Jonathan Vernon-Smith

Jonathan Vernon-Smith (born 14 November, Welwyn Garden City) known to his listeners as JVS, is a radio presenter for BBC Three Counties Radio and BBC Radio Northampton. He currently presents the JVS Show between 9.00am and mid-day on BBC Three Counties Radio. On a Saturday between 9.00am and mid-day, Jonathan presents Treasure Quest on BBC Radio Northampton and BBC Three Counties Radio with Annabel Amos and Tim Wheeler.

Early life

He attended the Sir John Lawes School on Manland Way in Harpenden in Hertfordshire. At the University of Surrey, Roehampton, he studied English Language and Linguistics.

Career

He began work in a hotel in Hertfordshire (the family have been in the hotel business for generations - his Grandparents were Ken and Marjorie Vernon-Smith who owned and ran 'The White Hart Hotel' in St Albans until Ken's premature death in his 40s). He then worked for a wine company in London. He started working at the BBC at Three Counties Radio as a Broadcast assistant. He then moved to BBC London in the 90s and TALKsport where he became one of Ian Collins 'Creatures of the Night'.

In 2001 he returned to BBC Three Counties and worked as a researcher on the morning consumer show. He transferred the format of this programme over to Radio Northampton, hosting a consumer radio programme from July 2005 until 2008. This took the place of Richard Oliff, who now presents for Harborough FM. The final hour of the three hour programme was a general free-for-all topical discussion on a given theme of the day. He took over the Three Counties radio consumer programme on 7 April 2008, which was on weekdays from 11am-2pm, this was very successful and has since been renamed "The JVS Show." From 24 January 2011, the programme moved to 9.00am - 12midday schedule and includes a phone-in on a topical subject of the day, a guest interview with a local person who has a strong story to tell, and continuing in the last hour with consumer problems for which Jonathan's "No-Nonsense" approach has become well known.[1] In 2011, Jonathan won the GOLD for 'Best Mid-Morning' radio show at the Gillard Awards.

He deputized for Stephen Nolan on BBC Radio Five Live on 5 & 6 April 2013. He also presented the Stephen Nolan show on Friday 19 April 2013. From the 5th to 8 August & the 16th to 18 September 2013 Jonathan presented the Phil Williams Show on BBC Radio 5Live.

Jonathan won the silver for 'Best Speech Programme' at the Sony radio awards in 2013. He also won a gold, silver and bronze Gillard award in October 2013. The Gold was for 'Best Mid Morning Programme', the silver for 'Best Presenter' and the bronze was for an interview he conducted with the Conservative MP for Mid-Beds, Nadine Dorries.

Jonathan is represented by Michael Cohen at MPC Entertainment.

Ern and Vern

Whilst at Three Counties Radio, he hosted a joint programme with Ernie Almond, entitled Ern and Vern. This started as a programme on Saturdays and Sundays from 12-2pm, then was reduced to just Saturdays when he was presenting at Radio Northampton five days a week. Due to a phone-in which took a turn for the worst, the show was removed from the schedule in July 2007. It was re-instated after a listener led campaign on 14 September 2007 as a late-night programme from 10pm-1am on Friday nights across the BBC East region. Having built a loyal audience including characters such as "Valerie of Carlton Coalville", "Hazel of Greenford", "Laura the Slapper of Cambridge", "Jim and Mikyla from Melbourne Australia" and "Edna of St Ives" the show was taken off the schedules on 13 February 2009.

Personal life

He lives in Hertfordshire, England. He has three brothers.

References

  1. ↑ "The JVS Show". Retrieved 2011-02-04.

External links