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John was a professional musician on the folk circuit until he joined the BBC at Radio Sheffield in 1976. After 4 years as the station's music producer he joined Network Radio, Manchester as a producer of music programmes for Radios 1 and 2. In 1993 he became Editor of Radio 1 North and was responsible for bringing to the network Janice Long, Andy Kershaw, Simon Mayo and Mark Radcliffe. John has been nominated for six Sony awards, winning 3 of them. In 1995 John left the BBC to join Nick Barraclough at Smooth Operations. In 1998 John returned to his first love, working in folk music, when Smooth Operations won the commission to produce Radio 2's folk-roots show. John lives just outside Oldham with his wife and five children. He sports an EFDSS-approved folk-singer's beard and has many jumpers.

From the Smooth Ops site......