About Tim Smith

Born in 1961 in Swindon, Tim grew up in Abingdon from the age of ten. He always wanted to work in radio and started out on university radio whilst studying in York. After graduating in 1984 he worked for several BBC local radio stations including Radio York and Radio Shropshire.

After a short stint with BBC Radio WM in 1988 he eventually achieved a lifelong ambition and got his own show on Radio 1. During his time on 'One-FM' he presented a number of programmes including a Radio 1 Roadshow in the summer of 1989 from Plymouth Hoe with a certain Steve Wright!

Following on from this Tim spent much of the 90s working extensively for BBC Greater London Radio, presenting the afternoon show and the Sony award-nominated 'GLR Picture Show', which he also produced. He was also the host of BBC Radio 5's phone-in pop quiz 'Popcall' for three years, presented the legendary football phone in programme 'Six-O-Six' on a couple of occasions and hosted Jazz FM's breakfast show. In August 1999 he became a regular co-host on 'Steve Wright In The Afternoon'.

In addition to the above Tim has worked for Magic 105.8 and the BBC World Service in recent years and has been lucky enough on some occasions to combine his career with a love of sport. He has twice co-hosted coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships on the official Wimbledon website, covered the 2000 Open Golf Championship at St Andrews for the official R & A Website and anchored the on-course radio coverage at the 2001 Open from Royal Lytham. Being a very keen golfer these last two events enabled him to meet and interview golf heroes like Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Gary Player and even Tiger Woods! In 2004 he began writing regular travel articles and course reviews for Golf International magazine which has so far taken him to Spain, Italy, France and St Lucia. All this from a man who once (and once only) presented Top Of The Pops with Anthea Turner!!

On the subject of meeting people and interviewing stars, Tim says he has been thrilled to meet and chat to so many people during his time working with Steve on Radio 2. Among the many names he has personally interviewed for the show are Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet, Mick Jagger, Michael Owen and former Vice President Al Gore! His biggest thrill probably came though when he achieved another long held ambition and interviewed Sir Paul McCartney with Steve. They also got to go to No.10 recently to interview the Prime Minister Tony Blair.

When he's not working on 'Steve Wright In The Afternoon' or presenting his own shows on Radio 2, sitting-in for the likes of  Alex Lester, Tim can usually be found at his golf club trying to get his 7 handicap down... either that or at the cinema, theatre, restaurant or pub!!