rory kay - biography
Rory was born and raised in the early 80's by his hippy parents in the hills of Glastonbury (near the festival). Rory is the youngest son in his family. In the 80's & 90's, Rory's father was one of the U.K's leading Psychiatrists - specialising in drug misuse, before going private in the mid 90's. Rory's mother is still one of the country's leading Psychotherpists (and Psychotherpist trainers - specialising in NLP), and is the founder/chairwoman of a multi-regional company which provides services to NHS trusts.
At work Rory has an uncomplacent can-do attitude. His ability to adapt to new formats is apparant, he is confident of who he is and what he stands for, and is totally committed to the job in hand. With relation to management, he receives praise from all levels for his work and is empathetic in every way. Rory believes in postive constructive feedback ALL the time and will never delve into the 'football manager' approach. Rory has the ability to think with length, bredth and depth - something that comes from his analytical and intellectual nature.
Nearly all of Rory's actions have been thought out over and over before he's acted on it. He has a unique ability to truly understand the consequences of everything he does and is well and truly able to put himself in other people's shoes. Rory is an utter perfectionist - always striving to do the task in hand in better way, it's as good-a quality as it is tiring - but at least he's concious of that. Rory is motivated for success - something his true understanding of the buisness side of radio has helped him with.
After moving to East Anglia in the mid 80's and slogging through the education system Rory ended up as a money sucking student at Loughborough University. Rory found out that his next door neighbour Duncan did a student radio show. He slowly got more and more involved in radio. He became interested in Production, and with the station editing suite and a dash of artistic liscence became station production mananger. Later he went on to become Head of Music. During this time he created a unique music development system that would bring specialists together with programmers to decide what would be best for the station. Rory's main passion was for the shows he did. He would obsessively listen back to himself and his links, compare it with that of 'big stations' and try to develop an original style that suited him.
During his time at Uni, Rory hosted Freefest for two years (3000 turn out); presented the Unilever sponsored Inter'hall pub quiz live on LCR1350am, brought big name House DJ's to LCR through his contact with Jason (JFK) from Passion at the Emporium in Coalville. Guests included Mark Younghead, Nick Corelli and JFK. Rory also dabbled in student TV, winning auditions to co-present a spin off of Davina McCall's Street Mate show.
Three years into his course (April 2002), Rory decided he would make a demo from his student radio archives, and send it to regional dance/r'n'b station Vibe Fm. He was given feedback on the demo tape, asked what he wanted to achieve, and given a one off overnight show to cover. By July '02, Rory had his own show on a Friday night. He travelled every Friday the 150 miles to do the show, only to have to travel straight back the following morning. By September 2003, Rory had his own show in the evenings.
Besides covering most people's shows on the station, Rory has done a variety of community, charity and PA work, both for the station and privately. He is first to be picked for U18's nights, schools and college promotions, live outdoor events, voiceovers, press coverage and media talks. Up to Sep '06 Rory was the specialist urban music man for Vibe, DJing every week around East Anglia. He currently has in excess of 4000 hours of experience on-air, and over 350 club nights under his belt.
In Sep '06, Rory Kay signed to Galaxy North East. He presented 1-4pm to the TSA of over 2 million. Rory was also first cover for Drive, and hosted several club nights for Galaxy. After returning back off holiday in February, Rory did not resign a contract with Galaxy.
More recently, Rory moved to Liverpool, to present Drive on Juice 107.6 Fm in Liverpool which he described as being "one of a few stations that produces over 95% of it's output locally". Rory presented Juice Fm Drive (Mon - Thurs 3pm-7pm; Fridays 3pm-6pm) and a Sunday show 12pm-4pm). He was also responsible for the coaching and development of the 14 specialists presenters - as Head of Specialist Programming. During his time at UTV Radio's station Juice Fm, he helped the station to gain audience by 25% - from 121,000 to 151,000 listeners (Source: RAJAR Q3 2007), and more recently has helped to push the station's hours up (Source: RAJAR Q1 2008). Rory's audience figures have been up year on year (Source: RAJAR Q1 2007, Q1 2008).
Rory left Juice Fm in July 2008 shortly after commencing his recovery from major shoulder surgery.
