rory kay - biography
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. He since left radio, completed a teaching PGCE and is currently working as a teacher in central London.
Rory plans to do some club gigs and gain a part-time slot on the radio in 2010.
