Wes Butters
Wes Butters | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 4 May 1979 Salford, England |
| Occupation(s) | Writer and broadcaster |
| Website | www.wesbutters.com |
Wes Butters (born Wesley Lee-Butters in Salford, Greater Manchester, 4 May 1979), is a radio broadcaster, formerly of BBC Radio 1, and writer.
Early life
Butters attended Buile Hill High School in Salford, and studied at the University of Salford between 1995 and 1997 where he gained a National Diploma in Design & Media Communications, followed by a BA (Hons) Television and Radio between 1997 and 1999.
Radio career
On joining AA Roadwatch he shortened his name to Wes Butters. After a year presenting traffic and travel bulletins on local North West radio stations plus stints on The Wave (Blackpool), Wish FM (Wigan) and Century 105, he was offered the evening show on Century 106 in Nottingham. He left there in 2000 to move to Newcastle as Head of Music and mid-morning presenter for Galaxy North East.
Radio 1
In December 2002, following extensive speculation in the press and online, it was announced that Wes would be taking over as host of the Official UK Top 40 show on BBC Radio 1 in February 2003, when it was renamed The Official Chart Show with Wes. A change in the show's format led to more coverage of the album charts and an end to the need for every single one of the Top 40 singles to be played.
He regularly stood in for Scott Mills - first on early breakfast, then on drive-time. He also deputised for Chris Moyles on the prestigious Radio 1 breakfast show on Bank and Christmas Holidays.
Working closely with Top of the Pops he interviewed hundreds of popstars including Kylie Minogue, Destiny's Child, George Michael and The Black Eyed Peas.
In November 2004 it was revealed that Butters would leave Radio 1 the following February and the chart would under go more massive changes to its format.
Butters was regularly heard on the BBC World Service too. He sporadically presented Top of the Pops, Wright Round the World (sitting in for Steve Wright) and was used as their voice for Live 8.
After Radio 1
Soon after his final chart rundown on 30 January 2005 the press announced the launch of podshows.com, a joint venture by Butters and fellow broadcaster Daryl Denham. It was the world's first professional pod-casting company using household names such as Tony Blackburn, Paul Gambaccini, Gary Davies and Terry Christian to record tailor-made programmes for MP3 players.
This coincided with the release of his Crazy Frog record (that he'd premiered on an early breakfast show the previous November). Under the guise of Pondlife the record went in at Number 11 and remained in the UK Top 40 for 5 weeks.
Wes@Breakfast
In October 2005 it was revealed that Butters had agreed a deal with Galaxy and returned to the airwaves at Galaxy Manchester, winning a Silver Sony award for Best Breakfast Show and an Arqiva nomination for Best UK Presenter in 2006.
In May 2007 he was voted North West England Presenter of the Year in the radio industry magazine X-Trax.
It was announced in June 2007 that Wes had "had enough of early starts" and that he wanted more time to focus on his other projects. Keen to keep him on the station he agreed with Galaxy to do a short afternoon show but in April 2008 he revealed that he would leave the group completely.
At the end of July 2008 Wes enjoyed another stint on breakfast, this time sitting in for Shaun Keaveny on BBC 6 Music.
More recently, Wes has covered 'Real Radio Afternoons' for Debbie Mac on the North West's branch of GMG Radio's 'Real' Network. Wes had also covered 'The Evening Show' across all of the Real Radio Network and has announced on air that in a few weeks, he will take over the Sunday evening show from David Heane (with David starting a new football Saturday afternoon show).
Television and writing
Wes has appeared on many TV programmes including Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Top of the Pops, Liquid News, Celebrity Fame Academy, Record of the Year and BBC TV news, in addition to a range of children's programmes.
As a voice-over, Wes has been heard on An Audience with Take That, An Audience with Lionel Ritchie and The Brit Awards, as well as the Top of the Pops rundown and ads for Asda.
He's written for The Guardian newspaper and his first book came out in October 2008 (Kenneth Williams Unseen, HarperCollins). He also wrote the acclaimed two-part documentary The Pain of Laughter - The Last Days of Kenneth Williams for BBC Radio 4, broadcast in April 2008, which is available on his website.
Trivia
- He is a fan of Laurel & Hardy and the Carry On films.
- He has appeared in Love Actually, Shameless, and a Matt Goss video.
- He studied for his National Diploma in media at the same University building as Peter Kay and Christopher Eccleston.
- Wes Butters has admitted on his Real Radio show that he owns Freddie Mercury's leather peaked cap.