Crunch & Roll

I tell you what we we want, what we really, really want... ... a Head of Music who threw the Spice Girls debut single straight in the bin! But what if he was right all along..? This was one minor misstep though, in a fantastic 36 year career, entertaining audiences in East Anglia, the North East and Home Counties.  John Darin chats to Foxy about his mad living arrangements when he moved to GNR; ho...

We've been asked loads why we don't have more people from Scottish radio on, and we can assure you it's not for the want of trying. But we think you'll agree we've bagged one of the absolute G's of Scottish radio here. Like Madonna and Cher, he's instantly recognisable by a single moniker. And like Madonna and Cher he's excelled in his field. It remains to be seen how he suits a see-through body s...

Foxy's guest in this episode is bit of a rebel. The evil genius behind a pirate radio station at his school, busted by Ofcom and (accidentally) turning up to an awards do high as a kite. But rather than doing stretch Strangeways, James Merritt has forged a stellar radio career. Golden age Kiss 100, both Virgins, Heart and BRMB. Not bad for guy who wanted to get into radio after watching a Christia...

There's two for the price on one on this episode - we really do spoil you. Their parents christened them Simon and Chris, but these two Oldham lads went with the far more exotic sounding surnames when forging their radio careers, so you'll know them as Jagger & Woody. And it's their names that serendipitously got them their big break. More on that in the episode. They also chat to Foxy about g...

This is part 2 of Foxy's chat with former presenter, producer, music guru, TV bloke and pop-quiz-question-setter. The first part is available now, but if you're up to date, prepare to hear about how he was probably responsible for popularising some of the most annoying songs of the early 00s; how TV wasn't for him; and how he came to be part of the most listened to feature on UK radio every day.  ...

People often ask how we choose our guests. The answer is quite simple. People who've had varied and interesting careers and have a good story to tell. And it always helps if we know them. So getting this episode's guest on was a no-brainer. Lee Thompson has been a presenter, producer, author, head of music, TV guy... and is now part of the most listened to feature on UK radio. He tells a bloody go...

This is part two of Foxy's chat with the brilliant Allan Lake. Part one is available now, if you want to hear his origin story. In this episode he chats about how a cow nearly got his employers evicted from their studios; losing his "dream job"; and how the tragic death of a good friend and colleague affected him.   Support Crunch & Roll: https://ko-fi.com/crunchandroll  

As Oscar Wild almost once said, "To lose one job may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose several looks like carelessness." John Fox's guest on this episode admits to getting sacked a lot. He also admits he struggles with "where the line is". There could be a correlation... Allan Lake is a brilliant, one-of-a-kind radio presenter. Lesser presenters would have sunk without trace after the feature t...

We've heard lots of reasons why people get into radio on this podcast. Often it stems from a childhood obsession, starting with good old Bedroom FM, then maybe doing mobile discos, hospital radio and what have you... It's almost a calling. For the guest of this episode though, that really wasn't the case. She just wanted to dress up as her local radio station's mascot! After realising her ambition...

This is the second part of John Fox's chat with Manchester radio stalwart Adam Cole. Catch up on part one if you've not heard it yet... ... because this episode he swaps Moss Side for Miami. Hear about how this hot jock ended up reading the news; presenting a breakfast show with his boss; and probably the most uncompassionate and brutal sacking we've ever heard about ("In for a penny, I've got not...

shaft /ʃɑːft/ verb past tense: shafted; past participle: shafted vulgar slang, informal treat (someone)  harshly  or  unfairly .   There are moments in some people’s career where they’re riding on the crest of a wave and an exciting new challenge comes along and tempts them away with promises that are too good to say no to. Then… see above. Adam Cole is a stalwart of the Manchester radio scene and...

Some of our guests dip their toe in the exotic world of overseas radio but end up gravitating back to the UK. We get the impression that Ian Camfield though, would rather lose a limb than return home. He's and XFM legend - there from the start and through the glory days which we hard about in part one of this two-parter. In this second part though, we cross the pond to the good ol' US of A where w...

Some of our guests dip their toe in the exotic world of overseas radio but end up gravitating back to the UK. We get the impression that Ian Camfield though would rather lose a limb than return home. He's and XFM legend - there from the start and through the glory days - but plies his trade in the US nowadays... but more of that in part two. In part one we concentrate on the Camfield origin story,...

Hey man! It's Griffo! For those of you not familiar with Griffo's work, he's a legend of the airwaves in North Wales and Yorkshire. He's tighter than a gnat's chuff and has a voice that Morgan Freeman would kill for. As one former boss told him in a snoop, "You make my station sound BIG"! Foxy's know Griffo for almost a quarter of a century having worked with him at V*king FM, so he has some stori...

We all have those moments in our lives where we look back and think, why did I do that. In radio terms, Paul Hayes 'why did I do that' moment was HUGE. Let's just say it involved a Richard Park, Ashley Tabor and a pizza. Paul's done a decade on the mighty Magic in London, but his career has taken in big stations in the UK, Canada and UAE, so the guides us through stories from his time at Southern...

What? Another legend from the station formerly known as Wave 105? Ambassador, you're spoiling us. Mark Collins is another stalwart of the South Coast radio scene and still plies his trade on the mighty 105.2FM (or DAB 11B / 11C in new money), under it's new name, Great Hits Radio. You might have heard of it... But Mark had a career longer than most before he'd ever been to the South Coast taking i...

Us radio folk wear the term anorak as a badge of honour. But no matter how big a radio geek you think you are, you're really not, because John Foster is the Anorak in Chief. As Foxy chats to him, he produces pieces of paraphernalia, liberated from former workplaces, each with a story attached. He also has an incredible memory for details such as radio station addresses, straplines and trim levels...

We've featured some presenters who are synonymous with the stations where they plied their trade for an impressive amount of time - Fresh at Beacon and Elliott Webb at BRMB for example - and there's no denying that James Heming is Mr Invicta. He spent the majority of his career at a station in Kent, somewhere he admits he couldn't have pointed to on a map before moving there! And for an incredible...

For the two of you who don't know, Clive was one of the big guns in UK radio management. The King of Capital. The Duke of Jack. The Archbishop of Absolute. But then he went to Australia, and took a lifetime of radio knowledge and enough stories to fill your average-sized encyclopaedia with him. So very early (too early) one Sunday, when British Summer Time and Australian Eastern Standard Time conv...

On the advice of our legal team, which as regular listeners will know is a made up guy called Gary, we were advised to give this guest the chance to rebuke a serious accusation made against him by several previous guests on this podcast. So for the avoidance of doubt, SIMON LOGAN HAS NEVER THROWN A WHITEBOARD RUBBER AT ANYONE. Now that unpleasantness is out of the way... Simon was the guy on the V...

Foxy's guest this episode is a former Whatnotter. You know, from the Saturday Whatnot on Essex Radio... No? If that's not ringing any bells, maybe you know him from his mere 26 years at Key 103 / Hits Radio. YES! That Mike Toolan! Of course he's one of the biggest names in the business and who's been on Radio Aire, BRMB and Capital, as well as an actual GENERATION on 103FM in Manchester, so won't...

Стив Пауэр любит поезда. Just a little message for anyone who can understand Russian there. That doesn't include the guest on this episode, Steve Power, who ended up accidentally studying the language. There may have been drink involved. Steve must have been one of the longest serving breakfast show jocks ever. 17 BLOOMIN' YEARS! And not your lightweight 6am start nonsense. He was waking up the So...

Before we started recording, Ben Jones told us he has a namesake in the radio industry and wanted to check we had the right guy. Er, yeah. We're sure. Ben was ever-present on the original Virgin Radio / Absolute Radio for a decade for goodness sake. He now plies his trade on the new Virgin Radio (amongst other pies he has his fingers in...), but it hasn't all been plain sailing to get there. After...

Has there ever been a more iconic evening show than Dave Kelly’s epoch-defining broadcast on Galaxy? If you were to write the recipe for the perfect evening show, you’d use all the ingredients that made Dave’s show so perfect. Daft features – Tick. Dicking about – Tick. Pushing the boundaries of what you get away with – Tick. Bangers – Tick. But what made this young fella from Northampton become t...

Dirk Anthony is one of the most famous, or for some, infamous, radio bosses there's ever been. He pretty much ran the show at GWR and then Gcap, after the merger with Capital. When you weald so much power for so long it's difficult for some to see beyond the 'big, scary boss' tag, and forget there's s real person with their own story, dealing with their own pressures. So, not having had too many d...