A FORMER Coventry College student has achieved his boyhood dream after becoming the host of a new BBC radio show.
Dan Sambell, from Rugby, wanted to be on the radio after listening to local stations from the age of five with his dad.
The 25-year-old remembers regularly ringing in to Rugby FM as a young boy to get on air.
He said: “From that minute I was hooked, I loved it.
“I used to ring in all the time, probably annoying the radio presenters.”
After leaving school Dan, now 25, joined Coventry College where he studied a two-year level three extended diploma in creative media production.
Part of the course provided Dan with the opportunity to have his own show on the college radio station, Synergy FM, where he would prepare feature content and produce programmes.
He said: “We learned all sorts of things across the whole radio industry, from script writing to editing and audio production.
“It was the perfect course to give me the experience I needed.
“If it was not for the college, I would not even have applied to the BBC because my tutor at the time gave me the confidence to do it.”
The new show, Make A Difference, airs from 6pm to 8pm every Saturday on BBC CWR and tells the stories of local heroes across Coventry and Warwickshire who have stepped up to help during the pandemic.
Stories featured so far have included a Coventry woman who completed 1,000 steps after recovering from a stroke, the Warwickshire 4×4 volunteers who transported hospital staff to hospitals in heavy snow, a woman in Attleborough who made and sold knitted hearts to raise money for a defibrillator for the village, and a boy who baked and sold flapjacks outside his house to raise money so that he could buy his mother a birthday present.
Dan added: “It’s a chance to shout about local heroes across Coventry and Warwickshire and how they are making a difference through the pandemic and beyond.
“It’s celebrating the stories of local heroes and also has good music to get you started for your Saturday night.
“It’s a feelgood, upbeat show. We want to make people smile as we come out of the pandemic.”
