Details of some of your judges for this years awards are shown below. We'll be updating these with more info as we get it....
Huw joined Radio 1 at the extremely young age of 17 and has since gone from strength to strength. Huw now presents Radio 1’s In New Music We Trust – Best of BBC Introducing (Wednesday 9-10pm) pulling together the highlights from the UK’s BBC Introducing shows. He also hosts his own show BBC Introducing in England on Radio 1 (Thursday 0000-0200) which concentrates on the finest new music and unpredictable emerging talent. Huw regularly deputises for Zane Lowe and Colin Murray.
Being very proudly Welsh and with the language being his mother tongue, he presents three shows a week on C2 for BBC Radio Cymru, the Welsh language radio station, playing the best new music.
He is the host for Bandit on S4C, the flagship music show for the TV station where he interviews bands, musicians and reports from all the festivals. Most recently, Huw was lucky enough to travel to LA and Texas to film with some new bands and often films gigs and music events up and down the country.
Not limited to just Radio and Television, Huw also writes reviews and articles for various magazines, newspapers and is always asked for his professional opinion on new bands for all types of press.
His career started with him presenting his own show on hospital radio, getting the independent Ankst to kindly sponsor his show with records and CDs, which he played to an audience expecting to hear Bryan Adams. He answered phones on BBC Radio Cymru shows, listened to the radio, bought music and went to as many gigs as he could until he met Bethan Elfyn who he went on to co-present the Radio 1 Session in Wales show with. The show highlighted the best underground and alternative releases of the day, concentrating on the vibrant and eclectic music scene in Wales.
He also DJs and compères at gigs, clubs and festivals, including the Radio 1 and main stage at Reading, Glastonbury, Latitude and Bestival.
With his laid back attitude, ridiculously extensive music knowledge and unique charm Huw is a raw talent who, at 27 will undoubtedly continue to become more and more successful.
Rich Clarke, London’s newest man about town can be heard on 95.8 Capital FM between 10pm-1am Monday-Thursday, 7-10pm Fridays and Sundays 7-10pm.
It all started off for Rich in student radio. Setting up Insanity, a radio station at Royal Holloway, University of London, and managing it for 2 years opened a whole load of doors, enabling Rich to schmooze with tonnes of important people and eventually, after doing demos, production work, auditions and pilots for TV, he finally landed the evening slot on CFM in Cumbria. It was a big sacrifice, moving all that way, but it led to bigger and better things.
11 months later he was presenting mornings on Wyvern FM, as well working as the Deputy Programme Controller for the station.
Next he went to one of GCAP’s flagship stations – presenting Drive on Trent FM. He also did presenting work on Leicester Sound and weekend breakfast on national digital station – The Mix.
He then chose to move ‘up north’ to Key 103 Manchester, where he presented Bauer Radio’s networked evening show “In Demand” with Rich and Luce. Broadcasting to a weekly audience of over a million listeners, on 9 FM stations, and nationally on “The Hits”, it gave Rich amazing access to interviewing some of the biggest names in music from Timbaland to Kylie, and movie stars from Jessica Alba to Simon Pegg.
Rich can also be found presenting the nations biggest chart show - THe Big Top 40 with Kat Shoob.
Rich has presented major staged events such as the massive GCAP XS concerts, and has had regular DJ gigs in clubs around the country. In 2007 Rich was heard on radio’s around the world co-presenting the Warchild.
Mike was brought up in Leicester and began his broadcasting career in the best tradition by helping voluntarily and making tea at Leicester Sound whilst still at school. His hard work paid off and he was appointed at a presenter and producer at the station in 1991. His talents were quickly recognised, resulting in appointments at SGR Colchester and at MFM before moving to Chrysalis in 1995.
Mike was one of the launch presenters on London’s Heart 106.2 before moving to the Galaxy brand in 1997 as Head of Music at Galaxy 101 in 1997. Since then he has worked as programme director of all four of the Galaxy stations.
With the restructuring of the Galaxy brand Mike was promoted to his current role of Galaxy Group PD overseeing the development of the on-air sound of the 4 FM & 1 Digital stations.
With Sony, NTL & New York awards for his programming Mike was also behind the UK’s first radio award from the United Nations, winning Gold for a series on World AIDs Day. He’s jointly responsible for commercial radio’s Fresh 40 chart and a key part of the Galaxy/Kiss commercial initiative that’s brought over one million pounds worth of new business to radio from key agencies with clients such as Ford Ka, CKone & Motorola.
Mike’s 33, lives in Leeds, and still makes tea, he's just paid more it these days.
Mark has contributed to some of the biggest brands in UK Media including ITN, GCap Media and most recently the BBC, where he is the new Managing Editor of BBC Radio Devon.
Until August this year, Mark was responsible for Global Radio's regional news operation. At Global, Mark managed over 150 journalists across 40 newsrooms on high profile brands like Heart, Galaxy and Trent FM.
Mark is an established coach and tutor. In October 2008, Mark collected a prestigious National Training Award for developing and leading GCap Media's News Editor School, nominated alongside the BBC, ITV and Bloomberg. The National Training Awards recognise the best in UK Media Training.
Mark has worked closely with Post Graduate Media courses to improve the selection of journalists coming into the industry.
Mark started his career as a presenter at Plymouth Sound FM. Mark's news coverage and teams have won awards for news specials and disaster reporting, including the Concorde Crash and Paddington Rail Disaster.
Mark has been a Sony Radio Academy Awards & SRA judge for two years running.
Steve Harris won the Best Male category at the Student Radio Awards 2000, following his four years presenting at the University of Nottingham's URN.
After winning, he decided to quit his job in PR (he wasn't very good at it anyway) and try being a professional radio presenter. He worked his way through Drivetime on the Student Broadcast Network and Mid-mornings on Virgin Megastores Radio (both now defunct - nothing to do with Steve), and then got his first "proper" presenting job doing overnights on TFM on Teesside.
From there, his career went from strength to strength. He got promoted to TFM's evening show, had a show on Kerrang! Radio from it's launch in 2004, and moved to the West Midland alternative music station in 2005 to start presenting their evening show.
By January 2008, he had also worked on XFM London, XFM South Wales, Southern FM in Brighton and Mercury FM in Crawley. But in that month he broke into the BBC and started presenting Drivetime on BBC Radio Solent. Almost two years later, he's still there. On-air from four 'til seven, every weekday night, it is, he says, "honest to God, the best job I've ever had."
And all because of that little award he won nine years ago.
Paul Rodgers is Editor at BBC 6 Music. Paul has gained extensive experience within Network Radio as a mainstream and documentary programme-maker with BBC Radio 2 and Radio 5. He has also worked in advertising, television, and in teaching.
Paul has been a student himself, having studied at the Universities of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Loughborough. He has also won awards, the most recent being the 2009 Pet & Owner Look-A-Like Award which he shared with his dog Scruffy at the Highgate Fair.
Lloydie is a graduate of Bournemouth University who began his full time radio career as a producer at Classic FM in London but after a year the temptation to get behind the microphone himself proved to great and he left to pursue a career on air rather than behind the scenes.
He worked at Galaxy 101 in Bristol between 1997 and 1999 before moving back to Bournemouth to help launch a new radio station for the area. Fire 107.6 came on air mid-1999 and within three years 22% of the adult population were tuning in, and Lloydie’s breakfast show was the number one commercial show in the 15 – 34 year old age demographic.
In 2002 he moved to commercial competitor 2CR FM where his breakfast show gain a coveted Sony Radio Academy Award nomination in the Best Breakfast Show category, alongside Terry Wogan and XFM’s Christian O’Connell. In 2004 Lloydie moved to do the drivetime show at 103.2 Power FM where, upon departure in 2007, his show was the commercial number one for the area.
Between 2007 and 2008 Lloydie was Programme Controller of 2CR FM in Bournemouth (now Heart Dorset) but the lure of the microphone was too strong to keep him in management for long. In November 2008 he moved to Nottingham to present afternoons on Trent FM, the number one station in Nottinghamshire.
Aside from radio Lloydie is a Master Practitioner and Trainer of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), a hypnotic practitioner and hypnotist. He is passionate about evoking positive change for people through coaching and communication techniques and has worked with people from all walks of life including politicians, broadcasters and senior executives.
Geoff has had a glittering but as yet not award-winning career in television and radio.
He started in Student Radio, running Kube FM at Keele University before becoming the Marketing Officer for the Student Radio Association in 2000.
Since then he's produced some of the biggest radio shows in the UK including Steve Lamacq and Adam & Joe for BBC 6Music, Drivetime for BBC Radio 2, and Breakfast for Smooth FM as well as a range of documentaries and podcasts.
On screen he's produced four series of the live topical debate show The Wright Stuff for Five/Princess Productions, as well as Doctor Doctor also for Five.
He recently launched The Christian O'Connell Solution a new live comedy panel show for BBC Radio 5live.
Rob graduated from Leeds Trinity and All Saints with a degree in Sport, Health, Leisure and Media. After starting the degree with thoughts of becoming a Tennis Coach or P.E. Teacher he left with his heart set on working in the media after successful placements in radio and television. He landed a job as a Reporter and Producer for BBC Radio Leicester after graduating, where he worked on pretty much every show going (including the Irish Programme... he doesn't even have an Irish Grandmother)!
Rob moved over to commercial radio to become Breakfast Show Producer at Galaxy Yorkshire on the Antony and JoJo Breakfast Show for 3 years. Following that he moved down the road to 96.3 Radio Aire in Leeds as Programmes Editor and then Breakfast Show Producer and Co-Presenter when the Simon Logan Breakfast Show relaunched.
In 2005 Rob helped launch the new Heart 106 in the East Midlands as Deputy Programme Controller and Executive Breakfast Show Producer and after 2 years there moved back to his old stomping ground of Leeds to take up the role of Deputy Programme Controller at Galaxy Yorkshire.
Rob has also lectured in Broadcast Media and Journalism for Leeds University.
Adam Utyman
Starting out in community radio at the age of 15, Adam was heavily involved in student radio at Glasgow University's SubCity Radio - himself nominated two years running for Best Male in the Student Radio Awards. His first full time job was as part of the launch team of Central Scotland's Beat 106 in 1999. After a few years producing and presenting at the station, he was promoted to Music Manager and subsequently left in 2004 to join the launch team of Kerrang! 105.2 in the West Midlands as Head of Music. Promoted to Programme Director in 2005, Adam led the team to win 4 Gold Sony Awards in 2006. The following year he left to take up the position of Programme Director at XFM in London - responsible for launching, amongst others, The Alex Zane breakfast show, Dave Berry does Drivetime and Danny Wallace on Saturday mornings. Adam now works as a Producer for BBC Radio 2, amongst other things working on the Steve Wright in the Afternoon show.
John is a Talent Manager at Wise Buddah and works with many of the UK's best known and upcoming broadcast talent including BBC Radio 1’s Scott Mills, Greg James, Huw Stephens, BBC Radio 2’s Steve Lamacq and Smooth Radio’s Mark Goodier.
He also heads up Wise Buddah Voices, a vibrant and exciting voiceover agency, that represents many of the best known and recognisable voices from TV and Radio –Kelly-Anne Smith (Global Radio’s Hit Music Network), Anna Butterfield (voice of the Heart Network) and Jon Hillcock (BBC, ITV, Virgin Media, Blockbuster) to name but a few.
The association with Radio began with Demon FM whilst studying a degree in Music Technology & Innovation at De Montfort University. John managed the station and was also Head of Production during his time there.
Scott is the extremely popular host of Radio 1’s Scott Mills Show, broadcasting across the UK every afternoon between 4-7pm. Not limited to radio he is a regular presenter for the National Lottery on BBC One on Saturdays and Wednesdays where he hosts the live studio show and draws.
After becoming showbiz friends and spending time in LA with David Hasselhoff, Scott is soon to feature in a one off special entitled The Hoff: When Scott Came To Stay for Living TV. Scott co-hosted ITV2’s 2008 coverage of the National TV Awards and he recently hosted Upstaged, a daily interactive competition looking for talent voted by the public online for BBC Three and is about to appear, as himself, on the infamous SKINS for Channel 4.
Scott has more than earned his stripes in the radio industry. He joined BBC Radio 1 in 1998 as the Early Breakfast host and was swiftly thrown in at the deep end when four days into his new job he was asked to cover for the Zoë Ball Breakfast Show. Since then Scott has become the first choice to deputise the Radio 1 Breakfast Show as well as the Radio 1 Official Chart Show. Scott’s versatility has led to him fronting many live events for Radio 1 including The Brit Awards and Radio 1’s Big Weekend. Scott has also picked up a Sony Gold and Bronze two years running in the Interactive Show Category.
Other TV credits under Scott’s belt are the ITV1 special, Batman Begins: Behind the Mask and co-presenting Cilla Live! for Living. Unsurprisingly Scott is often asked to appear on shows and his credits include Paris Hilton’s British Best Friend for ITV2, The Sunday Night Project for Channel 4, Britain’s Got More Talent for ITV2, Celebrity Scissor Hands for Children In Need, Celebrity Mastermind and Big Brothers Little Brother for Channel 4. Scott’s TV career started with him presenting Top of the Pops as well as its spin off programmes: Top of the Pops @ Play and TOTP Plus for BBC Two.
Scott was always very focused of becoming a Radio 1 DJ. At 16, after barraging his local radio station Power FM with demo tapes, Scott was given the chance to present a week of shows. He was promptly offered a five-hour slot six nights a week, making him the youngest ever radio presenter in the UK. After a two-year stint at Bristol’s GWR FM, Scott was snapped up by Manchester’s Key 103. Initially on the late night slot, Scott swiftly shifted to midmornings before moving to help launch Heart 106.2 in London and then onto BBC Radio 1. When Scott’s not on air or screen he can be found DJ’ing at universities, nightclubs and hosting various corporate events up and down the country.
Dan was part of LSRFM in 2003. The same year, he won Silver for Best Entertainment Show at the SRAs. This led to a couple of offers from the Big City Network. He spent just over a year in Hull at Viking FM, before moving to Galaxy to do Drive in 2005.
I was a student at Royal Holloway from 1996-2000 and was a presenter and producer on the SU radio station Insanity from when it launched in 1998 until 2000.
Tim was on the SRA exec as marketing officer, during which time he set up the 'Student Radio Chart Show'. Tim started working full-time for the BBC as a trainee at BBC Radio Lincolnshire, and between working numerous shifts, securing a staff job as a Broadcast Assistant, and cover-presenting Lincolnshire’s Introducing and Drivetime shows, moved on to BBC Radio Humberside as a Broadcast Journalist, producing the region’s leading breakfast show.
Tim has since returned to Radio Lincolnshire as their Station Sound Producer.
Prior to securing his dream gig Matt studied at the University of Bedfordshire where he graduated with a First Class BA Hons in Media Performance with Radio. It was there he first developed his radio skills whilst at the helm of the University RSL radio station, Luton FM.
Immediately after his graduation Matt began on countless work experience placements across the country before freelancing at BBC Three Counties Radio making production and contributing to shows. However within just a few months he left the BBC and landed a job working in Station Sound at Chiltern FM (Now Heart). It was there he cut his teeth as a presenter and producer. Aside from creating on air imaging and promotions for a number of GWR stations he fronted Early Breakfast, Weekend Breakfast, Mid Mornings and even Drive-time.
Then after only 8 months with GWR he was snapped up by Xfm London to join their Station Sound Team. It was here that Matt took audio imaging to a new level alongside Karl Pilkington. Within a year he was back on the air, presenting the Live Hour, performing shifts on Early Weekend Breakfast and co-presenting the Weekender. It wasn’t long before he was finally promoted to Head of Production and remained at the station for almost two years.
Then in 2005 he moved to BBC Radio 1 and joined the Station Sound Team before ultimately heading the department in a role that sees him leading his creative team to deliver Imaging and Promotions for two of the BBCs key youth networks.
Justin’s energetic presentation style and passion for music caught the attention of the world famous Kiss100, and he joined as part of re-launch team in 2006. Presenting Weekday mornings 9am – 12, with an hour of his trademark “Kisstory” classics at 11, and delivering the unique down-tempo, post-clubbing soundtrack “The Rehab” on Sunday mornings 8am-10 on the whole Kiss network, as well as heading up all of Kiss’s summer festival coverage.
Justin is also an established voice artist. Known for his flexibility and enthusiastic-yet-authoritative delivery, he has been at the helm of campaigns for A-List artists like Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5, The Sugababes & Dido, plus national brands like Pepsi, Panasonic, and 20th Century Fox. Justin is currently the voice of the UK’s biggest music retailer HMV, and the UK’s biggest digital TV channel ITV2.
Mike Newman
Mike Newman is the Programme Director for Mercia in Coventry. Before that he was the Breakfast Producer for Smooth Radio in London. In his round about trip of the UK he has also produced breakfast at Kerrang! Radio in Birmingham, launched Xfm in Cardiff and produced breakfast at Mercia. And as we established a few lines ago, he is now the PD at Mercia.
Ben McGrail is the news editor at 106.4FM Andover Sound - the independent radio station for North West Hampshire. He's also head of online at both Andover Sound and Newbury Sound.
Ben cut his teeth in the industry at student radio level, working for the station at the University of Leeds, LSRfm. In 2005 Ben won the gold award for 'Best Sports Broadcasting' at the Student Radio Awards and picked up a bronze for 'Best Entertainment' the following year. These were both for 'Sport on Saturday', LSR's sports show. He was also nominated for 'Best Male' in 2007.
After graduating Ben worked as a freelance journalist and producer at BBC Radio 5live, BBC Radio Bristol and Spire FM as well as a presenter at Fox FM in Oxford before being appointed as news editor at Andover Sound.
In the year since Ben's been at the station they picked up a bronze medal at the New York Radio Awards for news coverage and Ben launched a new sports show, 'Sport on Saturday', carrying on the tradition from student radio.
Vicki is versatile presenter full of charm wit and sarcastic humour. She’s presented on numerous stations during her short career including BBC Radio 1, Heart 106, Century FM and Red Dragon. Most recently the Galaxy Network and XFM London.
It was at Cardiff University that Vicki got involved in student radio and went on to win Best Female Presenter at the Student Radio Awards in 2002. Vicki became a swing presenter at Red Dragon FM in 2003 whilst still at Uni and then after graduating in Biochemistry and Medical Molecular Biology, Vicki joined 106 Century FM in July 2004.
Vicki has stepped into many on air roles during her short time in the East Midlands. From being the overnight presenter she soon moved to weekends then the evening show. When Heart 106 was launched she became the Breakfast show co-host. Not bad for under a year!
She also has experience of BBC radio having presented BBC Radio 1’s Friday Early Breakfast throughout September and October in 2007 as well as sitting in for Greg James in January 2008.
Vicki has hosted many live events including the Eve Style Show 2006 and has been the station voice for BBC Radio Wales.
She’s also a very versatile voiceover with credits including commercials for Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Paramore and the Pop Party and Hairspray albums. Vicki is also the presenter of Airplay, the inflight entertainment show for Qatar Airways.
Vicki is currently one of the main continuity voices of Channel FIVE. She's also previously voiced continuity for LIVING, LIVING2 and SKY One and has proved exceptionally popular for a young up and coming artiste.
Alex skived lectures as a student by hiding in the Surge studio whilst at Southampton University and was rewarded with a nomination for Best Male in 2005 at the Student Radio Awards. He was beaten by a chap called Greg James but isn't bitter about it or anything. Since then he's done overnights at Power FM (now Galaxy), mid-mornings on Chiltern Radio (now Heart), weekend breakfast nationally on Gaydar Radio (still called Gaydar Radio!) After a year of holding down both the Chiltern and Gaydar jobs Alex packed the suitcase and headed up to Yorkshire, to host mid-mornings on one of UTV's flagship stations, The Pulse. But after just a month the bosses called him into a meeting and explained things weren't really working out, would he like THE BREAKFAST SHOW instead! Since then he's been on the front page of the Daily Mirror, had his Christmas song played out in front of full crowds at Bradford City home games, and increased his audience in every quarter so far. Crikey!
Following a successful year hosting QPM, the flagship evening show for Q Radio, Samanthi now presents afternoons on NME Radio. This has given her the incredible opportunity to interview high profile bands, musicians and performers alike. Before Q she presented XFM London's Sunday evening show, 6-9pm, bringing her unquestionable knowledge and passion for indie music to the XFM Live Hour, and huge love of film to the XFM Film Show. Samanthi also joined the presenting team for the 5th series of BBC Two's Asian arts and entertainment show Desi DNA.
While reading English and Philosophy at the University of Leeds she wrote for the music sections of The Leeds Student Paper and The Leeds Guide, and joined the award-winning student radio station, LSR FM, presenting her own ‘Non-Stop Indie Pop Disco' before being propelled to Breakfast Show co-host and producer. After graduating Samanthi began a daily live show on Virgin Megastores' national instore radio station, VMR, and presented Drive Time for the Student Broadcast Network. She began as a cover presenter on XFM London in 2004, which soon led to a permanent role presenting the late-night weekend show followed by a move to Sunday evenings. She also provided regular cover across the entire schedule including Paul Tonkinson, Alex Zane and Jimmy Carr's weekend shows.
Rowan read History at Leeds University where he also ran LSR, winning
'Best Entertainment Show' at the Student Radio Awards in 1999. He joined
production company Somethin' Else in 2003 where he's worked ever since,
producing documentaries for BBC Radio 1, the hit40uk network chart show,
music series for Radio 2 and much, much more. Rowan currently produces the
6 Mix and Dave Pearce Dance Anthems for BBC 6 Music, and is also George
Lamb's Dancehall correspondent under the nom de guerre 'Rowan Da Riddim.'
Just don't ask.
Winner of the 1998 Student Radio Awards category for Best Male Presenter, Toby then hosted a breakfast show on a satellite station. He later turned to journalism and is a TV critic, broadcasting regularly on Sky, BBC News, Five Live and other radio stations.
Working as a producer for Planet Rock, The UK’s Classic Rock Station, I am involved with numerous aspects of the station’s output. From Alice Cooper’s Breakfast Show to Another Dimension with David Jensen, I produce not only the programmes themselves but also many of the sweepers, idents and promos that surround them. During my student days, I worked for 1287AM Insanity at Royal Holloway University of London whilst studying for a Media Arts degree.
Lou is a playwright, radio dramatist, and a graduate of Royal Holloway - she wrote her very first radio plays at Insanity, where she was Head of Speech for a year. She has gone on to write extensively for BBC Radio 4. Her work includes four Afternoon Plays, two short dramas for Woman’s Hour, and a co-written series. Her most recent Afternoon Play, Dos and Don’ts for the Mentally Interesting, was broadcast in May 2009 and has been
shortlisted for a Mental Health Media Award from Mind. She also writes for stage and co-runs theatre company Buckle for Dust.