JOHN HOWARD BROADCASTER
John enjoyed a 30 year award winning career in broadcasting, mainly with the BBC, presenting TV programmes such as 'Nature' and 'Out of Court' on BBC 2, along with business programmes on BBC World but he is best remembered as one of the stars of Radio 4 in the 1980s and 90s presenting documentaries, phone-ins and interview shows including as the long running presenter of Radio 4's 'You and Yours' programme.
His broadcasting began while he was still at University when, in 1970, he joined the team making 'Student Scene' on BBC Radio Manchester, a weekly half hour programme about University life.
John in Studio 2 BBC Radio Manchester
Then in 1971 he took over the Monday night ‘City Scene’ programme, playing records along with requests and anarchic comedy sketches. He went on to present the Saturday and Sunday two hour breakfast programmes on the station linking news items, interviews and music.
On graduating he was asked to audition for Radio 1 and travelled to Broadcasting House in London to put together a demo programme with legendary producer and subsequent controller of Radio 1 Johnny Beerling. He was invited to contribute to programming on the station but by then had received job offers from the nascent commercial radio stations Piccadilly in Manchester and BRMB in Birmingham. In 1974 he joined BRMB as one of the station’s first presenters.
He subsequently left in 1975 for the BBC in Bristol where he presented programmes for BBC 1 TV in the West Country, including the regular inventions series ‘Breakthrough’, along with a number of regional ‘Public Life’ documentaries. On Radio Bristol he presented a wide variety of programmes including the news based Breakfast Show in which he interviewed, chaired debates and reported on events in the West Country.
Simultaneously he attended Bristol Polytechnic (now the University of the West of England) to qualify as a solicitor. He was admitted to the Roll in 1979.
In 1979 he also won the Society of Authors Pye Radio Award (the radio Oscars) for the comedy programme ‘That Was the West That Was’, which he presented and produced.
In the same year he presented his first edition of the daily Radio 4 consumer programme ‘You and Yours’ becoming one of the regulars on the daily show, presenting more than 1500 editions and winning a number of national awards including two Sony Awards.
John in studio B15 in Broadcasting House
During the 1980's and 90's he became one of the front line voices on Radio 4, being heard not only on 'You and Yours' but also presenting the phone-in programmes 'Tuesday Call' and 'Call John Howard'; the series on corporate cock-ups, 'An Unfortunate Turn of Events'; numerous one off documentaries and the series 'Call to Account', in which he grilled the chief executives of the main utility companies. He was also an occasional presenter of 'Outlook' on BBC World Service and wrote regular articles for The Daily Mail, The Telegraph and The Times newspapers. His last 'You and Yours' show was in early 2003, bringing to a close a twenty-four year association with the classic Radio 4 programme.
In 1990, with his wife Angela, he formed Sharp End Productions, which provided the first independently produced programmes for BBC Radio, with the interview series ‘The Leading Edge’ for Radio 5, which he also presented.
Among those included in the series were explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, celebrity chef Prue Leith, industrialist Sir John Harvey Jones and author Faye Weldon. Sharp End Productions also made programmes for other companies and institutions including the NHS, the construction company SGB Youngman and photocopier company Danka International.
On national TV he was a reporter on the legal series ‘Out of Court’ and was a presenter on the BBC’s first environmental magazine programme ‘Nature’, both on BBC 2. He presented the environmental documentary 'The State of Europe' on BBC2 and business TV programmes for BBC World, Sky News and The Money Channel.
John reporting from the mining waste site at Seaham in County Durham for 'Nature' on BBC2
Between 1991 and 1995, along with Jill Dando, he worked for the Television Education Network, presenting continuing education programmes for The Lawyer’s Education Channel, The Surveyor’s Education Channel and The Accountant’s Education Channel.
For much of his time in broadcasting John worked in partnership with the celebrated independent video producer Ray Krist as Idea Films, making numerous programmes for many FTSE 100 companies including BP, Shell, BOC and Carillion.
These were mainly health and safety training programmes including the ground breaking assessment of the Texas City refinery explosion using cutting edge video graphics to uncover the causes of this fatal incident.
He now continues his association with broadcasting with his podcast Fly Fishing Tales https://podbean7w2.podbean.com
You are invited to escape to the trout stream with top fishermen recalling their most exciting catches along with the fly and tackle they used. The series is based on the first 'fly fishing podcast' his production company published on audio cassette in 1998.