Ben Park (presenter/writer/producer/webmaster)
Ben grew up in Malmesbury, Wiltshire then moved to Bristol in 2001.
While spending some time with his sister in Clevedon, she mentioned there was a local community FM station broadcasting there – called CurzonFM, and she knew one of the presenters. Ben sat in on one live show and he was hooked on radio broadcasting.
He put his name down to take part in the next Curzon FM broadcast, and while waiting for his application to be processed, signed up for the next BHBS (Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service) training course.
Ben’s application to Curzon FM was successful, and he went on to single-handedly present several shows on three broadcasts. Curzon FM has been off-air ever since, but this is purely a coincidence.
Having completed the training course for hospital radio, Ben started out by lining up records and recording the news (he pressed “record”, waited 2 minutes, then pressed “stop”) before moving onto work as a producer for shows as diverse as big band music and sports (despite Ben’s hatred of almost all sports) and then switched to producing and co-presenting the Thursday evening request show – Requestline.
Ben attended the Mediafly radio broadcasting course in 2002, put on at the Galaxy101 studios (now KissFM) partly for the course, and partly to have a nose around and meet semi-famous local newsreaders and presenters.
When BHBS decided they wanted to broadcast 24-hours-a-day, there were a lot of programmes required to fill the gaps outside the live broadcast schedule. Ben (with James Wilson and Stephen Gardner) were in charge of recording shows to go out 7-9am (the breakfast show!), and the first collaboration of B, J & S was born.
In 2006, Ben got fed up with only making the sick feel worse and launched a podcast version of the hospital radio music request show. Without the music.
On the 14th May 2007, Ben created a demo and entered a BBC Talent scheme to find a new presenter for Radio Bristol. He didn’t win, but 6 weeks later was invited to a BBC Induction Day, where he got to look around the station, see how great a place to work the BBC is, and make a live demo which was unlistenable, and hopefully has since been deleted.
Ben ended up doing a bit of work for Radio Bristol in promotions (giving out frisbees and balloons), and also made the tea for some important people there.
Since April 2007, Ben (together with James and Stephen), has been presenting shows on all of GlossFM’s broadcasts (formerly ThornburyFM).
Ben makes/edits the majority of idents/beds/jingles for the show, and runs this website.
He likes birds and frogs, records a lot more TV than he watches, and is a very fussy eater.
You can keep up to date with Ben’s movements on Twitter: @benparkatbjs
(Updated 30th June 2010)
James Wilson (presenter/writer)
James grew up in Bristol (despite his own claims he was raised by wolves), and after being part of BHBS (The Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service) for many years, he upped and left to go travelling around Australia. Upon his return, he found Ben Park sat in his seat, chatting to then-request-show presenter – Terry.
After a short period of awkwardness, they found a way for all of them to work on one show together.
As Terry’s heart lies more in specialist 1920-1940’s band music, James slowly took over full time as the main presenter on Requestline on a Thursday night.
When BHBS decided they wanted to broadcast 24-hours-a-day, there were a lot of programmes required to fill the gaps outside the live broadcast schedule. Ben (with James and Stephen) were in charge of recording shows to go out 7-9am (the breakfast show!), and the first collaboration of B, J & S was born.
Since April 2007, James (together with Ben Park and Stephen Gardner), has been presenting shows on GlossFM’s broadcasts (formerly ThornburyFM).
James is fascinated by psychology, and has seen Derren Brown live.
His musical tastes are a constant source of ridicule, and despite being a fan of East 17, Bros, Will Young, and seeing both Elton John and Take That live (not at the same gig), he remains insistent he isn’t gay.
He doesn’t care for food and has often said that if he could take a pill with all his required nutrients, vitamins and minerals in it, he’d probably do that. He hates cinnamon, and any form of dried fruit in cakes. He also drives the same car as the guys on The Inbetweeners.
We are still attempting to convert James into a fan of Twitter.
(Updated 30th June 2010)
Stephen Gardner (presenter/head writer/characters)
Finger always on the pulse of popular culture, Stephen Gardner will tell you every time you see him about some new band that is going to be huge. He’s frequently right about it too.
His knowledge of music figures would also make him a wise choice for any pub-quiz team. You can pull out any obscure piece of music and he’ll tell you exactly what position it got to in the US Billboard charts, even if it was 10 years before he was born.
It is now common knowledge that Stephen used to perform in talent shows of sorts. He doesn’t like to go into details though, and we’ve yet to uncover any camcorder (or otherwise) footage of this.
He presents the first show on BHBS (Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service) on a Thursday evening, and often stays for most of the evening until the station stops it’s live broadcasting at 10pm. This sort of ill-conceived working arrangement meant that when the previous studio manager left, Stephen was the first (and only) victim candidate for the position.
When BHBS decided they wanted to broadcast 24-hours-a-day, there were a lot of programmes required, to fill the gaps outside the live broadcast schedule. Ben (with James and Stephen) were in charge of recording shows to go out 7-9am (the breakfast show!), and the first collaboration of B, J & S was born.
Since the early days of the Breakfast Show, Stephen became the unofficial ‘head writer’ – something he continues to this day.
From April 2007 onwards, Stephen has also been co-presenting “The Music and Waffle Show” on Thornbury FM. Sometimes with James, but always with Ben. Stephen writes the majority of any pre-recorded segments.
Stephen can often be seen sporting the latest technology. He was the first member of BJS to own an iPhone, and the first to get Sky+.
At some point (several years ago) he leant a DVD of “The Big Lebowski” to Ben. Despite him attempting to give it back several times, Stephen is insistent that he doesn’t want it back until Ben has watched it.
Stephen enjoys walking. Not rambling in the countryside, but cross-city. He claims he can walk from anywhere in Bristol to anywhere else in Bristol in no more than 20minutes.
He hates lemon curd, and has described it as “the tool of Lucifer himself”.
You can keep up to date with Stephen’s movements on Twitter: @stephengatbjs
(Updated 30th June 2010)
