John Simons

John Simons (John Potts) is a British radio executive, former group programming director for GMG Radio now working as an International Radio Consultant, mainly in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Biography

Simons began his career in 1979,

In 1994 he was invited to be part of the team who launched Century Radio in Gateshead as programme director, assisting the managing director John Myers. The Century brand with a high speech content ratio became successful, with other stations subsequently launched in Nottingham and Salford. At the North East Century he hosted the Afternoon show as well as the Lunch Time Phone-In and the Sunday lunchtime light-entertainment show called The Crazy Gardening Show with gardening experts Adam (Malcolm) Edon and Gary Philipson.

In 1997 he became programme director of national speech station Talk Radio UK, which was then attracting 2.1 million listeners, and saw an increase to 2.8 million listeners under his tenure. "an award to recognise individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the industry."

John left Real and Smooth Radio at the end of 2013 having left the stations on record Rajar results and re-entered the world of consultancy.