Joel broke into radio at the age of 16 in his hometown of Scarborough after sending a tape to the station manager of Yorkshire Coast Radio. With only experience of "Bedroom Radio" Joel secured his first evening show on 7th November 1993 and kept that gig for over 2 years.
At the age of 18 he was "fired" when the station decided to rethink its target audience. The type music he was playing on his evening show such as Livin` Joy and Oasis didn't really fit with the stations new policy which featured the likes of The Stranglers and Sandy Shaw. Joel went further up north in late 1995 and worked at every little station you can imagine doing as many as three shifts a day, for as little as 15 quid a show. So as well as being skint, depressed and missing his home comforts Joel was also based in a scabby flat in Stockton.Nice !!
In late 1996 Joel received a phone call from Paul Saunders, at the Hull based Viking FM, asking if he was interested in some cover work over Christmas. Viking, along with Radio 1, were the stations that Joel grew up listening to. "I must have sent Viking over 100 demo tapes from the age of about 11 and I nearly wet myself when I received a call from the boss". Joel covered a couple of weeks on Viking FM before being offered the gig permanently. He continued to present on the station for a few months and was eventually moved onto the late show. After a year the task of breakfast show producer came up and it was offered to Joel. "I really wanted some experience in producing and I thought it would be fun and it was". After a schedule reshuffle Joel was put onto the evening show and made a real impact on the figures. "This is were I was at home having a laugh, interviewing Celebs, inventing characters and championing new music. It was the most fun part of my career and we kicked the ass out of Galaxy 105 which felt good"
After another move and a somewhat dull year on afternoon/drive Joel was asked how he felt about having some fun again and teaming up with his best mate JK on breakfast. At the time both JK and Joel were becoming complacent with their current gigs and had both been offered good positions elsewhere. Vikings new programme director Andrew Robson, who is known for his risk taking, went against the advice offered to him from both above and below, putting his balls on the line and by creating what he refers to as his baby "JK and Joel @ Breakfast". From its launch JK and Joel won several awards from organisations including NTL, Emap and r they also picked up a bronze for "best breakfast show" at the prestigious Sony awards. Joel said "Getting the Sony was fantastic and it's probably the only radio award that means anything. Being beaten by Daryl Denham and Terry Wogan was cool with us cos we are huge fans of them both, however beating emaps "golden boy" Bam Bam was the best bit though".
In August 2000 JK and Joel were asked to cover Metro Radios breakfast show, as the current jock was about to leave and was taking another "sick day". JK and Joel were in Ibiza presenting what they saw as one of their last Viking breakfast shows before the move to Newcastle when they got the call asking how they felt about going to Manchester instead and working for emaps flagship station Key 103 and in October 2000 they did.
Friday 30th April 2004 was the boys last show on Key 103 Manchester. They left with a Gold Award under their belts for best Breakfast Show at the Sony Awards 2004 and a Silver for The Entertainment Award.
