John Barnes

John Spencer-Barnes is a radio broadcaster and journalist for the BBC.

He was born in Dudley, England in 1961 and educated at Wolverhampton University.

He began his career as a freelance broadcaster at BRMB in Birmingham and then moved to the experimental BBC service WM Heartlands in East Birmingham between 1989 and 1991.

He was involved in the campaign for community radio and was News Editor of the UK's first community radio station, Wear FM in Sunderland. He later broadcast with the Chiltern Radio Network at Northants 96, Chiltern FM and Severn Sound.

He was the launch manager of Welsh commercial station Radio Maldwyn and 107.9 Huddersfield FM in West Yorkshire. He also spent a period as manager of the commercial radio station at Freetown in Sierra Leone.

In 1994 he became News Editor of 97.4 Rock FM and Red Rose 999 in Preston, Lancashire. While at Rock FM, he co-ordinated the EMAP Radio response to the IRA bombing of Manchester.

In February 2021, it was reported that Spencer-Barnes was moving to a freelance status and would also present a regular slot on the Lancashire station Rossendale Radio.