The Radio Academy Festival

Wednesday 18th September 2024 - London

The Radio Academy Festival returns on 18th September for a full day of discussion, debate, sharing and celebration. Our theme will soon be announced and first speakers will be shared in May. We are delighted to return to the Royal College of Physicians near Regents Park, London.

Podcasters, broadcasters, designers, creators - wherever you work in audio, you are invited to come together, learn, reflect and spark your own connections.

Running across three stages, speakers will include presenters, artists, journalists, technologists, producers, commissioners and experts from stations, platforms and more.

Radio Academy Festival 2024 Line-Up includes:

• Nick Wallis, broadcast journalist and presenter of The Great Post Office Trial (Whistledown Productions for BBC Radio 4), will be in conversation on the Festival Stage with Manveen Rana, host of The Story, the flagship podcast from The Times and Sunday Times discussing the story that Nick has covered on radio for over a decade, that some have called the widest miscarriage of justice in UK legal history.
• Following a recent Gold for Best Coverage of an Event, Radio 2 DJ, Trevor Nelson, will take to the ARIAS Stage to discuss Windrush 75 (Spiritland Productions for BBC Radio 2) – a concert telling the story of the far-reaching impact of Caribbean culture and music on the UK over the last 75 years which took place at the Royal Albert Hall that he curated and hosted.
• The Impact Stage will be a relaxed space to gather and discuss a variety of topics that impact programme makers, content creators and leaders as well as their audiences. Comedian, podcaster & Virgin Radio presenter Suzi Ruffell, who’s currently on air on pop-up station Virgin Radio Pride, will lead the conversation on how radio, podcast and audio content can bring positive voices together across our communities.
• Poet, Author and Broadcaster, Lady Unchained, will join the Festival's ARIAS Stage to discuss the recent ARIAS Best Specialist Music Show win for Free Flow for the Prison Radio Association.
• Exec Producer and PhD Researcher Sylvie Carlos, joins our Impact Stage. Sylvie is a multi-award-winning radio/podcast producer who has unapologetically focused on amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities, with a particular interest in Black-British stories.
• BBC Radio 2’s Scott Mills and winner of Best Music Entertainment Show will join the ARIAS Stage. Scott previously hosted The Scott Mills Show live every Monday-Thursday on BBC Radio 1 as well as hosting the Official Chart every Friday. He has also fronted the hugely successful Official Strictly podcast and Eurovision Calling for BBC Sounds.
• Emma Louise Amanshia will co-host the Impact stage with Conor Knight. Emma-Louise currently presents Newsround on CBBC for the BBC, travelling around the UK reporting on the stories that are most important to children and young people. Emma-Louise also fronts weekends and school holidays on Fun Kids Radio.
• Conor Knight is a presenter on BBC Radio 1, FunKids and Radio Essex where he’s been bringing his tongue in cheek demeanour, love for music and popstar nonsense to his dedicated and growing band of listeners since 2018. Conor’s comedy fact podcast Baffled – has charted in the in the UK Top 20 & US Top 40.
• In a huge year for UK and international politics BBC Radio 5 Live’s new-recruit, Matt Chorley will be in conversation about how his new daytime hopes to bring a different perspective to national political commentary and coverage. The award-winning presenter, author and stand-up will bring his unique political knowledge and humour to the Festival Stage.
• Joining our three stages, Kat Shoob is a DJ, television and radio presenter. Kat has broadcast across multiple commercial radio stations where she has interviewed some of the leading artists in the entertainment industry and is currently a host on Magic, hosting the primetime ‘The 4 till 7 Show with Tom and Kat’ every weekday, as well as Magic Chilled on Saturdays and Sundays.
• Tom Price is a presenter, podcaster and comedian. Tom currently presents the ‘4 till 7 Show’ on Magic Radio with Kat Shoob, as well as the regular cover presenter for Magic Breakfast. He also hosts the popular podcast My Mate Bought A Toaster. As a Welsh native, Tom also occasionally presents on BBC Wales.
• Returning to the Festival Stage, Broadcaster, DJ, Speaker, and Host Pete Snodden joins us from Northern Ireland’s hugely successful breakfast show, Cool FM, where he has presented for the best part of 19 years..
• Aasmah Mir is the author of A Glasgow Girl, published by Headline in 2024, formerly known as A Pebble in the Throat. She writes a column for The Sunday Times and is also an award-winning broadcaster who co-presents the Times Radio Breakfast show.
• James Williams joins us on the Festival Stage. James is a presenter on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast and was formerly BBC Wales’ political correspondent. He is one of the hosts of the Walescast podcast covering what’s happening in Welsh politics.
• Dan Noble presents Absolute Radio Early Breakfast. In 2019, Dan joined Absolute Radio – becoming the youngest person to present on the national station at 21 years old. At Absolute Radio, he has covered shows including Overnights, Evenings and Weekend Breakfast. He has also co-produced a documentary, “Woodstock at 50”.
• Radio Festival first timer, Molly Palmer joins us on the Impact Stage. Molly hosts the BBC Radio Wales Tuesday evening programme. Molly joined Radio Wales in 2023 having covered programmes on BBC Radio Cymru 2 and previously worked at Radio Platfform, the youth-led radio station and training space at the Wales Millennium Centre.
• Digital media lawyer Cliff Fluet demonstrates the power of AI for producers and creators. Cliff specialises in music tech brands, intellectual property, entertainment and innovation at law firm Lewis Silkin, and offers strategic advice to some of the world’s biggest names in digital, mobile, social media, brands, music and live events.
• Sangita Myska is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster who has worked at the BBC and LBC. She works with the John Schofield Trust encouraging a new generation of journalists into a rapidly changing industry.
• Neev Spencer is a Radio and TV broadcaster who is currently presenting the afternoon show on Magic FM. Her next step is to return to her passion for stand-up comedy!
• Ahmed Hussain heads up the BBC Asian Network, leading the UK-based station to reach over half a million listeners weekly and more than two million through social media and video content. He’s also been tasked with moving the whole station to Birmingham from April 2025. The pre-dominantly music and entertainment station is currently the number one most listened to British Asian station. Ahmed began his broadcasting career at pirate and community radio stations in East London, focusing on providing opportunities for young talent to get into broadcasting and the media, and is often delivering masterclasses in audio and beyond. His efforts have garnered multiple awards, including BBC Asian Network winning Gold at the 2024 ARIAS as the best radio station in the UK and recently posting its highest RAJAR numbers post Covid.
• Tommy Dixon is an award-winning podcast producer and presenter from London and a member of The ReelWorld Radio Academy 30 under 30 class of 2023. Tommy has produced programmes for BBC Sounds, BBC World Service and Transmission Roundhouse. His work includes the ARIA Gold winning docudrama Colouring In Britain.
• Caroline Steel is a broadcaster and science expert with a masters in physics. She won Best New Presenter at the ARIAS 2024. Caroline hosts CrowdScience and sometimes Unexpected Elements on the BBC World Service and you can hear her presenting science documentaries on Radio 4.
• Hosting our popular Festival stage is Nadia Jae, Host, BBC Radio 1xtra Breakfast Show who will welcome an amazing line-up of creative audio practitioners, award winners, influencers, leaders and sector visionaries.
• Adam Jarrell (Director, Editor) and Joel Emery (Writer) together run Holy Smokes - the creative team behind Goalhanger's Sherlock & Co. A show that has broken the mould for audio drama in the UK with weekly episode releases that have amassed millions of downloads and picked up an ARIA, a PodBible Award and two British Podcast Award nominations in its first year alone. Together Adam and Joel have created long-running hits such as The Offensive as well as other award-winning productions such as Jackie the Ripper and BOOM.
• Adrian Durham has been on the radio for 35 years, starting out in news where he covered US and UK elections, interviewed Tony Blair and Prince Charles, and covered huge stories including the Stephen Lawrence murder and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Adrian has been hosting talkSPORT’s Saturday afternoon football show Gameday since the radio station started in 2000, also hosting the Drive show for 15 years. He is now the Chief live football anchor for the station, and has worked at eleven major football tournaments, citing the Lionesses 2022 Euros win as his best experience. He won ARIAS Gold for Best Speech Presenter 2023 and was part of the Gameday team that won ARIAS Gold for Best Sports Coverage 2024.
• Crossy presents the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Dublin's iconic number 1 breakfast show alongside Jim-Jim and Zeinab. He has been part of FM104 since he was 17 years of age working on nearly every show in the station, be it in the background or on air. In 2023, Crossy became a full time breakfast show presenter for the station as well as being on the red carpet for the wireless network in London, speaking to the biggest stars in the world. Crossy can also been seen on TV, whether it's on Virgin Media's Six O'Clock show or on RTE, the national Broadcaster. In the last number of years Crossy has been part of Virgin Radio Pride in the UK and has been part of Pride Vibes, Ireland's 1st dedicated LGBTQ+ pop up radio station.
• Jon Mounsor leads the Creator Partnerships team for the UK and Ireland, focusing on building and enhancing relationships with podcasters and content creators. With a strong track record in managing and growing strategic partnerships, Jon oversees Spotify’s efforts to drive engagement, innovation and revenue within the podcasting space.
• Presenter, Commentator and Broadcaster, Nick Bright can be seen fronting multiple formats across sports and entertainment. For 13 years, Nick has hosted his own show on BBC Radio 1Xtra which he continues to this day; supporting new artists and interviewing the best of the best around black music and culture.
• Nick Callaghan has over twenty years commercial experience gained through working at some of the UK's leading broadcasters / platforms in both traditional and online advertising. He is currently working as a Director of Sales at Spotify UK. In this role, Nick is responsible for building meaningful and sustainable relationships with key partners across the Entertainment, Financial Services, UK Government and Real Money Gaming sectors. He works closely with clients to ensure they are using Spotify's suite of different advertising formats to create immersive experiences that will bring people closer to their brands.
• Tracy Rubenstein is Evening Editor at Times Radio and spends most of her time planning and setting up Times Radio breakfast. Before that she spent several years as a senior producer at Radio 4's flagship 'Today' programme. She's worked on almost all Radio 4 news shows in her time!
• Imriel Morgan is the Founder and CEO of Content is Queen and is the host of the award-winning Wanna Be podcast. She holds an MBA and has a background in tech, having spent years as a start-up marketer before working with social enterprises. Imriel began podcasting in 2015 when she co-founded the UK's first podcast network to support underrepresented groups. In 2019, she created 'Content is Queen', the UK's first and only women's podcast festival, before launching an agency and community of the same name. She believes audio is the most powerful medium in which to share the stories of others, and through Content is Queen wants to help amplify them and change the world for the better.
• Cecilia Tyrrell is a sound and new media artist from London. Her practise is built upon the concept of Deep Listening, a physical experience embracing the idea that listening extends beyond the auditory. As an avid field recordist she works primarily with sound, to explore how resonance manifests itself within our landscapes in both vast and microscopic scales. These creative explorations are used in composition and soundscape design, as well as for community engagement, leading sound walks and listening workshops. Cecilia graduated with an MFA in Film, Video, New Media and Animation from the School of the Art Institute Chicago in 2021 and is a current BBC Open Music Trainee for 23/24.
• Aniya Das is a podcast producer at Plosive. She produces comedy podcasts such as Northern News, Lucy and Sam’s Perfect Brains, Sara & Cariad’s Weirdos Book Club, Nobody Panic and more. Before joining Plosive she worked at Somethin’ Else (Sony Music Entertainment) on their original podcasts and BBC Radio 4 shows, as well as producing her own music and podcasts.

While you look forward to all that on 18 September, why not catch-up on videos from last year?

Ticket Prices:

We are pleased to once again offer an early bird rate and a concessionary rate for independent freelancers and those working in micro-businesses (of one person) who are self-funding. Please note, you must be a member of The Radio Academy in order to purchase a ticket. 

• Reflecting our founding year of 1983, the regular Ticket Price has been kept the same again this year, at £198.30+VAT.
• A Freelancer Early Bird discount of 30% is available for independent freelancers or micro-businesses who book before 30 June.* 
• We're also offering Concessionary Tickets at £83+VAT for low-earning individuals, who earn below £28,000 per annum. If you purchase this ticket type and do not meet our eligibility criteria, we reserve the right to cancel your ticket.*
• Our Bursary Scheme, kindly supported by Audible, offering free tickets and travel support, has now closed for applications.

*Discounted tickets are limited and targeted at individuals - please do not apply for these if your company is funding your ticket. Discounts only available while stocks last and subject to T&Cs. You may be asked for proof of eligibility.

Please note that this event is 18+.