Joe Wilson – Q&A

Name?
Joe Wilson

Age?
33

Where are you from?
Leicester

How did you get started in broadcasting?
Very helpful people at BBC Radio Leicester took me under their wing and gave me an excellent foundation for all I’ve done subsequently

When was that?
I think the first time I went in there was Spring 1994, and I was a regular from that Summer onwards, initially getting £25 for every package I managed to get on air

Why News broadcasting?
I always wanted to do some form of journalism, making a living out of writing was my aim I guess, and this road opened up to me.

Where else would have viewers seen or heard you before?
Well, early days at Radio Leicester, I also did a very enjoyable stint at the sports section of World Service radio where I presented the Saturday afternoon sports programme amongst other roles.

What is your Best on-air moment?
I suppose the best bits are the ‘right time right place’ moments. For example when Ben Curtis became the biggest outsider ever to win the Open we spotted him on the practice area and were there at the moment he won, also when Chelsea played Liverpool a few days before the last General Election we spotted Michael Howard wandering around during a live and got him on. Those kind of things are fun.

What is your Worst on-air moment?
The first time I ever presented the big Saturday sports show on World Service (which has the biggest audience of anything anywhere I think) my mobile phone started ringing during a live link about 20 minutes in. Decent idea of mine to leave it in my pocket. Fortunately the guy in ths studio with me at the time (David Croft I think it was) made some gag about it on air and I spent the next 2 hours 40 minutes presuming it would be my last ever show, consequently I relaxed and it went really well… everyone seemed to think it was amusing, but since then i’ve always checked my pockets before entering a studio.

What would you like to do before your career ends?
Present a ‘through the night’ radio show playing country and western tinged rock music and reasonably obscure jazz funk.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
Looking after family takes up a fairly big part of it, playing cricket in a lovely sunny setting would be my ideal, especially if the ball’s swinging like Sinatra on a comeback.

What advice would you give to anyone that would like to get into the broadcasting world?
Simple really, get as much experince as you can as early as you can and don’t be afraid to start at the bottom.. the smaller the operation the greater the experience is a general truth.

A big thanks to Joe for taking part.

Posted by on Thursday 21 May 2009