My first 'announcing' job was doing the pre-match entertainment at Wrexham Football Club's racecourse ground when I was 16.

As I was studying geology at the time I worked in the holidays at a quarry with a view to possibly becoming a quarry manager. I discovered a television and radio production course in Bromley Kent and was accepted. During the course I did freelance work for the country's first commercial radio station LBC and worked at a hospital radio station.

My thesis was to be 'The design of a new type of radio station'. I went to see various chief engineers in radio as part of my research and whilst I was talking to the chief engineer at BRMB in Birmingham, he offered me a job there and then!

I worked as an outside broadcast engineer, helped design and new electronic newsroom and also produced commercials.

When a new station was announced for Liverpool - only 30 minutes from home in north Wales - I was asked to join them. My job was training presenters and journalists in all things technical, never the easiest task!

I was asked by the boss, the now radio critic Gillian Reynolds to move on to the programme staff and presented and produced all kinds of radio show from comedy to country. I also met a great many of the top stars of the time. Whilst there I was given the chance to interview Paul McCartney at the Abbey Road studios in London - the taxi couldn't get near the place for all the people having their photographs taken on the zebra crossing outside!

I eventually made the move to the BBC at Radio Merseyside on January 1st 1979 having been on the air at the commercial station the night before. I was also offered a slot on Radio 1 presenting firstly a disco show and then the Saturday evening slot and later some rock music shows.

In October 1980 I came to Lincolnshire to help open the station here. I had every intention of staying for a year and going back to the north west but I sort of got to like the place and stayed at Radio Lincolnshire for 19 years, working for Radio 2, BFBS and contributing to Radio 4 along the way.

Since then I have been involved a number of projects including helping new radio stations to open and training staff.

I was invited back to BBC Radio Lincolnshire to take over the Sunday mornings and revive some of the excitement of the early days. It's quite frightening to realise that some of the kids who played Battleships with me in the early days of Radio Lincolnshire are now in their late 20s and 30s with kids of their own.

FACT FILE

Starsign: Virgo
Grew up in: Mold, North Wales
1st Job: Working in a quarry - I studied geology and in my holidays worked extracting stone for the motorways in the north west - The M56/M53 and parts of the M62 are amongst my achievements.
1st Car: Green Austin A35 van
1st ever record: Probably She Loves You by the Beatles

Favourite Things

Food: I'm vegetarian so my 5 bean chilli takes some beating but any veggie Mexican.
Place in Lincolnshire: Market Rasen racecourse
Item in Wardrobe: An old Red Shirt ( a young lady recently came up to me in the street and said she loved the shade - my wife thought she was taking the michael
Film: The last one I've seen usually - I don't usually watch a film more than once. Recently The Bourne Identity
Song: Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn
TV Show as an adult: X Files, Have I got News for You recently - Grumpy Old Men (being of the age myself)
TV Show as a child: Dr Who
Drink: Timothy Taylor's Landlord bitter
Colour: Black (which apparently is the new black)