WM Sport

Birmingham born and bred, John Platt went into the electrical contracting trade after leaving school. He spent five happy years with a company, before finding himself unemployed. It was always his dream to find employment in Radio. 

John Platt in the studio

John started his broadcasting career with Birmingham Hospital Radio in 1976. It proved to be an excellent training ground, and two years later, John wrote to Nick Owen, who was then the Sports Editor at what was BBC Radio Birmingham.

Within a matter of weeks he was answering competition calls and reading racing results.The rest, as they say, is history, and John's been here ever since.

To begin with, John was working behind the scenes and off microphone until Tim Russon, Nick Owen's successor, offered him the chance to present the early morning sports bulletins, something he still does.

In 1988, John had a chat with the Managing Editor at the time, Tony Inchley, and told him: "I want to present a show based around the pop music of the 50's, 60's and 70's".

He liked John's plan, and his assistant, Andy Wright, came up with the title Network Gold. It started at 6pm on Saturday, the 12th of November 1988, and John says: "I'm proud to say it's still going strong".

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