Ben Foster

Ben fell into radio by accident. As a kid he wanted to be a cameraman and by the age of 16 he achieved that by working as a fulltime intern at a cable TV station in Hong Kong where he was lucky enough to film the visit of Tony Blair (remember him!) to Asia, President Clinton, interviewed the likes of Jon from Bon Jovi and Boyzone! It was a summer job at his local English language radio station in Hong Kong, where he grew up and lived as an expat, that sucked Ben into the world of radio and he’s never looked back.

He was trained on ¼ inch tape editing (as your parents they’ll explain what that was!) and then began fulltime as a producer for the UK Top 40 for Hong Kong listeners working with BBC Radio 1 each week. Ben loved this and it wasn’t long before he began presenting this show one summer himself. This gave Ben a chance to do what everyone has to do to get into radio - make his first demo tape and it WAS a tape back then! Ben came to the UK when he was 18, after travelling all over the world, and studied for his film and TV degree at University in Surrey. This lead to his first UK radio show on student radio back in 2001 on the Surrey Student Radio Station, GU2 FM.

His student radio shows got him his first paid work on the smallest radio station you can imagine amongst the hills of Shropshire where sheep and farmers were regular punters. It was grim but fantastic. This lead to getting gigs all over the UK, beginning in his hometown of Birmingham on BRMB then moving back South where he’s now lived for the last few years. Ben’s appeared on over 40 commercial radio stations, presented national network shows and The Quay is now Ben’s 5th station in the South alone.

When he’s not covering shows on The Quay he’ll be found spending his cash at Gunwharf either on the cinema or frequenting as many Chinese buffets he can manage. Other than that his only other passions include sunbathing at Lee-on-the-Solent or Pagam beach and enjoying the odd Jack and Coke! He loves the South, loves Pompey and the music he plays on The Quay but for anything else about Ben feel free to click his way to www.benfoster.biz.