12 | Forever Keele
INSPIRING ALUMNI
Simon Pryde BBC Sports Presenter
Having graduated from Keele in 1995 with a degree in French , Russian and Psychology , Simon has been a radio presenter at the BBC for almost 20 years , in a career which has seen him work at some of the largest sporting events in the world .
I am a sports presenter at the BBC in Newcastle . My main role involves putting together , and then presenting , a two-hour radio show each weekday evening . It ’ s called Total Sport , but mainly covers football . I present it with a couple of ex-footballers , so it involves a mixture of journalism and radio production , as well as presenting and operating the mixing desk .
As someone for whom sport has always been important , it ’ s the perfect job for me . I love it ! Since joining the BBC nearly 20 years ago I ’ ve also done football commentaries , presented news programmes , reported from various big events and worked in television . I also do some freelance work , mainly for a company called Olympic Broadcast Services . I ’ ve been to the last three Games , and last two Winter Games , where I interviewed athletes and made TV features for a global audience .
After Keele , I took a year off and , having got a taste for radio at KUBE , got a little more radio experience . I then got a place at what is now the University of the Arts in London to do a one year Postgraduate Diploma in Radio Journalism . From there , I got my first job at a commercial radio station called CFM in Cumbria . I was a news reporter , and had to do a bit of everything ; writing reports , compiling and reading news bulletins , etc . I then moved on to Metro Radio , a commercial station in Newcastle-upon-Tyne . It was a much busier news patch , and I got to develop and present a new news show there . After a couple of years there , I went to Australia where I worked for a company called SBS , on a national radio station . On my return , I went back to Metro , freelanced for a bit and then joined the BBC in 2002 . I ’ ve been there since , albeit in a number of roles .
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