09: The most important voice in UK radio you've never heard

Look – chances are you’ve never heard of Gavin Douglas.


But if you’ve had even one ear to what’s been going on in UK
radio over the last decade, you’ve definitely felt his impact –
as a curator, radio programmer, trainer and mentor. Snoochie Shy,
Jeremiah Asiamah, Jamz Supernova, Tash LC, JK & Bempah, Reece
Parkinson and CassKid are just a handful of the country’s
prominent radio hosts that he’s had a role in developing, and
that’s before getting into his wider roles as Reprezent Radio’s
former Head of Music and Radar Radio’s former Director of Radio.
Put simply, the contemporary UK radio landscape looks very
different without him.


So where did Gavin’s journey start, and how did he get here? As
we find out on this episode, it’s one heck of a redemption story
– from scoring interviews with Destiny's Child and Mariah Carey
and becoming the golden boy of Birmingham's '90s pirate radio
scene, to reinventing himself after being let go by the BBC in
the late 2000s.


Gavin has given very few interviews in his life, so we jumped at
the opportunity to tell his story on No Tags. We get into a lot
of big picture questions – what is the future of Black British
radio? Should radio playlists exist? Does radio still even
matter? – while getting the inside scoop on his time at the BBC,
Reprezent and Radar. There’s also some great insight into the
history of Birmingham’s pirate radio scene and its political
impact on the city in the 1980s and 1990s, which is really worth
sticking around for.


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