Russ Williams has been a top radio broadcaster in the UK for a quarter of a century. His current slot is mornings on the new national music station, Absolute. He was previously a long-term fixture at Virgin Radio. Russ Williams trained at the National Broadcasting School where he won the “Outstanding Talent” award. His first gig was with Southern FM in Sussex. He then moved to Metro FM in Newcastle and then to Capital Radio in London where he fronted the week-end breakfast show and sat in for Chris Tarrant. He moved to Virgin after three years. With Virgin he won two gold Sony Radio Awards and a gold New York Radio award. He’s a devoted Spurs fan and has written two books on football. He hosts a football show on TalkSport and he has been a member of the ITV Sport team since 1999. Here Russ Williams talks to new NBS student, Scott Doutre. It was Scott’s first radio interview:

 

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John Myers was a great radio innovator in the UK: he brought the highly successful Century, Real Radio and Smooth formats to the British listening public. On the first of his podcasts with the National Broadcasting School, he was asked when he was going to retire. “Sooner than you think”, he replied. He announced his retirement the following day!! Commercial radio in the UK has lost one of its stars: John Myers is a radio man who really understands the medium’s relationship with listeners. In this excerpt from his interview with the Director of the National Broadcasting School, Rory McLeod, he talks about the birth of his new, speech-rich formats:

 

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GMG Radio brands include Real Radio, Century, Smooth and Rock Radio. John Myers, who runs the division, is a huge, ebullient character and a natural, passionate communicator. He is credited with bringing creativity back to UK commercial radio with new radio formats that have been astonishingly successful. Here, in the first clip of a lengthy radio interview, he talks to the Director of the National Broadcasting School, Rory McLeod, about radio’s appeal and about his priorities – content or technology.

 

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The National Broadcasting School is adding the new autobiography of the veteran Daily Mail columnist, Ann Leslie, to its Suggested Reading list.

Ann Leslie is widely regarded as one of our finest newspapers reporters and columnists. Born in India during the Raj, she was despatched home to boarding school in dark and chilly England. She won a place at Oxford University and on completing her degree, she tumbled accidentally into newspapers.

“Her career has been an extraordinary adventure. She’s one of the great reporters of her time. Set aside her self-deprecation, she’s made it her business to fight cant, hypocrisy, cruelty, bigotry and tyranny wherever she can,” said NBS director, Rory McLeod. “We have aspiring young radio journalists on our news courses who want to be inspired. This book, more than almost any other of its type, will do just that”.

Leslie’s extraordinary experiences and encounters range from drug-fuelled parties with the Beatles to being flashed by Salvador Dali, from dangerous encounters with drugs runners to conversations with inmates on Death Row, from Mohammed Ali to President Mugabe. This is a book that, if you have any interest in newspapers or the world around you, will take your breath away.

There’s an excellent review of “Killing My Own Snakes” by Johann Hari in the Independent.

Rory McLeod added: “ Dame Ann is now in her 80’s. I want her to be admired and respected by our students at the NBS. What a woman!”

With its announcement that it’s investing a million quid in new programme content, GMG Radio – owners of the Smooth, Real, and Century stations – has demonstrated once again that it is the radio company with the creativity and commitment to lead commercial radio’s fight-back against the Beeb. Whilst Global, the UK’s biggest commercial radio operator, cuts swathes of local programming and slashes creative investment, GMG is attempting to strengthen its stations’ bonds with listeners by investing in new content.

“What a breath of fresh air it is to hear of a radio group trying to build station content, and not reduce it”, commented Rory McLeod, Director of the National Broadcast School. GMG is set to commission its next wave of independent productions as part of a one million pounds programming initiative across Smooth, Real, Century and Rock Radio.

Mr McLeod went on to say that Global’s moves to centralise and homogenise the output of its local stations was high-risk. “Global has a taken a calculated risk that revenues from its new faux-network will impact strongly on the short term bottom-line. But look out for signs of a slow decline in listening to Global stations.”

Before deciding to make its investment, GMG did its homework. Bosses say research into listeners’ views and opinions on the special programmes were extremely positive. The company is now inviting independent production companies to pitch new ideas for broadcast on its network of 13 stations. The new commissions will be broadcast from January 2009.

GMG Radio’s £1 million programming initiative has been led by GMG Radio chief executive John Myers and funded by Guardian Media Group’s owner, the Scott Trust.

GMG Radio group programme director, John Simons, said: “The response from listeners to the wide array of programmes we have brought to the commercial airwaves has been overwhelmingly positive, and demonstrates that our audiences enjoy new and unexpected content. So I am delighted to announce that we will be investing further in new documentaries, commissioning more programmes for broadcast early next year.”

National Broadcasting School Director, Rory McLeod said: “GMG is to be congratulated for investing big-time in new content. It’s heartening to see a major radio company led by creative programme-makers. After all, it is supposed to be a creative medium, isn’t it? ”

He only dropped in for a few minutes before NBS radio news student, Ashleigh Carroll, inveigled him into being the subject of her very first radio interview. Sean graduated from the NBS in London in the early 1980’s. A youngster with huge creative talent, he immediately started a successful career that has taken him from a music show on a local radio station to national talk radio. He is now leading the development of a big new internet project. Ashleigh Carroll is a graduate of Cardiff University. She’d like a career in the BBC and her aim is to be a special correspondent. This was her first radio interview. No no coaching, no practice. Click to hear it.

 

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Broadcasting is in his blood, but Dominic Norton left school with a promising career as a professional cricketer ahead of him: he was a junior on the Hampshire CCC ground staff. Then came an unlucky break – literally. A tear-away quick bowler, he smashed the wrist on his bowling arm. It ended his cricket career. He turned his attention to a career in broadcasting and studied radio journalism at the National Broadcasting School.

Dominic’s now an assistant producer at Sky Sports, his dream job.

Sean Bolger has worked at an elevated level in the UK radio biz for almost 30 years. He trained at the National Broadcasting School in London before starting his career at Southern FM in Sussex. He recently paid a visit to the NBS and told the students this story.

Imagine….you’re a music radio presenter on a London station. You’re busy doing your job – a song here, an ad there, a prize here, a caller there. A frazzled producer pops her head around your studio door and asks “You want to talk to Michael Jackson? He’s coming up the stairs.” You have about two seconds to decide but you don’t need them. It’s an instant “YES!” You wonder why Michael Jackson should be visiting but then it all becomes clear. Through the door walks Mohammed Fayed – Harrods owner and your station’s owner – followed by Michael, the biggest pop star the planet has ever seen.

That’s what happened to my friend Sean Bolger. And that, he told me, is why being a radio presenter is the best job on the planet.

He described the next few minutes. They flew by with the Harrods owner smiling beatifically as the interview progressed. One false move, thought Sean, and he would be toast! So the questions were bland and non-intrusive. Michael was meticulously polite and pathologically shy. He came to life, said Sean, only when talking about music or music technology and he was at his best when a song was being played and he was off-mic.

He disappeared as quickly as he had arrived. Next stop were the opening of the Harrods Sale and a cameo performance at Craven Cottage where thousands of Fulham fans were just as astonished to see him as Sean had been.

You’ll find an audio interview with Sean elsewhere on this site.