Stephen Gardner (presenter/head writer/characters)
Finger always on the pulse of popular culture, Stephen Gardner will tell you every time you see him about some new band that is going to be huge. He’s frequently right about it too.
His knowledge of music figures would also make him a wise choice for any pub-quiz team. You can pull out any obscure piece of music and he’ll tell you exactly what position it got to in the US Billboard charts, even if it was 10 years before he was born.
It is now common knowledge that Stephen used to perform in talent shows of sorts. He doesn’t like to go into details though, and we’ve yet to uncover any camcorder (or otherwise) footage of this.
He presents the first show on BHBS (Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service) on a Thursday evening, and often stays for most of the evening until the station stops it’s live broadcasting at 10pm. This sort of ill-conceived working arrangement meant that when the previous studio manager left, Stephen was the first (and only) victim candidate for the position.
When BHBS decided they wanted to broadcast 24-hours-a-day, there were a lot of programmes required, to fill the gaps outside the live broadcast schedule. Ben (with James and Stephen) were in charge of recording shows to go out 7-9am (the breakfast show!), and the first collaboration of B, J & S was born.
Since the early days of the Breakfast Show, Stephen became the unofficial ‘head writer’ – something he continues to this day.
From April 2007 onwards, Stephen has also been co-presenting “The Music and Waffle Show” on Thornbury FM. Sometimes with James, but almost always with Ben. Stephen writes the majority of any pre-recorded segments.
Stephen can often be seen sporting the latest technology. He was the first member of BJS to own an iPhone, and the first to get Sky+.
At some point (several years ago) he leant a DVD of “The Big Lebowski” to Ben. Despite Ben attempting to give it back several times, Stephen is insistent that he doesn’t want it back until Ben has watched it.
Stephen enjoys walking. Not rambling in the countryside, but cross-city. He claims he can walk from anywhere in Bristol to anywhere else in Bristol in no more than 20minutes.
He hates lemon curd, and has described it as “the tool of Lucifer himself”.
You can keep up to date with Stephen’s movements on Twitter: @lordhyperbole
(Updated 7th July 2011)
