Crunch & Roll

Foxy has referenced many of his radio heroes before - Moyles, Mark & Lard, Robin Banks - but the biggest poster on teenage Foxy's bedroom wall was that of Scott Makin. It was his husky, Teesside tones and his lovely leather jacket that did it for him. But listen to the end to find out how our awe-fill presenter embarrassed himself in front of his icon the first time they met. If you've lived i...

A greased eel. The fur of a chinchilla. A babies bum. When it comes to smoothness, this lot just aren't cutting the mustard, because Rossie's voice is smoother than an otter in socks, sliding down a lubed-up iceberg. But you don't have a CV like his by simply having a great voice. His claim that he's the only person Parky never called up on the XD to give the hairdryer treatment to is probably tes...

When considering a 'radio name', you could literally choose ANYTHING. But we find out early on in this episode that Dick chose, well, Dick. To be fair, it did lead to the best named breakfast show radio have ever seen! But as he helpfully suggests, "Don't Google 'Dick Stone'". Dick is a programming stalwart, running Ram, Trent, the Hit Music Network, Capital East Mids and the Smooth network. Most...

The guest on this episode could be called a 'one station man'.... that is if he hadn't moved somewhere else almost exactly ten years ago! Nigel Freshman*, or Fresh to his listeners, was undeniably 'Mr Beacon' until his love affair with the station turned sour and he moved to Smooth West Midlands where he still plies his trade. So he's pretty much a legend in the West Midlands and can’t walk down B...

Hold on to your headphones, Tiger Tim's roaring onto Crunch & Roll, and he's grrrrrrrrrreat! (Sorry). Early on in his chat with Foxy he tells us that it is "no holes barred"... He's happy to to go through the many highs and some notable lows of his career, spanning Capital and BRMB to TFM and Minster, and plenty more besides. We've cover how he was once told he couldn't say his own name right...

This episodes finds you just before Christmas 2023. Tis the season of good will to all men... except one former boss who features in this episode! But be assured the rest of Foxy's chat with Darren Daley is a real Christmas cracker. He's been in the game since Cliff Richard was number 1 in the charts with Saviours' Day, so has plenty of stories to tell. Luckily for us he's kept all his corresponde...

Foxy calls him The Professor. You might know him as The Funster. But his passport says Paul Carrington. Paul has to be one of the most well known presenters in the north of England and is guaranteed to have worked on a station near you, if you live north of Sutton-cum-Duckmanton. Piccadilly, Signal, Viking, Buzz, Minster, Pulse - We'll let Paul tell you the rest. There's stories about working for...

When we started this podcast, we wrote down a list of people we'd love to have on, and sitting close to the top (between the hairy cornflake and Alan Tichmarsh) was today's guest, Jo Russell. We've been pestering her to come on for ages but wasn't having any of it, until John upped the appearance fee to two bottles of Blossom Hill, then she was in! We worked with her for several years at BRMB and...

We've got a few 'firsts' going on in this episode. The first first is that Paul is the first (OK, stop saying first) Scottish guest on the podcast. We'll be honest, we're not that clued-up about radio north of the border, so it was interesting to hear about the differences between it and radio 'down south'. Who needs contracts?! Second first is that he's 'done' Australia, and in style. No messing...

John describes Elliott as Mr BRMB, and for most people that's probably how they see him too. But there's so much more to his story. During the course of this episode you might come to regard him as Mr Sacked for Gross Misconduct; Mr Gave Moyles a Pep Talk; or Mr Told His Boss To Fuck Off. Oh, and find out all about his part in radio's most controversial promotion. Get ready to get caught up in Ell...

As nicknames go, The Dark Lord is right up there. But it could have been so different for our guest if a former boss had got his way and convinced him to go with Red. Alex Lester is truly deserving of the description 'legend'. Three decades at Radio 2 for goodness sake! He's got some stories from those times, mainly involving Sir Terry, as well as delving into the beginning of his career and the d...

We're back with an absolute beaut of a guest: It's Andy Bush (or Andrew Buschenfeld if he's in trouble). We caught up with him just after his show one evening, shortly before he tucked into a supermarket chicken jalfrezi. Don't let anyone tell you radio isn't glamorous. He chatted to John about how he had always dreamed of being on the radio as a child; his delight after the Global had taken over...

Yeah mate. Got Pat Sharp on the pod. No biggy. We'll keep it brief as he doesn't really need much of an introduction. Find out the real story of the fabled Parky red card incident; what it was like to share a Top of the Pops dressing room with the whole Radio 1 line-up; and the tale of an awkward gig that he wasn't so keen to do.   Pat's website: https://patsharp.co.uk/ And Insta: https://www.inst...

We didn't plan to have loads of former Capital FM legends on this series of Crunch & Roll - in fact we don't plan anything - but we're very pleased it turned out that way. Neil Bentley's happiest times were not at the big 95.8 though, they were at a another often featured station that, like him, were big on dance and R&B. Neil's not spoken about his career since leaving the industry over a...

We're always interested to hear how our guests get the radio 'bug', but it's fair to say if you gave us a million guesses as to Chris Brooks' story, we wouldn't have got it. WOW. This episode is the inspiring story of Chris' single-minded determination to achieve his dream of saying "ninety-five point eight" on the radio. Along with obvious talent and resolve, there was some pretty amazing bits of...

Nobody calls him David... unless he's in trouble. So from here on in, we'll use the moniker he's more commonly known by - Dixie. Dixie is one of the rare breed who are still plying their trade on the radio, after a long and successful career. He must be good! If you've not heard him on the radio before, then we reckon this episode might make you want to seek him out on Heart Yorkshire, where he co...

The great thing about podcasting is we can see exactly where in the world people are listening. Crunch & Roll obviously has a strong following in the UK, but we also have listeners in such far-flung places as South Africa, Indonesia and French Guiana. But we also know there's a small but perfectly formed cohort of listeners about as far away from 'home' as it's possible to be: the Falkland Isl...

For some people having two chart hit records would constitute a great achievement. Others would be over the moon having written several successful musicals. And plenty would rest on their laurels after giving stand-up comedy a bash. Not Daryl Denham though. No, no, no. Not content with taking the charts, theatres and back-rooms of pubs by storm, he also had an incredible career in radio. Well, it...

Listeners to Five Live's Fighting Talk will know each episode ends with the two highest scorers defending a controversial or unpopular opinion in order to win the episode. So, in that vain: Martin Kelner knows nothing about radio and deserved to be paid less than a horse. Of course he knows nothing about radio. He's only spent the best part of half a century in the industry. Radio 2? Radio Who mor...

Emma Scott is not a police officer. She wanted to be but ended up on a YTS at her local radio station instead. The constabulary's loss is certainly radio's gain. We LOVED our chat with Emma. It's honest, hilarious and FULL of showbiz encounters. She certainly made her feelings about a certain red-haired, Mancunian crooner absolutely clear! So get ready to find out which station she found soul dest...

This is part two of John Fox's chat with Stephanie Hirst. Part one covered her early career, so we pick up here with her time at Galaxy 105, Hit40UK and generally taking over the radio world. She chats about leaving Viking for Galaxy ("It was all a bit of a mess"); explains the on-air magic she had with JoJo and Danny; and presenting the chart from Alan Partridge's studio. There's some strong lang...

We could write anything here and it wouldn't matter because you just want the sweet, sweet Stephanie Hirst content. But I'm duty-bound to write at least a few words on the first of two episodes featuring one of UK radio's biggest and most loved personalities. In this episode: Toolan gives a young Steph some sage advice; how she pestered her way into a gig on Minster FM ("I AM what you're looking f...

All aboard the latest episode of Crunch & Roll! It features Lucio chatting to John Fox about his eventful radio career and what he's up to now. See if you can work it out from the subtle clues in this description... He's been on pretty much every major commercial station in Britain - XFM, Absolute, Capital, Kerrang, Galaxy... Actually, he's been on every commercial station in Britain as presen...

We often get messages to Crunch & Roll Towers, suggesting guests that people would like to hear featured. And the one name that comes up more than any other is Joel Ross. Those who know him will know exactly why that is. And if you don't know him, you'll understand by the end of this episode. One person who DM'd us said "I hear a lot of Joel's stories, they impress and horrify me in equal meas...

This is Crunch & Roll - a window into the dysfunctional world of the radio industry. If you loved the last series, then you'll love what's to come. If you didn't, what are you even doing here? In the coming weeks you'll hear stories about how one of our guests almost got himself, and his group PD shot; How another thought he was about to hit the bigtime, only to be handed his sandwiches wrappe...