NORTH MEDIA TALENT - Key Persons
Ben Sheppard is currently the presenter of Capital Drivetime across the North West and North Wales, and until recently he hosted the local Capital Breakfast Show for 4 years.
To date, Ben is the youngest person to present a Capital Breakfast show, and is the only person on the network to do so solo. He has also been heard across the UK's major city sites, covering shows in Cardiff, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.
Ben has been regularly recognised by the radio academy, he was named on the highly respected Radio Academy 30 under 30 list and awarded the North West Newcomer Of The Year in 2015. He was also named in the 30 under 30 class of 2018.
Dan first got involved in radio as a teenager at a community radio station in Surrey. With the aim to champion local indie music, while studying music at Sixth-Form, he brought in local bands to perform live during his shows.
In 2019, Dan joined Absolute Radio - becoming the youngest person to present on the national station at 21 years old. At Absolute Radio, he has covered shows including Overnights, Evenings and Weekend Breakfast. He has also co-produced a documentary, "Woodstock at 50".
Outside the world of Radio, Emil is a huge fan of his beloved Newcastle United and has been involved in fan media since 2018. He is part of the "True Faith" Fanzine & Podcast and is the face of their popular Fan Cam videos on YouTube. He has been interviewed, regularly, on Sky Sports News and BBC Sport, representing the group, offering insight and opinion.
Job Titles:
- Founder of the Swn Festival
Huw Stephens is a presenter, dj and host.
Huw joined BBC Radio 1 at 17, becoming the youngest ever Radio 1 DJ. He has broadcast live from Glastonbury, Reading Festival, Sonar, South by South West, Eurosonic on BBC Radio 1, as well as live from Radio 1's own Teen Awards and Big Weekend. His passion for new music has meant he has been the first to champion countless new artists early on.
He presents on BBC 6Music 4-7pm Tuesday to Friday, as well as weekly shows on BBC Radio Wales, Radio Cymru and is a regular host of Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4. Huw has contributed to BBC Radio 2, BBC Sounds and presents regularly on the BBC World Service.
He hosts live events regularly, from corporate nights to world famous events including the NME Awards and the Bafta Cymru Awards.
Huw is the founder of the Swn Festival in Cardiff, Wales' premier new music festival which he founded in 2007, and won Best Small Festival at the NME Awards in 2014. He curates the Lake Stage at Latitude Festival, which saw early appearances by the xx, Alt J, The 1975, Catfish and the Bottlemen and many more. He also comperes the main stage at Reading Festival. Huw has dj'd and curated at Green Man Festival, Festival no 6, Bestival, T in the Park and Glastonbury.
He djs regularly around the UK to thousands, and has dj'd around the world in Venezuela, Barcelona, Iceland, Norway, Austin Texas, New York, New Zealand and Patagonia. Since 2006, Huw Stephens Presents has been a monthly live music night in London's The Social, playing host to new artists.
Huw presents a weekly show on BBC Radio Cymru playing new artists from Wales and the world. He champions new music and dj's at the Eisteddfod, the National Festival of Wales. He founded two record labels; Boobytrap and Am Records, and has released two compilations on Wichita Recordings named Music Sounds Better With Huw.
Huw's television credits include hosting the Glastonbury Festival on BBC2, the Topman CTRL series for Channel 4, coverage at Reading Festival for BBC 1 & 4, and voice over work for BBC3, Discovery Channel, and music campaigns for The 1975, Bombay Bicycle Club and PJ Harvey amongst others. He was nominated twice for Best Presenter at the Bafta Cymru Awards for his presenting on music series Bandit for S4C. In 2014 he presented a piece on Dylan Thomas on location in New York for BBC Worlwide Online.
He has an Honorary Degree from the Open University, and an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Glamorgan and Bangor University. He was inducted in to the Gorsedd of Bards of the Isle of Great Britain in 2012.
Job Titles:
- Member of Student Station Nerve Radio
Rob Howard is an multi award winning presenter, who can currently be heard on the Heart Network weekend breakfast show. He has worked for many radio stations including 10 years at Capital where he presented almost every show including breakfast!
Rob has hosted many events including the National Student Radio Awards at London O2 Indigo and worked many red carpets including the Mobo's and the Brits. He has also interviewed countless stars including Stormzy, Ed Sheeran and his interview with Steve Carell went viral gaining over 6 million views. Rob can also DJ and has opened for Olly Murs and JLS on their UK stadium tours.
Rob also has a large following on tiktok with over 335,000 followers, amassing over 52 million total views and 9 million total likes.
Outside of work Rob is a Dad as well as a Tottenham Hotspur season ticket holder
Job Titles:
- Journalist
- Journalist & Presenter, Radio 1 Breakfast With Greg James, BBC Radio 1 / Newsbeat
Roisin Hastie is a broadcast journalist and presenter from the Wirral.
She is one of the most recognised voices to a youth audience and can be heard every morning on Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James where she reads the news and does fun features like ‘animal news' and ‘the fact controller'.
Whilst studying drama and English Lit at university Roisin joined the TV society which inspired her to do a post-grad diploma in journalism at Radio City in Liverpool. Since qualifying in 2013 she has worked at a number of Bauer stations including Viking FM, Radio City and Metro Radio. Roisin has also been heard on Heart, Capital, Radio 4 and 5 Live.
As a journalist she has also done TV packages for BBC Breakfast and appeared on Outside Source and the News Channel.
Outside of work she enjoys walks with her labrador Bailey and doing DIY projects at her home in London.
Job Titles:
- Contributor for Fighting Talk
Steve Lamacq is acknowledged as one of the UK's most avid supporters of new bands, and currently presents Mondays, 4-7pm on BBC Radio 6 Music following hosting fulltime weekdays for 18 years.
In 2013 Steve celebrated 20 years at the BBC and he was honoured with the Special Award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards.
He is now also a familiar voice on BBC Radio 2 through a number of landmark documentaries on British music (including The Digital Music Explosion, The Creation Records Story and the National Great British Music Debate).
Steve is also a regular contributor for Fighting Talk on BBC Radio 5 Live, a station that also allowed Steve to bring his love of both music and football together to host his show, Rock ‘n' Roll FA Cup.
Steve came to prominence on BBC Radio 1 on shows including the influential Evening Session, Lamacq Live and one of their flagship In New Music We Trust shows.
Steve's first radio experience was at XFM, where he presented the drive time slot. However, his background previous to this was in journalism.
Training at Harlow College before starting work as a junior reporter with the West Essex Gazette, he then moved to its sister paper, The Harlow Gazette becoming sports editor at the age of 21. He joined the New Musical Express in November 1987 as a sub-editor, progressed to news editor two years later and finally became live editor in 1991 developing a reputation for discovering new bands along the way.
He's continued writing throughout his radio career and published his book Going Deaf for a Living in October 2000, detailing his career to date and notorious interviews with the likes of Nirvana and Oasis.
As a long-standing tastemaker Steve was at the centre of Britpop and has given a variety of artists their first ever radio play, including Coldplay, Bloc Party, Muse, Alt-J and Catfish & the Bottlemen who all received their first break on Steve's shows.
In 2013 he was given a special award for his championing of new music by the Association Of Independent Music, presented to him by Richard Hawley.