Meet the Team

 

JP's, (alias Juergen Peter) dream of having his own English speaking radio show came true in November 1998. He gained experience as a DJ and radio show presenter in his spare time while employed with the American Forces Network (AFN SHAPE) in Belgium. There he adopted his initials JP as his DJ title at that time. He plays Squash, Badminton, loves Beach Volleyball, and swims to keep fit. He is also an avid Eurovision Song Contest fan. As an easy-going person with a great sense of humour. JP initially founded Radio International in November 1998 as a radio show geared towards the EXPAT community in the Netherlands. The Eurovision Song Contest has always been a part of the show and JP made sure there are always some Eurovision songs added to the weekly playlist. In the early 2000s the show's content changed completely to focus on the Eurovision Song Contest, it's artists and national finals. A weekly highlight is the Interview Hour in which JP and his Interview Team chat to Eurovision artists for one hour live during the show about their time at the Eurovision Song Contest and career. A large number of artists made their appearance on the show including Eurovision Winners Linda Martin, Niamh Kavanagh, Katrina of Katrina and the Waves, Eldar, Charlie McGettighan and many many others - see the link to our Radio International - Hall of Fame. The show would not be so successful if there would not be the members of the Radio International Team. See below where the colleagues are being introduced. Also a big thanks go to the radio stations that are broadcasting Radio International on a weekly basis already for many years as a syndicated radio show. There is Malta's Radio 105, The UK's SWITCH Radio Network (three stations), South Norfolk Radio in the United Kingdom and on the Rock of Gibraltar on GoGo Radio Gibraltar.

Our Eurovision Song Contest Correspondents and Experts.

David Mann born and raised in London, (I'm the same age as the number of Eurovision Contests), I moved out to East Anglia with my job around thirty years ago, and I now live in Wymondham, (pronounced Wind-um) a traditional small English market town about 12km from the historic city of Norwich.
My earliest Eurovision memory is of hearing 'Sing Little Birdie' (UK 1959) played on 'Childrens Favourites' on the BBC Light Programme on the radio. I'm old enough to remember when Eurovision was BIG in the UK and even just seeing a live broadcast from a foreign country was a huge event. So much so that even the audiences wore evening dress back then - no flag waving, just polite applause! After so many years watching the show, it was the advent of the world wide web that was the catalyst to start taking a more serious interest, and I've been lucky enough to attend a couple of finals. the 50th Anniversary show in Copenhagen as well as Sweden's Melodifestivalen . Now, with the demise of BBC Television Centre, it's also time to look back 'fondly' at the countless hours spent queing in the cold and wet over the years to get in to see the various incarnations of the UK national selection shows! I run the eurovision-norwich.info website and try to update my blog on a reasonably regular basis during the 'on' season, although it is primarily directed at the 'just generally interested' rather than the super-fan. The aim is to attempt to provide some insight into the madness of the entire Eurovision thing to all those non-believers.

Dermot Manning is from Dublin, Ireland, the most successful country in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. He studied law in University and now practises as a Barrister. Dermot has watched the Eurovision Song Contest every year since 1975. He went to the contest for the first time in Millstreet in 1993, and has been to 16 contests since. He broadcasts for Irish Independent Radio at Eurovision. His most memorable moments at Eurovision were being in the audience in the Point Theatre in 1994 for Riverdance, and meeting and hearing Severine sing "Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue" in Athens in 2006, which is his all-time favourite Eurovision song. Dermot's other great passion is traveling.

Marcus Keppel-Palmer lives in Bristol, England and brings his own Eurovision slant to the show. A long term music fan, Marcus first watched the Eurovision back in 1970. His favourite winner is Severine's "Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue". Any dream of actually entering Eurovision evaporated when his inability to hold a tune was discovered, although some might say that is no bar nowadays! He updates Radio International listeners on the latest eurovision news and gossip.

Chris Poppe lives in the Northampton in the UK and owes his love of music to having been the son of a publican because he was given the old records off the jukebox every week from the age of 5! A University graduate, he has had a variety of jobs from running a sandwich bar to maintaining the electoral register! He now sells antiquarian books. In his spare time he goes to the theatre, loves foreign travel and his infatuation with the Eurovision Song Contest grows stronger every year!You can visit Chris's Blog "The Real Chrisparkle" - here.

 

 

Alasdair Rendall lives in London, although studied in Edinburgh and grew up in the small town of Bedford. He was always fascinated by songs in foreign languages and became addicted to the Eurovision Song Contest from an early age, watching every year since 1989. After graduating in Modern Languages and European Union Studies he qualified as a broadcast journalist, and now works in political journalism. The Eurovision Song Contest is without doubt the highlight of his year, and thinks the social aspect of Eurovision, meeting fans from all over the world, is just as important as the musical side of the contest.

John Dawton has been a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest since 2005, and a firm follower since 2009. In adition, to working for Radio International, he is also an English language teacher, and a singer-songwriter. He speaks five languages: English, French, German, Russian and Slovene.



 

Salman has been a Eurovision Fan since his early childhood. He started working as a Eurovision journalist in 2006 and has not missed a single Eurovision Song Contest ever since then. Salman is covering the world‘s largest music event for multiple German national newspapers such as „Die Rheinpfalz“, „Mannheimer Morgen“ and „Rhein Neckar Zeitung“ and has become one of the most known „Eurovision Experts“ in Germany. Besides that he has also been writing for the „ESC Prinz Blog“, the biggest ESC Fanpage in Germany. Further is Salman one of the founder members of the Berlin Eurovision Weekend. We have the pleasure having Salman in our Radio International team since 2016. Besides the Eurovision Song Contest, he also covers several National Finals to the Eurovision Song Contest on location for Radio International such as Sweden's Melodifestivalen or the Albanian Festivali i Këngës just to mention a few. Also he is a key member of the Radio International Interview Panel conducting weekly interviews with Eurovision artists past and present and that all year round. Salman is originally from Germany but currently lives and works in Switzerland.

Marc from Germany became a Eurovision fan in his early childhood in 1982, following Germany's first victory in the Contest when Nicole charmed Europe with her peace hymn "Ein bisschen Frieden".(A Little Peace). In 2007 he was thrilled when he attended his first live Eurovision in Helsinki. Since 2008, Marc has been covering the Song Contest for national websites, newspapers, blogs, and fan clubs in Germany and Austria. In 2008 he was one of the co-founders of the "ESC Prinz Blog", the biggest Eurovision fansite in Germany for over 10 years. Marc also supported and assisted Eurovision artists at concerts, festivals and fan events. Marc's work for 'Prinz Blog' and his love of travel and Eurovision have also seen him cover many National Finals such as Sweden's Melodifestivalen, EMA in Slovenia, and Söngvakeppnin in Iceland amongst a number of others. Marc has been a member of the Radio International team since 2018 and has been assisting all year round with Radio International's regular interviews, often live, with artists from Eurovision past and present.

 

Javier Leal and his connections with the Eurovision Song Contest began back when he was about two years old and discovered ABBA from his mother's music collection. Then, in 1998, as his father watched a TVE (Spanish Eurovision Song Contest broadcaster) special, the 1974 contest was talked about and that's when he first heard the word Eurovision. It wasn't until Saturday, May 24th. 2003, when he stumbled upon the contest in Riga, being introduced to the competition by Fame's Give Me Your Love, the Swedish entry, and it was like love at first sight! All of this transpired in his native Ciudad Ojeda, Venezuela. He also helped co-found the very first official Venezuelan Eurovision fan club in May 2011, later recognized by OGAE Rest Of The World. He came across Eurovision Radio International in November 2011, and he's been a faithful listener ever since. Then in September 2012, he moved to Canada, in the city of Montreal, the hometown of worldwide super star Céline Dion (Switzerland 1988) and Katerina Duska (Greece 2019) among others. Since 2018 he's been reporting the Eurovision Calendar for the show during the National Selection season. His favorite ESC nation is Sweden and Melodifestivalen is his favorite National Selection show. He fluently speaks Spanish, English and French, with some basic knowledge of Italian and Swedish. As a passionate, proud Eurovision fan, he loves getting to know and listen to new artists every year, singing different music styles in different languages, and sharing his passion for music with his Euro-peers around the globe. Javier presents the weekly Eurovision Events Updates on the show. 

Michael Goodrich lives in the USA but do not let the location fool you. He is an avid fan of the Eurovision Song Contest and likes the contest for the fact that the music is different then in the US. He helps Radio International and the Hit Hunter by making jingles, show openers, medleys and much more. He loves to travel to different places and hopes that one day he will be able to travel Europe. In his spare time he likes play soccer, tennis, and golf. One of his biggest goals in life is to enter the Eurovision Song Contest as a singer and/or composer and since he can now enter the contest with breaking the age rule, he is already planning to go for this.

Stephen Boddington is a British expat living in Brussels. He discovered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980 and was very disappointed when his parents told him he had to wait a whole year for the next one. Still, it was worth the wait as Bucks Fizz won the following year, a UK victory cementing a passion that would grow to become a full-time hobby rather than something that comes round just once a year. Travelling to various national finals and fanclub conventions, he was frustrated at the lack of detailed information about such events and decided to do something about it, hence Radio International's Eurovision Calendar was born! His other passion is birdwatching and he has travelled all over the world seeing well over 1000 species as well as being a guide for foreign birdwatchers visiting Belgium and the Netherlands. Stephen is keeping the Eurovision Calendar up-to-date on the Radio International website.