大象传媒

Through the week James presents the morning travel bulletins for 大象传媒 Radio Devon.

He's also allowed him to have some fun each Saturday lunchtime.

Great music and a liberal smattering of stuff and nonsense to be expected through your Saturday lunchtime.

Film guru John Hadlow brings us the latest cinema releases plus what's new on DVD and the best of the weeks movies on TV.

Emily's Wood wows on the webcam and offers up her History Corner. Three new facts from 'This Day In History' plus a historical teaser to puzzle over for each.

Staying on the history theme, the show goes back in time for Hits In History with a top five tunes across five decades.

KEEPING THE COUNTY MOVING

James took over the morning travel bulletins shift from Alec Benford in January 2006.

"As a driver myself, I've routinely listened to travel bulletins for years - but it wasn't until I started work at the travel desk that I realised the amount of effort that goes into providing a service like ours," said James.

James enjoying the Devon countryside

"We gather information from a number of official channels including the police, roadside monitors and the rail and air operators. But very often the most useful updates come from the listeners themselves.

"We are very lucky to live in such a beautiful county but due to the nature of our roads - particularly under the strain of the summer peak season - any problems can soon turn into long delays.

"Our service would be far less effective without the many motorists who call us with fresh updates and detailed information about hold-ups so that we can inform other road users.

"The most gratifying part of the job is hearing from someone who says you made a difference to their journey."

ANCIENT HISTORY

When a heartless school chum told a young and na茂ve Mr Watts he had 'a good face for radio', James took it as a compliment and decided a career in the media would be right up his street...

On the beach: co-presenting with John Govier.

After university James spent two years at an independent production company in Cheshire.

"The projects were very diverse; from filming sports cars to creating multimedia CD-ROMs, to writing scripts for canal videos - and it was great fun to be part of a small close knit team," he says.

"The term I would use on a C.V. to describe much of the work is 'multi-skilled', which means we all mucked-in whenever it was necessary!"

Whilst at his day job in Cheshire, he ventured into community radio in North Shropshire and dipped his toe into live broadcasting for the first time.

"I think 'Clock Radio' would fit everyone's idea of a small community radio station. We were all part time volunteers, our funds were extremely minimal and the whole operation took place in one disused room above a local shop!