Between them this DJ team had worked on many UK stations: Krissi started on short wave around the world (broadcasting from her garage with egg boxes on the walls to dull the sound). From there she joined the team at WABC broadcasting from Co Donegal in Ireland before moving to England and joining GEM AM. Krissi also worked for Signal Radio in Stoke on Trent and also BBC Radio Shropshire. Jenni was on BBC Radio 1 and other London radio stations.
The original GEM disappeared in the 90s when it was absorbed into a national radio group but the station that had been the ‘radio home’ to so many DJs was not forgotten for long. They had stayed in touch, and in 2012, twenty-four years after it first launched, they created the internet service ‘Solid Gold GEM’. We feature the similar music, jingles and familiar names from the original station, but now are available nationally via the internet!
Such was the interest in our station we were joined by DJs who had worked on other UK radio stations.
These included Andy Siddell who was on the satellite station Radio Nova that broadcast all over Europe, then he moved to Leeds to work on Radio Aire, then the ‘Gold’ station Magic 828 where he was as also head of music for the Magic North network.
Stephen Wells, who is from Wales where he ‘helped out’ at Marcher Sound before joining us.
John Palin worked in hospital radio, loves music, and is also an expert on radio jingles which you can hear in his show.
Geoff Dorsett has interviewed many 100s of 60s and 70s stars and presents three specialist shows every weekend.
And of course Barry Jay, who had never before worked in radio but was a disco DJ and now is a huge hit with his 1960s Café. We were joined in 2020 by Simon Shaw who can be heard Monday to Friday at 10am on The Getogether.
We also have an experienced North American radio DJ on our team, Chuck Shorter, who presents Top 40 Countdown USA on Saturday night and also fills in for vacations.
Other additions to our radio family are Trevor Thomas, Mike Wyer, Mark Phillips, John Hellings, Tim Morsley and Tony Lloyd.
