Radio Sheffield

What's your first memory?

Paddling in a river as a three year old and watching an old man feeding red squirrels.

What's the first record you bought?

Adam and The Ants, Kings of The Wild Frontier... Ant people are the warriors, ant music is the banner don't you know.

How did you come to work for Radio Sheffield?

I've been a big fan of Toby, Howie, Rony and the gang for ages. Then Gary the boss took me out for lunch on Feb 13th. He'd forgotten it was Valentine's Day the next day. I reminded him. I think I saved him from a potential domestic so he offered me the job.

BBC Radio Sheffield's Gareth Evans

Your favourite three songs/music?

1. John Lennon, Imagine
2. U2, Stuck In A Moment
3. You'll never have heard of it but it's an album track by The Mock Turtles called Wicker Man

The tune or the lyrics?

I'm a bit of a girl when it comes to music … I listen to the words first and the tune second.

Who’s been your best interviewee and why?

Spice Girls. They were a mixture of lovely, brash and rude. It was right at the start, backstage at the NEC. Posh took a call from someone during my slot with them and went off and cooed down the phone in a corner... a few days later the whole Posh and Becks story broke. I have Victoria on tape gushing to David before anyone even knew they were an item. And I gave Emma Bunton my last Rolo.

What’s been your worst on (or off)-air moment?

That could either be getting run over by a float whilst commentating live on a carnival, or it could be the time I handed to a live rugby commentary, left the studio to walk to the office in a different building and when I got there the station had gone off air so I ran back into the studio, stuck on my headphones, announced that we obviously had problems and here was some music. I then tried to contact the commentators who informed me it was a minute silence for the club's ex-president who had died. Apparently at the stadium the whole crowd fell silent and then thirty seconds in everyone glowered at these two blokes who had Madonna blaring out of their headphones.

What’s been your career highlight?

Raising cash for breast cancer by getting listeners to send in a bra and a quid. I linked the bras together and hung them across one of the UK's biggest river bridges. We had five miles of bras.

How do you spend your time away from the microphone?

Being a dad.

Favourite place in South Yorkshire or North Derbyshire, and why?

Ladybower reservoir. Great memories of childhood, Sunday afternoon sat outside a pub with crisps and bottle of fizzy drink through a straw.

Who would you like to be trapped in a lift with?

Someone who understood the concept of underarm deodorant. I've been there with someone who didn't.

Favourite food and drink?

Deep fried brie with redcurrant jelly... or my wife Jo's spaghetti bolognese, washed down with something red.

What do you never miss on television and radio?

On TV Ugly Betty, Dragon's Den, Look North and Doctor Who. On the radio I try not to miss too many of my shows because it upsets the boss. I wake up with Toby and my day unravels if I don't.

What would you do if you won the lottery?

Take helicopter flying lessons. I flew one in 1997 to try and conquer my fear of flying.  I nearly crashed it. I'd take lessons to conquer my heightened fear of flying from that day and my new fears of helicopters, rapidly approaching pylons and screaming, crying flying instructors.