2023 Mentors and Cohort
The Radio Academy Mentoring Programme offers bespoke mentor matching - we identify the right mentor to match your profile and specific goals. Here is a list of the mentors taking part in 2023:
Mentors
- Adam Uytman - Creator Network Development Director, Acast
- Adele Cross - Breakfast Producer, BBC Radio 1Xtra
- Bernard Achampong - Co-founder, Unedited Productions
- David Prest - Founder and MD, Whistledown Productions
- David Treasurer - Senior Radio Promotions / Station Sound Producer, BBC Radio Scotland
- Dellessa James - Senior Artist Relations Manager, Amazon Music
- Dixi Stewart - Managing Director, SandStone Global
- Georgia Catt - Producer, BBC Audio Documentaries
- Jo Meek - Head of Development and Factual, Audio Always
- Jon Holmes - Managing Director, Unusual Productions
- Kathryn Anastasi - Deputy Head of Station, talkSPORT
- Lina Prestwood - Founder, Scenary Studios
- Mark Strippel - Content Consultant, former Head of BBC 1Xtra and Asian Network
- Phil Critchlow - CEO and Founder, TBI Media
- Phil Maynard - Exec Producer, Guardian News & Media
- Phil Riley - CEO, Boom Radio
- Rebecca Frank - Content Director, KISS Network
- Ric Blaxill - Music and Content Director, Bauer Media Audio
- Ryan Newman - Head of Music Editorial & Major Label Business Partnerships UK & IE, Apple Music
- Steve Taylor - Creative Commercial Director, Bauer Media
RAMP 2023 Cohort
2023 Cohort at RAMP Graduation
Cohort
Alex Bishop is a radio producer for the Prison Radio Association, the charity that runs National Prison Radio - a 24/7 service available in over 100 prisons in England and Wales. Working with prisoner-presenters, Alex has launched the station’s first health, ex-forces and legal shows. He has also produced shows in prisons across the country, including documentaries on the prison smoking ban, violence and synthetic drugs. He has been with the charity for over six years, either side of stints as a charity press officer and a journalist at BBC Radio Nottingham, where he worked as a producer and reporter on breakfast and drive time. He got the radio bug reporting on tuition fees protests for student radio and began his career taking listeners’ calls at BBC R2 and R4 for shows including Jeremy Vine, Any Answers? and Money Box Live.
Alexandra Quinn is a producer for the independent production company Loftus Media. Her move into audio came after a year working on a parliamentary review into the prison system and before that managing a bar and restaurant in York for 7 years. Alexandra works across all of Loftus’ audio projects from one-off docs for the BBC to long-form narrative podcast series. Her career highlight to date is producing a programme about the history of hi-vis vests. She works each week with the Radio 4 Saturday Live production team which was one of the first jobs she had in audio as their runner. Alexandra is particularly interested in the American audio world and would one day like to meet the producers the Kitchen Sisters.
Andi Fulton is Head of Branded Content at Global. Originally from Dundee, Andi’s first hands on experience of broadcasting started was with hospital radio in Oxfordshire. At school, his work experience was undertaken at FOX FM, and at Strathclyde University he was part of the launch team for the student radio station, Fusion, whilst studying politics in Glasgow. After graduating Andi moved to London, taking a job at the Radio Advertising Bureau while also presenting weekends on Fusion 107.3 in south-east London. He joined Chrysalis, working across Heart, Galaxy and LBC within the sponsorship and promotions team. When Global bought Chrysalis, Andi became a Commercial Programmer for Galaxy and Capital, matching commercial brands to editorial content. He left radio in 2010 to travel before spending a number of years in out of home advertising and then press. As radio has always been his true passion, Andi could not keep away and returned to Global as Head of Branded Content for the Capital Network, Radio X and Classic FM in 2015.
Andy Logue is a breakfast show producer who was born in Canada and raised in Scotland. He has worked in radio since 2013. His first shift included magnificently crashing Clyde 1’s legendary GBX with news and a PPI ad. Since then, he has continued to learn on the job while gaining valuable experience producing some of the biggest shows and features in the industry such as Clyde 1 Superscoreboard,
Bowie@Breakfast on Clyde 1, MFR’s Jodie at Breakfast and Bauer’s Cash Register. Andy has been in the studio for some of the most important stories in recent British history; the Scottish independence referendum, and the death of HM The Queen to name but two. If he is still working in radio in 10 years time, he looks forward to DAB radio with holograms.
Dan Hardoon is a freelance producer and journalist. Over 5 years, he’s made programmes on everything from poisoned umbrellas to poltergeists, drunk robots, and nipples. As series producer, he launched BBC Radio 4’s “Made of Stronger Stuff”, a whistle-stop tour of the body and mind. In 2022, he produced season 2 of DeepMind: The Podcast, which explored cutting-edge technology at Google’s AI company and won the Gold and People’s Lovie Awards. When he’s not making documentaries or podcasts, Dan produces live and topical radio including BBC Radio 4’s The Media Show, the Today programme, Last Word, and Any Answers? He also reports for the BBC World Service on topics spanning record-breaking athletes, colonial history, and the death penalty. He is a member of the Radio Academy’s 30 Under 30 Class of 2022.
Ellie Kifvel is a Producer for BBC Audio. Ellie Kifvel is unique at Radio 2 as the only producer who straddles both current affairs and entertainment. Ellie studied law at university before stumbling down a more creative path into radio. She started her career on the Jeremy Vine show at Radio 2, answering the phones. As AP on the Dermot O’Leary show, she oversaw their live music output with hundreds of live sessions including Adele, Foals and Paloma Faith. Ellie has won commissions and made documentaries for Radio 2 and 4, including a key obit doc on Remembering Prince Philip. While at Last Word on Radio 4, she interviewed the civil rights activist Rev Jesse Jackson. Ellie was the content producer of the 2022 6 Music Festival, producing live content and interviews. Most recently, she worked on the Jo Whiley show for 4 years, achieving record RAJAR figures and dealing with huge names including Madonna, Coldplay and Stormzy. Ellie has now returned to where her career began, on the Jeremy Vine show; now as a producer.
Fuzz Chaudhrey is the Network Producer on the BBC Introducing management team, which Fuzz thinks is the best job in the world! They have over 12 years’ experience working across both the radio and music industries and have built up a reputation as an expert in breaking new artists. In 2018, Fuzz started working as a producer, creating and launching Radio 1’s Indie Show, before leading the rebrand to R1’s Future Artists in 2020. As a plugger, they worked in-house at Caroline International, introducing new signings such as Glass Animals, Kae Tempest and The Amazons to UK radio by pitching creative ideas to promote artists and help build their profile from grassroots support right up to daytime playlist support.
George Willis is a Studio Director for BBC Output Operations in MediaCity, working across output for 5 Live, Radio 4 and the World Service. George has been working in radio for about 6 years, starting out at BBC Radio Leeds where he learned to write news bulletins and produce sport programmes, this highlighted his passion for the technical side of radio. George is now working on national networks mixing and directing a variety of programmes, this could be anything from 5 Live’s World Cup and Olympic coverage to Moneybox on Radio 4. He has been part of the team providing support to colleagues in Birmingham since the relocation of Newsbeat and Asian Network. George has also played a key part in preparing new radio studios for transmission including operations testing and delivering training to both technical and production colleagues.
Jack Howson is a multi-award-winning audio maker and executive producer. He has produced documentaries, drama, poetry, and flagship music shows across BBC Radio networks, and developed acclaimed podcasts such as Decode for Spotify Studios. He specialises in arts, culture, and science, having worked with clients including CERN, Serpentine, and Somerset House. In 2021 Jack was named Best Music Producer at the Audio Production Awards, while his programmes have recently won at the Anthem Awards, ARIAS, BBC Audio Drama Awards, British Podcast Awards, International Women’s Podcast Awards, Lovies, and the Offices.
Jack Winstanley is an Assistant Producer at IMG Productions. Jack started his career in BBC Local Radio, and did everything from making the tea to presenting sports shows, output-producing daily programming to deputising for the News Editor. It was here that he experienced the highlights of his broadcasting career to date, which included commentating on both a spaghetti eating competition and a fancy dress race between a flamingo and a bumble bee. After 6 years in local radio, Jack left the BBC for the private sector towards the end of 2021 to broaden his experience across the industry. At IMG, Jack helps to produce coverage of some of the biggest sports events in the world, including Wimbledon, The Open, the Champions League, and Formula 1. He’s also passionate about diversity and inclusion, both on and off air, and is part of a working group looking at how it can be improved at a company-wide level.
James Phillips is a presenter on National Prison Radio. James was the Winner of the 2022 Gold Award at the ARIAS in the Best New Presenter category for presenting National Prison Radio’s Rock Show; which was also awarded Bronze in the Best Music Entertainment Show category. During the Coronavirus pandemic, and with limited access to prisons, the National Prison Radio team approached James to host the Rock Show from home. He had been quietly pursuing his writing career when Rock’n’Roll came calling and he couldn’t refuse. He now presents and produces the Rock Show from Narnia (the cupboard in his spare room), holding court as both king and jester. As well as awesome music, the Rock Show is also a thriving support community, with listeners sharing stories on themes as diverse as addiction recovery, managing mental health issues, straight through to most heavy metal pet………(Bats won). James firmly believes that laughter can heal and great music helps as well.
Jordan Erica Webber is a broadcast journalist and video game expert. Best known for her five years as the resident games expert on Channel 5's The Gadget Show, she also presents arts and culture programmes for BBC Radio 4, as well as digital culture podcasts like Chips with Everything, Wild Wild Tech, and Talking Simulator. She has written for the Guardian for more than a decade, and co-authored a book called Ten Things Video Games Can Teach Us (about life, philosophy and everything). Jordan is particularly known for her insightful skill as an interviewer, her championing of independent creators, and her ability to make conversations around video games and digital culture accessible and engaging to a wider audience. She brings homemade baked goods to every event and has even started sewing her own clothes.
Kelly Windsor Burgin, founder of Bite Your Tongue Productions. started out in Radio as a BBC New Talent Presenter Trainee. Kelly spent over ten years at the BBC presenting and producing linear radio, long form documentaries, special events and programming and delivering lead stories for TV and Radio. She founded Bite Your Tongue Productions in 2021. The first podcast series for Bite was Why Do I Feel? which achieved a Silver Award in The Best Independent Podcast category at the 2022 ARIAS and made the top ten podcast of 2021 in the FT and The Week, who described it as ‘Riveting and enlightening’.
Mark “Sparky” Colerangle has been in radio for over 15 years now. Currently co-presenting Gem at Breakfast across the East Midlands he started his career on the South Coast and has spent time on air in the West Midlands as part of his radio journey. Mark has a deep passion for all things radio and enjoys finding ways to use his broadcasting experience to find new opportunities. Such as curating and presenting multiple podcasts, hosting events and creating online content for a number of well-known brands. Mark always brings a positive energy to anything he does both in and out of radio. Always looking for ways to grow and always looking to get the best out of the simple things in life.
Nichola Ntim is a Producer working at BBC Radio 1Xtra. Nichola launched Remi Burgz’s show in January 2022 and has produced the programme for the year. Nichola is currently on an Editor attachment at BBC Radio 1Xtra. She has worked at the BBC for over 7 years and has worked across BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2 and 6 Music. Nichola was the Assistant Producer on Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James for 2 years and she has worked with multiple presenters and teams across BBC Audio stations. Nichola is passionate about black music and culture and is an avid listener of Hip Hop, RnB and Soul. She is very passionate about championing black music, voices and issues on BBC Radio 1Xtra. Nichola is excited to be part of the Radio Academy Mentoring Programme as an opportunity to learn from inspiring people working in the radio industry.
Rob Lilley is a Senior Audio Producer at the consumer group Which? and is responsible for their podcasts covering areas such as Money advice and consumer investigations, and helping oversee huge growth in the organisations' audio content. Growing up in a farming family he graduated with a degree in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University, before eventually moving across the country to produce the mid-morning show on BBC Radio Berkshire. Alongside his professional podcast work, Rob also presents and produces one of the world's most popular Eurovision podcasts, and covered the contest in Turin, Italy, earlier in 2022. When he's not editing audio he's usually either playing netball, listening to ABBA, or seeking out some of London's best places to eat.
Ryan Gallagher is a 29-year-old Content Producer from Glasgow currently Producing the Capital Scotland Drive show with Katy J. Ryan started his career working at Bauer Scotland working across various shows from Superscoreboard to Ewen Cameron in the Morning before bagging his first permanent gig at Communicorp producing drive. Over the last couple of years Ryan has Produced live shows from TRNSMT Festival to taking the show on the road to London to cover Scotland at the Euros and is looking to take that next step in to middle management with the help of RAMP.
Sara Royle is a freelance journalist based in Sheffield. After training with News Associates in Manchester, her career began at a local newspaper in the idyllic Lake District. Here she reported on everything from sheep rustlings to general elections, as well as spearheading a number of fundraising campaigns in aid of the local community (one of which picked up an O2 Media Award). She went freelance and made the move from print to radio in 2018, mainly picking up shifts at BBC 5 Live. In the last four years, she's worked on almost every 5 Live news programme, helped to launch Colin Murray's Midnight Meets podcast and seen 5am more times than she cares to recall. Outside of the BBC, she was commissioned to produce a podcast that detailed the experiences of children during the pandemic, as well as co-producing 'SpokeCast' - a podcast all about sex and disability.
Simon Quine is Senior Business Development Executive & Presenter/Producer at Manx Radio. Simon began his career in radio as an enthusiastic 13-year-old work experience student at Manx Radio. By the age of 15 he was presenting his own weekly programme plus covering a variety of others across the station. In 2008 he moved away from the Isle of Man to go to university and following graduation spent two and a half years working for a music publisher in London. Simon returned to the world of radio as a Sales Executive with the Lincs FM Group in the Summer of 2013. In late 2016 an opportunity arose to return to the Isle of Man as a Senior Business Development Executive with Manx Radio. Alongside his ‘day job’ at Manx Radio, he still regularly presents on-air and enjoy being part of the team that present and produce the station’s coverage of the Isle of Man TT Races.
Tim Humphries is Principal Programmer Audio at BFBS The Forces Station. He manages speech radio content across its worldwide network, trains presentation teams, leads OBs and oversees the station’s relationship with BBC local radio. Following the death of H.M The Queen, he was extremely proud to be co-leading speech coverage of the British Armed Forces’ involvement in the proceedings. At BFBS, he presents a variety of shows and produces radio documentaries and podcasts - topics have included adoption, religious faith in the forces and the 40th anniversary of the Falklands conflict. Tim originally started working in commercial radio whilst studying at the University of Bedfordshire, and has since enjoyed a career spanning over 20 years, including roles as a Deputy Programme Controller, Presenter and Producer. Joining RAMP 2023, he’s working with his mentor to reach the next level in his career in programme management.
Photos from the 2023 RAMP Graduation
At the end of the scheme, the RAMP cohort gather with their Mentors and the Trustees of The Radio Academy, to mark their achievement at completing the programme.
