet radio podcast last year to broadcasting to over a million people. I remember the interview to this day, I didn’t understand much of the banter the boss and his assistant (Curtis Strange) were having it seemed like a very short interview and by the end of it I left with my first ever job in radio!  given my lack of professional radio experience they decided to put me on the nightshift which was just me from 11pm to 6am. It was an amazing time in my life, personally I was punching way above my weight in my relationship and I felt the same in my new radio job too!

It was a surreal, mind-bending time, working 9-5 as a temp in a warehouse picking and packing sweatshirts being just like a normal guy and by night, working if you can call it work at one of Vancouver’s biggest radio stations broadcasting to over a million people.

I wasn’t amazing or out of this world despite what my inflated ego at the time told me, but I enjoyed it there…. no ignore that, I Loved it !

CKZZ – Z95-3 Vancouver

Throughout 2003 & 04 more and more people were asking me to help them out by reading this or that or can do this voice over for their radio show, as I was relatively inexperienced I gave being a voice over a go.

I ended up voicing quite a lot of jingles and station packages for small and internet radio stations alike.

Teensay Radio 2004

My first proper radio experience came in 2001 on Hospital Radio, this was before the days of Community Radio stations in every other town, If you wanted experience back then you tried your luck trying to get lucky and get work experience at a local commercial radio station or you went and did some hospital radio, and that’s what I did.

Starting out in Manchester in 2001 at ‘MHR – Manchester Hospital Radio’ from St Mary’s Hospital,  It was an eye opening experience for me, I’d joined at a time when the station was on it’s last legs, struggling for volunteers and no income the place seemed to be crumbling around me, But as I didn’t know any better at the time, I got the bus down there every Saturday afternoon to host the sports show, which comprised of me reading results as they came in from actual teletext (ask your parents) and some cool music.

MHR Clip

2002 – 2006

A satisfying switch over to Birch Radio came in early 2002, It was based in Rochdale at the old Birch Hill Hospital, The station was much further away and a lot harder to get to given the added 2 buses I had to get each week, It was a fairly large team with a great atmosphere, quite well funded compared to the previous one and in 2003 I got my first taste of FM Radio as Birch Radio conducted a 30-day RSL.  I had the big responsibility of the 12-2pm slot, It was a big deal for 17 year-old me back then.  We all had loads of fun, went out on roadshows, doing live events and it certainly gave me a solid knowledge of how to work well in a small radio station team, motivating everyone and keeping standards professionally high.