Aircheck Tracker
Profile: Franklin Hughes:
By
1983 Franklin had moved into club management, and it was at this time he saw an
advert for the first ‘DJ of the year competition’. He entered
the last heat before the finals which was held at Boodles nightclub in
Oxford. The competition attracted over 800 hundred DJ’s from around the
UK and the final was held at Faces International in Birmingham on Thursday 7th
April 1983. Franklin came out triumphant as the first “National Club DJ
of the Year” . He went on to DJ in just about all the major nightclubs
in the country.
Franklin's
first radio gig was on BBC Radio Leicester in the Seventies, before
moving to BRMB in Birmingham and then to Mercia in Coventry.
He joined Radio Trent
in the mid 80s to present a number of specialist shows including Steppin' Out
and The Music Jam. By the late 80s, he'd become a mainstream
presenter and his shows were networked with Leicester Sound (later Sound
FM). He also introduced the concept of "liners" to Trent/Sound
being the first to use JR Nelson voiced idents commissioned by him, having
established himself as one of the station most popular presenters he departed Radio
Trent
in 1990.
He
took this vast knowledge of nightclubs promotions and radio presenting to London
and became manager of a well-known nightclub in West London, later joining North
London's newly-licensed incremental station "WNK" (Wicked,
Neutral, Kicking) where he presented the drive-time show.
In
1992 his true intentions became clear as he revealed he was to join the board of
Choice FM in London in order to bid
for the new Birmingham license, which had come about due to the failure of Buzz
FM. When Choice eventually won the licence in 1994, the new
station was staffed by non-radio presenters from around the East and West
Midlands, many of whom have gone on to much greater things (including Schooly
on Capital FM; Leona Graham on Virgin and the voice of a
million liners and trails on Sky, C4, BBC; Sacha Brooks on Vibe FM;
Shortee Blitz on Kiss 100; Mark Wright on Breakfast at Surf
107.2/Juice 107.2 in Brighton, etc. etc.) Franklin as Managing Director
& Programme Controller, however, lasted only six months before he left the
company.
Since
leaving Choice FM, Franklin has been involved with management and
ownership of restaurants, bars & nightclubs. He has worked in Swindon,
Bristol, Southampton and most recently in Surrey.
In 2000, he formed ICE-FM (the consortium included former Kiss 100
founder Gordon MacNamee) who were considering bidding for the East Midlands
regional licence (won by Saga 106.6FM).
Franklin
Hughes has long had the dream of training youngsters to reach the heights in the
jocking profession, that dream is now being realised as he is now the founder
and Managing Director of Flaunt Media and he believes this to be his most
exciting venture to date.
Thanks go to Franklin Hughes for supplying the above information.