| Ben Jones | |
| Birth Name: | Ben Jones |
| Birth Place: | Bournemouth, Dorset, England |
| Occupation: | Radio DJ, Broadcaster Television presenter |
| Years Active: | 1997–present |
Ben Jones (born 1977) is an English radio DJ and former children's television presenter.
Jones was born in Bournemouth, Dorset. He grew up in the New Forest and now lives in Wandsworth, west London. His first steps into the radio industry were as teaboy and Broadcast Assistant on local radio stations such as 2CR and Power FM.
In 1997, he spent time as a DJ at the Capital Radio Cafe in 1997. During this time, he was mentored by Chris Tarrant, a man Jones professes to admire the most, "because of his longevity, consistency and talent".[1] Under the management of programme director Paul Jackson, and the connections with Tarrant, soon Jones broke into television as he had desired.[1] As a child, he had been inspired by children's radio star Andy Crane and sought to be a presenter himself.[1] He soon became a presenter on the British version on The Disney Channel in 1998, presenting the station's first-ever breakfast show and a live interactive show. From 1999 he worked as a presenter CITV, fronting programmes such as The Top Ten of Everything, It's a Mystery and CITV Afternoons along with other presenters such as Stephen Mulhern and Danielle Nicholls.
After a brief spell at Fire Radio in Bournemouth, in 2001 he joined Virgin Radio (now Absolute Radio), initially working in late night or overnight spots.[1] In 2004 he became the host of the Most Wanted show, but in late 2006, he was allocated the Virgin Radio Drivetime show, an afternoon/early evening show at one of the peak listening times of the day. He has, however, worked in many slots on the radio station at various times of the day and week, often filling in for missing DJs. Jones has presented a wide variety of shows, including Afternoons, Virgin Superstars, Most Wanted,[2] Virgin radio drive-time, Album Chart,[3] Sunday Night Live 7-10pm. Since July 2007 however, Jones has returned to primarily host the Most Wanted show. This suits Jones' needs well, given that interviewing well established actors and successful musicians and any musical sessions is one of his most desired areas of radio broadcasting.
In late October and early November 2008, Jones co-presented The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show whilst O'Connell was on leave. With the changing of ownership of Virgin Radio and naming to Absolute Radio, a move to focus more on classic rock music with greater flexibility in the choice of music played, at this time in 2008.
When Virgin rebranded to Absolute Radio they announced the launch of four new weekly shows, The 90s hour, the album hour, the classic artist hour and The A-Z hour. All of these were hosted by Jones. Jones also presented on DAB Digital sister station Absolute 80's weekdays from 1 pm to 5 pm. Jones also co-presented the weekly Absolute Radio Movies Extra Podcast with Adrian Hieatt. His former evening show was broadcast just after Geoff Lloyd's Hometime Show between 8–11 pm.
On 9 May 2011, it was confirmed that Jones will leave Absolute Radio and Absolute 80s at the end of July 2011 to pursue new projects.[4] He presented his last show on Absolute Radio on Friday 29 July 2011.
When Virgin Radio relaunched in the UK on 30 March 2016, this time under ownership of Wireless Group, Jones joined the weekend presenting line-up. Initially he presented on Saturdays from 1‐4pm[5] before moving to Fridays 7-11pm. He began to also present Saturdays 7-11pm from 8 July 2017.[6]
Jones has hosted coverage of UK music festivals for Sky Arts. From July 2012 until March 2013, Jones presented for Heart.
Jones won a Bronze Sony Award in 2003 for Virgin Superstars, and has interviewed Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Slash, Ozzy Osbourne, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ronnie Wood.[7] On 22 October 2008, Jones interviewed Australian rock stars, singer Brian Johnson and guitarist Angus Young of AC/DC.[8]