Holly Samos

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Holly Samos (born 1971 Guildford, Surrey), also known as Holly Hotlips, is a radio researcher and presenter. A former member of Chris Evans's Zoo Squad, she now is the Formula 1 pit lane reporter for BBC Radio 5 Live.

Contents

[edit] Career

Born to a Greek father and English mother in Guildford, Samos grew up in London, Athens, and Oklahoma. Samos's mother bought her a portable radio cassette player for Christmas in her early teens, and she used to record the Top 40, then playback and talk over the DJ pretending to be him - but in an American accent. She gained 9 O Levels, before studying in London for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Design and Media Management [1].

Her first job was a Saturday job as a teenager working on a market stall selling winter coats. Aged 19 during her college years in London, she undertook work experience for GLR as a runner and switchboard operator, where she worked on the Greenhouse show presented by Chris Evans. She completed her degree, and moved in to the record business working for MCA Records on Piccadilly in the A&R department. Her first full time job in radio, which she admits falling in to, was at the age of 22 for Virgin Radio in the Programming Department when the station launched, after John Revell whom she worked with during the GLR days, called on her to join the station.

[edit] The Chris Evans period

In 1995, Chris Evans moved to the BBC to take over the ailing Breakfast show. To pay him the amount of money he wanted, Radio1 controller Matthew Bannister agreed that Evans' company Ginger Media Group should produce the show. Evans plotted a "zoo" team format with a group around him who produced and co-presented the show - including producer John Revell, engineer Dan McGrath - and researcher Samos. The format worked well dragging back 500,000 listeners within the first 6 months - around £5/listener including all costs. The show was a huge hit on Radio One pulling in seven million listeners before its end.

The first big falling-out came when Evans failed to turn up before Christmas 1995. He had taken his radio team and staff on a 17-hour pub-crawl which ended just two hours before he was due on air. He was fined £7,000 - one day's pay. In 1996 the broadcasting watchdog investigated many complaints against Evans, about which Radio 1 refused to comment throughout and for which Evans never apologised.

In November 1996, Evans span out of control, announcing he was medically unfit to be on the radio - not surprising as he was constantly photographed in pubs with the team by the tabloids, but also presenting TFI Friday and wanting Friday mornings off, a request that Radio refused. In a last attempt to accommodate and retain Evans, Bannister renegotiated his contract to double his holiday to twice that of other Radio 1 DJs, and let Evans start his show at 7am instead of 6.30am. Predictably it was not enough and Evans and his team were sacked in January 1997, again after not turning up for the show.[2]

In September 1997, Evans and his team made a return to Breakfast Radio - and a return to Virgin Radio. But this time, Evans was not satisfied with the commercial returns of just producing an entire show - in January 1998 he privately negotiated and bought Virgin Radio from Richard Branson for £75 million, a first for a DJ. He also instantly solved the problem of how he prepared his TFI Friday programme for Channel 4: he handed it to his on-air team of Samos, Revell and McGrath [3], as well as housing an entire production team at Virgin Radio's headquarters in Golden Square, London.

The team performed consistently, reducing their partying and drinking considerably. Things got even better in 2000, when Evans sold Virgin Radio to Scottish Media Group for £225M, and signed a long term contract which paid him £1.7M per annum.

Evans met Billie Piper in May 2000 [4], and married her in Las Vegas the following year. As a result, Evans's team were covering more of his shows alone - and the relationship with SMG was deteriorating quickly. In May 2001, Evans was officially signed off sick from his show - Virgin staff having last seen Evans on Monday 30th April at a large scale party to celebrate the station's eighth birthday. Evans and his team did not turn up for his show the following morning and no-one knew where he was. Station bosses said he was ill, but did not say what was wrong with him. By the middle of the month, he had been reported to have sacked his team of Revell, McGrath and Samos and replaced them with Louise Pepper and Matt Pritchard in the hope of saving the show amid audience figures which showed 100,000 listeners had re-tuned in the previous three months. Evans' show reportedly had 5 million fewer listeners than Sara Cox on Radio 1 [5]

Revell, McGrath and Samos all moved on to other jobs, Samos joining the Century Radio Network run out of Capital Radio in London, presenting The Confessional, LoveLines and PartyHits. By June 2001, Evans and Virgin had parted company after Evans and the team failed to turn up for work five days in a row. Evans, but not his team, was sacked - he said he was ill, but was pictured at a pub with his now ex-wife Billie Piper during his absence.

Evans sued SMG for £8.6m worth of SMG share options owed to him as a result of Virgin's sale. SMG counter-sued, alleging breach of contract - all the members of Evans's team were called to give evidence on behalf of Virgin/SMG. The court case began in May 2003 after two months of legal argument, and on 26 June Evans lost his claim and costs were awarded to Virgin/SMG, which is estimated to have reduced Evans personal fortune from £55 million to £10 million [6]

[edit] After Evans

During the period from May 2001 to June 2003, all members of Evans's team had their contracts honoured by Virgin/SMG.

When Samos left Virgin Radio she turned up on the Century FM network presenting The Confessional and then the late night love show LoveLines [7] As a result of Jeremy Kyle taking over the late night weekly slot with Late Night Love, Samos was moved to an earlier evening slot in the weekends presenting '‘Hairbrush Divas'’ in late 2003 [8].

Samos also undertook a lot of commercial work during her career, she presented for the Formula One Jordan team, the BBC's Holiday programme, and a number of fashion and beauty shows. Her distinctive tones also make her a voice over artist with impact, and she is most accomplished and employed continually in that line of work [9]

After Capital Radio took over Century Network [10] Samos moved to London's Heart 106.2 to present the Saturday breakfast show with Toby Anstis [11]. She also returned to Virgin Radio as a swing shift DJ to cover radio shows from 2005 to present day.

In January 2008 she will become Virgin's new presenter of Sunday Early Mornings 2-6am.

In March 2006, it was announced by BBC Radio Five Live that Samos had joined their Formula One team, and will report the latest news and gossip live from the pit lane and the paddock at each grand prix [12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ [http://www.geocities.com/cbradiobabes20/hollysamos_questions.html Holly Samos questions
  2. ^ Rise and fall of Radio 1's gaffe-prone presenter
  3. ^ Evans sacks DJs in Virgin shake-up
  4. ^ Chris Evans weds Billie Piper
  5. ^ Aircheck UK
  6. ^ Court report
  7. ^ durham21 | Staying In | Radio Headache
  8. ^ Digital Radio Development Bureau - DRDB
  9. ^ Virgin Radio bio
  10. ^ Aircheck UK
  11. ^ jgpm - Latest news
  12. ^ Radio 5 Live Puts Walker in Driving Seat

[edit] External links