Rhoderick Sharp (born 1953 in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

) is a Scottish broadcaster, best known as a former presenter of '' Up All Night'' on

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

Early life

After being educated at

Perth Academy Perth Academy is a state comprehensive secondary school in Perth, Scotland. It was founded in 1696. The institution is a non-denominational one. The school occupies ground on the side of a hill in the Viewlands area of Perth, and is within the P ...

, Sharp took a degree in English at the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

. Graduating with honours in 1975, he was selected as scholar of the St Andrews Society of New York, and then studied for a Masters at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

combining literature, theatre and politics.

Journalism career

Having been offered the opportunity to join the BBC's journalistic training programme in 1975, after completing his one-year MA, Sharp joined the BBC in 1976 as a trainee journalist. Upon qualification he became a BBC TV news scriptwriter, and then a reporter for IRN/

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadca ...

. After helping to start the independent

Radio Tay Radio Tay is a group of two Independent Local Radio stations serving Tayside and northeast Fife in Scotland. Radio Tay is owned and operated by Bauer Radio, based at studios at 6 North Isla Street in Dundee and forms part of Bauer’s Hits Radio ...

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

, he then freelanced for mostly British news outlets in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

for six years until 1987. Joining

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

, Sharp was the channel's correspondent in California and the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

.And now for a BBC reporter who is completely different
SalemNews.com, 12 June 2009 In 1987 he moved with his wife to London as a reporter for the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

, then as duty foreign editor at

Channel 4 News ''Channel 4 News'' is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982. Current productions ''Channel 4 News'' ''Channel 4 News'' ...

. Returning to BBC News, when the corporation started the news and sport station Radio 5 (now 5 Live) in 1994, Sharp came up with the idea for the programme ''Up All Night''. Since its launch he has been one of the two regular presenters. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' once described the show as probably the best night-time radio show in the world. In 2001, Sharp was on the second commercial flight to New York City after 11 September to give in-depth analysis of the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. He also presented 5 Live's programmes on the American presidential and congressional elections. He has become instrumental in giving wider coverage on British radio of sports like

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

, presenting its live broadcasts of the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

and the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

. After reporting on the 11 September attacks, while taking a sabbatical, Sharp and his wife fell in love with the fishing town of

Marblehead, Massachusetts Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts, along the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore. Its population was 20,441 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The town lies on a small peninsula that extends ...

, USA. From 2004 he presented his editions of the show (Monday to Wednesday) from the town. Initially using the studios and

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the digitalised circuits of the public switched telephone network. Wo ...

line of local radio station

WESX WESX (1230 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a religious and multi-cultural format, licensed to broadcast in the Nahant, Massachusetts, precinct. The station is owned by Real Media Group, LLC. Programming is in Spanish, Portuguese, Creole, and ...

to connect him to

Broadcasting House Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The main ...

, London, from 2007 he presented the show from a home studio within the couple's 18th-century property. Broadcasting from the United States made Sharp "pretty unique" among BBC radio hosts, according to the then BBC deputy news director Stephen Mitchell. In March 2020, after having presented ''Up All Night'' for 26 years, Sharp stood down.Rhod Sharp to leave 5 Live after 26 years Up All Night
RadioToday UK, December 17, 2019.

Personal life

Whilst broadcasting from San Francisco in the early 1980s, Sharp met his future wife Vicki Staveacre. The couple moved to London in the 1980s, where Sharp later created ''Up All Night''. Following 9/11, the couple took a two-month sabbatical in

Harvard, Massachusetts Harvard is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is located 25 miles west-northwest of Boston, in eastern Massachusetts. A farming community settled in 1658 and incorporated in 1732, it has been home to several ...

. On forays to North Shore, they became enamoured with Marblehead. In 2004, they bought a small apartment in the seaside town, and in 2007 moved to their present home, an 18th-century house in Marblehead's Old Town section. Sharp is the President of the University of Aberdeen USA Trust, and as of 2012 was intending to apply for

US citizen Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...

ship.

References

External links

Rhod Sharp's blog
BBC 5 Live
Rhod Sharp
Journalisted {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Rhod 1953 births Living people Writers from Perth, Scotland People educated at Perth Academy Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Princeton University alumni Scottish journalists BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC Radio 5 Live presenters Scottish radio personalities Scottish radio presenters Scottish expatriates in the United States People from Marblehead, Massachusetts