Simon Hirst - Career

Career

Hirst started his career aged 12 at 96.3 Radio Aire in Leeds as a helper making tea for Dj's, he soon moved up the ranks and was on the overnight show at 16. Soon after he moved onto Minster FM in York, then onto The Pulse of West Yorkshire in Bradford in 1995 to present the evening show, where he claims in an interview "I stopped being a bland DJ whilst doing evenings, and realised there was more to radio than just playing the hits".

In 1997 he moved to Hallam FM in Sheffield, his local station, where he hosted the drivetime programme for three years. He then returned to The Pulse of West Yorkshire to co-host the breakfast show with Elisa Hilton, but quickly left to take over the breakfast show at Viking FM in Hull - the one area of Yorkshire which had yet to hear him - after the departure of JK and Joel. He and his breakfast team (Darren Lethem, Danny Oakes (known on-air as "Pimp Daddy Dogg") and Jamie York) won a bronze Sony Award in 2002.

Hirsty left 96.9 Viking FM, to take his current job on the breakfast show (entitled Hirsty's Daily Dose) at Galaxy Yorkshire, a station covering all areas of Yorkshire. Galaxy had therefore shrewdly hired for their biggest show a presenter who did not necessarily have to "introduce" himself to the audience, as much of them would have heard him previously on the many local stations against whom Galaxy, a regional station, were pitching for audiences. The Daily Dose team, led by Hirst, including ex-Viking colleague Danny Oakes and existing Galaxy Yorkshire presenter Joanne (Jojo) Kelly (née Moorhouse) won the title of Commercial Radio Presenter(s) Of The Year at the CRCA Awards, and was nominated in the breakfast category of the 2005 Sony Awards. Hirsty continues to host the show, which can also be heard in some areas via DAB Digital Radio. His style of broadcasting is self-deprecating, real and relatable. Talking for the majority about real life situations and making the listener the star, not himself.

After Neil Fox quit as the long running host of the networked Hit40UK in 2004, Hirsty - one of his stand-ins previously from 2003 - was recruited, initially with Katy Hill to host the programme each Sunday from the studios of Capital Radio in London and went on to host the programme alone. Ironically, he was up against JK and Joel on BBC Radio 1 for the chart audience on a Sunday afternoon - the presenters whom he succeeded at Viking FM and with whom he remains close friends, in fact during his chart reign he shared a flat in London with Joel Ross. Also a spin off TV show Hit40UK TV hosted by Hirst was broadcast on a weekend on Channel 4's youth strand T4. He won a bronze Sony Award for the show in 2006

Hirst presented his last Hit40UK chart on 15 October 2006, due to objections from Galaxy's rival Yorkshire radio stations Viking FM, Radio Aire and Hallam FM who were due to start broadcasting the chart on 22 October 2006. They were unhappy that a Galaxy Yorkshire presenter would be heard on their station, since they could possibly lose a proportion their breakfast audience to Hirsty's weekday breakfast show. The last number one he announced was "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance. Hirsty was succeeded by his friend, Capital Radio drivetime presenter Lucio.

In May 2013, Hirst began presenting on Gold on Saturday afternoons between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm.

He has said his radio hero is Kenny Everett, and is a self-confessed radio & music "anorak" with an archive collection of old radio programmes.