Jim Hawkins (born 1962) is a BBC radio presenter.

Biography

Personal life

Hawkins was born in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and brought up there and in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, England. He now lives in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

Career

Hawkins' broadcasting career began on a student radio station at Warwick University. He worked for independent local radio station

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from 1981 to 1983. He joined

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

in 1984, writing and presenting the ''News Stand'' programme. Hawkins has worked for several commercial and BBC local radio stations across the United Kingdom in various roles on both sides of the microphone, including spells as a producer and manager. Hawkins has also worked for a disability-rights group and as a newspaper journalist, hotel restaurant pianist, and stagehand; at one point he ran the

coconut shy A coconut shy (or coconut shie) is a traditional game frequently found as a sidestall at funfairs and fêtes. The game consists of throwing wooden balls at a row of coconuts balanced on posts. Typically a player buys three balls and wins when e ...

on Brighton Pier. During his career he has interviewed notable figures including

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...

Gene Simmons Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; he, חיים ויץ, ; born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician. Also known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded with Paul ...

and

Steve Cropper Steven Lee Cropper (born October 21, 1941), sometimes known as "The Colonel", is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as Ot ...

. Hawkins hosts a programme every weekday from 9 am to 12 noon on

BBC Radio Shropshire BBC Radio Shropshire is the BBC's local radio station serving Shropshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Boscobel Drive in Shrewsbury. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 61,00 ...

called ''"Jim Hawkins in the Morning"''. Hawkins uses

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

to interact with listeners during the show, having been persuaded to try Twitter after finding his

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

experience disappointing. Hawkins also hosts a Saturday night programme entitled ''"Saturday Night with Jim Hawkins"'' broadcast by BBC Shropshire, BBC Hereford & Worcester, and

BBC Radio Stoke BBC Radio Stoke is the BBC's local radio station serving Staffordshire and South Cheshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, Freeview and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Hanley area of Stoke-on-Trent. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekl ...

. The show was first broadcast on 4 April 2009 and concluded on 5 January 2013. Since the December 2011 issue, on whose front cover he was pictured, he has written a monthly column for ''Shropshire Life'' magazine.

Awards

In 2002, Hawkins received a silver Sony Radio Academy Award in the "interactive" category, for his drive-time programme ''The Baldy Brothers'' on

Century FM Century Radio was the brand name of a group of independent local radio stations in England. The brand was developed with the launch of 100-102 Century Radio in North East England in 1994, with John Myers as managing director and John Simons as ...

. He was also highly commended at the BT sponsored Regional News and Current Affairs Awards. Hawkins was one of five shortlisted for the 2006 Sony Radio Academy Speech Broadcaster of the Year Award.

References

External links

BBC Hereford & Worcester feature

'Jim Hawkins's diary'
(BBC Shropshire) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Jim Living people British radio presenters People from Warwickshire People from Essex BBC people 1962 births BBC Radio 4 presenters