Stuart Robinson (born 20 June 1979) is a

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

broadcaster with

Cool FM Cool FM is an Independent Local Radio station based in Newtownards, Northern Ireland. The station is owned and operated by Bauer and forms part of Bauer's Hits Radio Network. The station began broadcasting in 1990 when its parent station D ...

Downtown Radio Downtown Radio is a Hot Adult Contemporary music radio station based in Newtownards, County Down, that serves all of Northern Ireland using a network of AM, FM and DAB transmitters. As of December 2022, the station has a weekly audience of ...

and Downtown Country. He previously launched and became the longest running presenter to date on rival station

Belfast CityBeat Q Radio (formerly known as Citybeat and Belfast CityBeat) is a Northern Irish radio station. It broadcasts to Greater Belfast on 96.7 MHz FM and on DAB Digital Radio across all of Northern Ireland. From 5 April 2007, Citybeat became availa ...

from 1996 before his defection in 2010. Robinson is the Content Director of Downtown Radio, Cool FM and Downtown Country; this gives him control over the largest radio audience in Northern Ireland. From early 2015 he took over as host of Cool FM's flagship weekend show ''The Cool Saturday Show'', seeing him repaired with David McCammond AKA Deputy Dave. The programme was a ratings success becoming the most listened to weekend radio show in Northern Ireland with over 100,000 listeners every Saturday morning. Deputy Dave left the show in 2019 and was replaced with Miss Northern Ireland Katharine Walker. ''The Cool Saturday Show'' continued to enjoy success with the new dynamic "Stuart and Kat" for the next two years. In 2021, Kat moved to her own programme and Deputy Dave once again returned as Robinson’s on-air sidekick. The show has consistently remained the most listened to radio show at the weekend in Northern Ireland for over 6 years. Between 2013 and 2014, Robinson hosted the weekday lunchtime programme on Downtown, stepping down when he took over as Programme Controller. At Citybeat, he won gold and silver awards at the 2009 New York Festival Radio Awards and was also the only Irish radio presenter to be nominated for an Arqiva Award in both 2009 and 2008. He created the talent format

Young Star Search The Young Star Search is a kids' talent radio competition based in Northern Ireland and is the current holder of the New York Festival Gold Award for best global radio station promotion. It was also nominated two years running at the UK Arqiva Radi ...

and the introduction of popular sidekick characters "Work Experience Boy" on Citybeat and "Rodney" on Cool FM. In April 2015 he presided over the launch of Downtown Country, Northern Ireland's first DAB only radio station. This became the most successful radio launch in Northern Ireland since 1990, debuting with over 80,000 listeners and since growing to over 100,000 weekly listeners. Combined, the three Bauer Media stations in Ireland reach almost 50% of the entire population.

History

Robinson became Northern Ireland's youngest radio presenter when he first broadcast on BCR in the mid-1990s. He went on to present the last programme on BCR and then became a familiar name on Belfast Citybeat during the 90s and 2000s. In 1997 he became the station's Head of Music and in 2004 he took on the role of Deputy Programme Controller. In 2010 he defected to rivals Downtown Radio / Cool FM to take over as Deputy Programme Controller along with presenting programmes on both stations. In June 2014, he was announced as the new Programme Controller for Downtown Radio / Cool FM, with his role extending to include Downtown Country following its launch in April 2015.

Background

Robinson launched his own local RSL stations including

Castle FM Castle FM is a currently inactive () short-term radio station based in Carrickfergus, County Antrim The radio station transmitted twice annually between 1998-2005 and after a six-year break returned in July 2011. Castle FM broadcasts a mixture ...

Carrickfergus Carrickfergus ( , meaning " Fergus' rock") is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,998 at the 2011 Census. It is County Antrim's oldest t ...

and

Bangor FM Bangor FM, is a local radio station based in Bangor, County Down and broadcasting to the greater Bangor area. The station broadcasts a varied mixture of music, news, interviews and community information to a catchment area of over 60,000 adults ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

. In the late 90s he combined his Belfast CityBeat shows with fronting programmes for

Radio 1521 Radio 1521 (later Heartbeat 1521) was a radio station based in County Armagh, Northern Ireland from 1996 to 1999. The station broadcast from Craigavon and covered much of mid-Ulster. The station launched in 1996 before being bought by Belfast s ...

in Craigavon (where he also hosted the last ever programme),

Goldbeat Goldbeat was an AM radio station broadcasting on 828 kHz in Cookstown, Northern Ireland. It was launched in 1995 as Townland Radio, but was purchased in 1997 by media tycoon Owen Oyston who had already bought and relaunched Belfast Community ...

in Cookstown,

Touch FM {{Use British English, date=June 2016 The Touch FM network was a group of local commercial radio stations owned by Quidem. The network included stations in Coventry, South Staffordshire, Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon, Nuneaton & Hinckley, Loughbor ...

and

Mid FM Q Radio is a network of radio stations in Northern Ireland airing an adult contemporary format. The network is the fifth most listened to radio station in Northern Ireland, with a combined figure of over 241,000 listeners as of September 2022, ...

(now Q radio).

Personal

Robinson lives in South Belfast and has two children

External links

Stuart Robinson at Belfast TelegraphStuart Robinson Belfast Citybeat ProfileStuart Robinson Bangor FM profileStuart Robinson Rotten Tomatoes ProfileStuart Robinson Arqiva AwardsStuart Robinson Down DemocratStuart Robinson Young Star ProfileStuart Robinson Belfast City Council Christmas 07
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Stuart Living people People from Carrickfergus Radio DJs from Northern Ireland People educated at Downshire School 1979 births Broadcasters from County Antrim