Aircheck Tracker
Profile: Franklin Hughes:
By 1983 Franklin had moved into club management, and
it was at this time he saw an advert for the first ‘DJ of the year
competition’. He entered the last heat before the finals which was held at
Boodles nightclub in Oxford. The competition attracted over 800 hundred DJ’s
from around the UK and the final was held at Faces International in Birmingham
on Thursday 7th April 1983. Franklin came out triumphant as the
first “National Club DJ of the Year” . He went on to DJ in just about all the
major nightclubs in the country.
Franklin's first radio gig was on BBC Radio
Leicester in the Seventies, before moving to BRMB in Birmingham and
then to Mercia in Coventry. He joined
Radio
Trent
in the mid 80s to present a number of specialist shows including Steppin' Out
and The Music Jam. By the late 80s, he'd become a mainstream presenter
and his shows were networked with Leicester Sound (later Sound FM).
He also introduced the concept of "liners" to Trent/Sound being the first
to use JR Nelson voiced idents commissioned by him, having established himself
as one of the station most popular presenters he departed
Radio
Trent
in 1990.
He took this vast knowledge of nightclubs promotions
and radio presenting to London and became manager of a well-known nightclub in
West London, later joining North London's newly-licensed incremental station "WNK"
(Wicked, Neutral, Kicking) where he presented the drive-time show.
In 1992 his true intentions became clear as he
revealed he was to join the board of Choice FM in
London in
order to bid for the new Birmingham license, which had come about due to the
failure of Buzz FM. When Choice eventually won the licence in
1994, the new station was staffed by non-radio presenters from around the East
and West Midlands, many of whom have gone on to much greater things (including
Schooly on Capital FM; Leona Graham on Virgin and
the voice of a million liners and trails on Sky, C4, BBC; Sacha Brooks on
Vibe FM; Shortee Blitz on Kiss 100; Mark Wright on
Breakfast at Surf 107.2/Juice 107.2 in Brighton, etc. etc.) Franklin as
Managing Director & Programme Controller, however, lasted only six months before
he left the company.
Since leaving Choice FM, Franklin has been
involved with management and ownership of restaurants, bars & nightclubs. He
has worked in Swindon, Bristol, Southampton and most recently in
Surrey. In
2000, he formed ICE-FM (the consortium included former Kiss 100
founder Gordon MacNamee) who were considering bidding for the East Midlands
regional licence (won by Saga 106.6FM).
Franklin Hughes has long had the dream of training
youngsters to reach the heights in the jocking profession, that dream is now
being realised as he is now the founder and Managing Director of Flaunt Media
and he believes this to be his most exciting venture to date.
Thanks go to Franklin Hughes for supplying the above information.
Ian Bradford contacted AIRCHECK in October 2006: 'It was great to read your profile of Franklin Hughes. I first saw Franklin in 1983 when he visited a local club after winning the 'DJ Of The Year' title - and it was Franklin who inspired me to become a DJ myself (not reaching the same dizzy heights though!). We ended up working at the same club for a while, and after leaving there, I went to work for Franklin managing one of his record shops. I also accompanied him on the 'Stepping Out' shows on a Friday night...great times. When he sold the record shop, we both moved on in separate directions and have sadly lost contact. It would be great to get in touch with him again.
We don't usually keep contact details for our correspondents - so Franklin! If you're out there - get in touch with us here at AIRCHECK and we'll put you in touch with Ian, a.k.a Darren.