So different

If you work in the newsroom at a commercial radio station you get to do a bit of everything. From reading the bulletins, reporting, sport and getting involved in the main shows on-air. I found it very different in the BBC.

I started at BBC Radio Leeds in January 2001. My job was to read the news bulletins in what was called the Night Network, my shift started at 4.30pm until half past midnight, reading the bulletins on Radio Leeds, Sheffield, Humberside and York four days a week. It wasn't a very social shift, as I was starting work everyone else was winding down and getting ready to go to the pub.

In hindsight I really regret working the unsociable hours, but I don't regret getting a staff job at the BBC. This was my first time away from Preston and from my parents. A couple of weeks earlier we'd been driving around Leeds looking for a suitable place to live. I ended up renting a room in a house owned by the son of a presenter who worked on Magic 999. Tracey would end up being my housemate for around the next 18 months. She worked for a company in city centre Leeds, formerly she operated the autocue at breakfast television stations TV-am and GMTV.

There was lots of learn, different computer systems, different studios and very different ways of working. I enjoyed the challenge of learning about the areas I would be broadcasting to, and trying to get to know some of my new colleagues.