Rob Jones (radio DJ)

Rob Jones born in Liverpool and attended Liverpool College, is a former DJ who was on 208 Radio Luxembourg from 1977 to 1984.[1] He joined from Radio City in Liverpool[2] at the same time as Mike Read and Steve Wright and went on to become Director of Programmes for RTL English Language Radio and TV. During his time at Radio Luxembourg he presented "Breakers" for ITV an opportunity which arose when Marc Bolan was killed in a car crash in Barnes. In 1982 Jones created and ran the innovative "Clip Connection" on RTL TV, an English, French and German language music channel. In 1984 he moved to SKY Channel as Head of Music Programmes producing 9 hours of music programming each day with VJs Pat Sharp, Gary Davies, Tony Blackburn, Amanda Redington and Linda de Mol. He was poached by Richard Branson in 1986 to run Music Box which Branson had recently purchased from Thorn EMI with Granada TV and Yorkshire TV. During the mid eighties Music Box provided the overnight programming for much of the ITV network.

In the late eighties Richard Branson's Virgin organisation seconded Rob Jones from Music Box to develop their radio interests. He recruited GWR, Yorkshire Radio, Radio Forth and Radio Trent to form a joint venture with Virgin called Radio Radio which produced an overnight sustaining service for 24 commercial radio stations in the UK. Radio Radio, "The Super Station" had a stellar presenter line-up which included Jonathan Ross (on radio for the first time) Johnny Walker, Ruby Wax, Bob Harris, Diana Luke and even Steve Davies the snooker player. Chris Evans joined the company as a producer where he met Carol McGiffin Rob Jones's assistant at the time. As the consultant to Talk Radio, Jones later recruited McGiffin to work with Moz Dee on a programme called The Rude Awakening. A young Andy Bird was Jones's No2 on the project. Bird would later head Disney International. In 1989 Jones negotiated the sale of Virgin's 40% to Owen Oyston who owned the Transworld Radio Group in Manchester, England.

Rob Jones was then hired as a consultant by Yorkshire TV and soon after started his own company, USP, in 1990. USP was initially a programme consultancy specialising in developing programme formats for radio stations including GWR's Classic Gold, Jazz FM, Essex FM and Talk Radio. However the company developed a branded content specialism, producing content for broadcasters that was paid for by brands like Mars, American Airlines, Cadbury, P&G and many others. USP was the first independent production company to produce not one but two breakfast programmes for UK commercial radio stations. The Jazz Breakfast for Jazz FM was hosted first by Nick Miller and then by Tim Smith. The Talk Radio Breakfast with Kirsty Young proved a critical success before Kelvin McKenzie bought the radio station and axed the show.

The company was renamed USP Content in 2004 and now specialises in sport and music programming. Formula 1 is an important area for USP Content with the company contributing over 200 hours a year for BBC Radio5live. NFL, Major League Baseball and Barclays Premier League football are also mainstays of the company's production output. USP produces RocknRoll Football for Absolute Radio. USP Content provided worldwide radio coverage of The Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012.

USP Content recently mixed sport with comedy to produce "How to be England Manager" for BBC Three.

Rob Jones and USP Content started producing The Wireless from Age UK in early 2012. The Wireless from Age UK is an online and DAB radio station aimed at the 50+ market.

USP Content produced The 2015 Olivier Awards for the Magic radio network with tv and stage star Claire Sweeney. The company is also prolific in Women's sport covering Netball and The FA Women's Super League (WSL).

USP Content has produced Britain's Next F1 Star for Sky Sports. The series is sponsored by Scalextric.

References

  1. ↑ "Rob Jones Media Owner, Radio, Television, London, UK - Media Talent Ltd". Mediatalent.co.Ku. Retrieved 2012-09-06.
  2. ↑ "The Brian Jones Radio City Tribute Website - DJ Photos". Citygold.me.uk. Retrieved 2012-09-06.
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