- Nick Ferrari
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Nick Ferrari Born 1960 Show Nick Ferrari at Breakfast Station(s) LBC 97.3 Time slot 7-10 AM Style Talk Radio Country England Nick Ferrari (born 1960[citation needed]) is a radio presenter[1][2][3] who currently hosts the weekday breakfast show from 0700-1000 UTC (and BST in summer) on the London-based talk and phone-in radio station LBC 97.3. He also has a regular column in the Sunday Express and is a regular guest on The Alan Titchmarsh Show on ITV1. He used to present the discussion programme Forum on Press TV, a news channel run by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He quit his show on the station on 30 June 2009 in protest at the Islamic Republic of Iran regime crushing dissent after the Iranian presidential election held on 12 June 2009. He has two sons and lives in Blackheath, London.[citation needed]
Contents
Education
Ferrari was educated at Eltham College[4] an independent school for boys in Mottingham in south-east London.
Early career
Ferrari's father ran a news agency, Ferrari Press Agency, and Ferrari was keen to make a name for himself in the same industry. Ferrari was a news reporter on the Sunday Mirror in 1981 and has had many other posts in journalism: ShowBiz Reporter at The Sun and Editor of the paper's "Bizarre" gossip page, Features Editor of the News of the World's Sunday Magazine and Assistant Editor of The Daily Mirror. A friend of former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, Ferrari joined him at L!VE TV where he devised such programmes as Topless Darts, the News Bunny and the weather presented by a dwarf on a trampoline.
In 1989, Ferrari was instrumental in setting up the Sky News channel, as the second person to be hired by Rupert Murdoch. Initially he was editor and then he was promoted to Vice President of News and Programming, of Fox TV in New York. Amongst the people that he has interviewed are Harrison Ford, Elton John, David Bowie and Arthur Scargill, and after interviewing Roger Moore on the set of a James Bond movie for The Sun, appeared as an extra, a man standing next to a swimming pool, in Octopussy.
Radio career
Ferrari's programme takes the format of a news and political debate and discussion show with presenter introducing topics and then discussing them with both members of the public and experts, through text messaging, email and phone, with the last of the three being the main mode of contact. The programme mixes both light entertainment stories and the more serious topics in the news, his jovial act affords the show a wide listener base, and recently the Sony Radio Breakfast Show of the Year award as well as the Arqiva Presenter of the Year award. Chrysalis management showed their gratitude by flying him by private jet to Germany to see the 2006 World Cup final. Ferrari frequently asks first-time callers which station they previously listened to, rejoicing when they have deserted BBC Radio 4, BBC London 94.9 or rival station Capital FM.
Broadcasting Standards Commission complaint
In 2003, the Broadcasting Standards Commission upheld a complaint against Ferrari, finding that his programme's "active reinforcement of prejudiced views about asylum seekers had exceeded acceptable boundaries for transmission".[5][6] Following this, and at a time of frosty relations between Nick Ferrari and the former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, the Mayor wrote to the Managing Director of LBC 97.3 asking what measures had been implemented to ensure the situation would not arise again. Following this, Livingstone appeared regularly on Ferrari's programme to answer questions from listeners.
TV and other appearances
Aside from radio, Ferrari regularly appears as a commentator on The Alan Titchmarsh Show on ITV and previously Channel 4's Richard & Judy and guested on breakfast television magazine GMTV. In early 2003, following his appointment as editor of the proposed local newspaper the London Evening Mail, he made a series of appearances on local evening news programmes London Tonight and BBC London News. However, in November of that year Ferrari was offered the breakfast show on LBC 97.3 (effective January 2004) and subsequently stepped down as the newspaper's editor. As a result, the attention awarded him by London regional programmes declined and he now makes far fewer appearances on those shows.
Throughout 2004-2005 Ferrari developed his own one-man stage show consisting largely of anecdotes about his family and the various jobs he's held over the years, jokes, audience interaction and the occasional guest appearance, including Carol Thatcher (a regular on his show). The show played at various theatres across the capital and as far out as Radlett, and came to a close on 16 December 2005 at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon. He has vowed not to repeat it, however he is now launching a new series of theatre appearances to promote his book The World According to Nick Ferrari. On 10 March 2006 he appeared on ITN's 'The Pulse', which lets the viewing public discuss a topic of the day; on this day it was silly laws.
In 2006, Ferrari also made an appearance on the BBC/HBO comedy show 'Extras' in the show's second series. Nick played the part of himself as a phone-in radio presenter set in LBC 97.3 Studios.
From February 2008, Ferrari became a regular guest on a new ITV political show called "London Talking" starring Konnie Huq and featuring Vanessa Feltz. On 29 June 2008, Ferrari covered the Salute to Israel march and rally in London's Trafalgar Square, which celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, attended by over 40,000 people. On 19 November 2009 he appeared as a panelist on the BBC's Question Time in Leicester. On 10 March 2011, he appeared again on Question Time, this time in Edinburgh. He has appeared as a commentator on BBC One's Politics Show.
Politics
It was suggested in June 2006 by Conservative leader David Cameron that, if he joined the Conservative Party and put himself forward, Ferrari could win the ballot to be the party's candidate for Mayor of London.[7] Ferrari indicated, however, that he would not stand, as he "did not want to leave the listeners" and joked that he "couldn't take the pay cut". Later, he began to see merit in the idea and discussed what policies he might introduce should he become Mayor: amongst these were re-introducing the Routemaster buses (with various modifications so that they would conform to disability and environmental laws) and scrapping the Mercedes-Benz "Bendy Buses" and, more controversially, putting a large levy on trainers in the run-up to the 2012 Olympic Games and doubling income tax on Human Rights lawyers. Ferrari later indicated that he would not stand as the Conservative candidate, a role that was taken by Boris Johnson.[8]
Ferrari does not recycle because the number of recycle bins mean "you've lost your front garden", he said on BBC's The Daily Politics.[9]
References
- ^ Racist shock jock censured
- ^ NICK FERRARI racist discrimination on LBC
- ^ Ferrari radio show rapped for racist content
- ^ Educational details from The Independent newspaper
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20060502041225/
- ^ http://www.blink.org.uk/pdescription.asp?key=2353&grp=2
- ^ http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2006/06/new-poll-who-should-be-tory-london.html
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5239332.stm
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/8726179.stm
External links
Categories:- English radio presenters
- Living people
- English people of Italian descent
- 1950 births
- Sony Radio Academy Award Gold winners
- People educated at Eltham College
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