Broadcasting & Journalism

Jason first caught the broadcasting bug while studying at the University of York, where he spent three years working at the campus radio station, URY. He presented lunchtime shows, breakfast shows and rock shows and was the station manager for his second year. He also worked on the student TV station, YSTV, as a presenter – and as the lead actor in the station’s soap opera, The Naked Campus.

Worried that he might fall into accountancy, like many other maths graduates, he realised that one way to avoid this was by not applying for accountancy. Instead, he applied to study broadcasting journalism in Portsmouth, which led to his first job as a newsreader at Chiltern Radio in Bedfordshire.

Soon afterwards, he was woken, one night, by a bomb, a mile from his home in north London. He dismantled his dad’s hi-fi system to release a portable cassette recorder, found a microphone and headed to the bomb site to interview the police and passers-by. When his own radio station wasn’t interested in a report, he offered one to LBC. This soon led to enough reporting and newsreading work at LBC, BBC GLR, Capital FM, Reuters Radio News and Metro Networks – which between them provided bulletins for stations including Virgin, Xfm and Heart FM – that he could leave his job at Chiltern Radio.

By the late 1990s, he had secured a staff job in the BBC Radio Newsroom, writing news for Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4 and 5live. For about ten years, until 5live moved to Salford, Jason was a regular newsreader and occasional presenter on the network. By the time 5live had left London, Jason had also become a regular newsreader on Radio 2 and 6Music, which he has been doing for more than decade.

He produces news bulletins for Radio 4 and over the years, he’s also been a producer and reporter on BBC Breakfast News and later, a news correspondent for the BBC’s News Channel and Breakfast.

With a special interest in film, he has also reported for Radio 2, Radio 4, 5live, 6Music and the BBC website from the Golden Globes, the Oscars and the Cannes Film Festival, as well as from Raindance and the LFF in London and the film festival in Edinburgh.

Since 1998, Jason has also combined his passion for film with his journalism as a reviewer, for outlets including BBC Radio 5live, BBC Ceefax, BBC Online, UK Screen and What’s Worth Seeing.