Mike Shaft

Mike Shaft (born in Grenada) is a UK based radio presenter, who has been active in British broadcasting for over forty years. Amongst his career Shaft has presented programmes for Piccadilly Radio, Jazz FM and BBC Radio Manchester. He also has enjoyed a stint on television where he was a presenters on the BBC flagship programme Open Air.

In 2017 Shaft's Radio Manchester show won the national, Jerusalem Award – recognised as a delightful presentational style and truly fitting of the great city from which it comes….willing to ask any question and to leave questions open, this is 21st century religious broadcasting…^[1]

Career

Shaft was born in Grenada and moved to the UK in 1968, he currently resides in Manchester.

Shaft began his broadcasting career in 1978 when he joined Piccadilly Radio on a freelance basis, in 1980 he was given his own weekly programme. In 1987 he left Piccadilly and joined BBC Radio Manchester as a presenter of the weekly soul music show, it was during his first stint on Radio Manchester that Mike was offed a presenting job on television, he was one of the presenters for Open Air. Soon after he began prestending episodes of Open Air, Shaft fulfilled the position of the Drivetime show on Radio Manchester.

In 1989 he left Radio Manchester in order to set up Sunset Radio, where he became Managing Director and Programme Controller. The station proved popular with listeners, but Shaft left the station in 1990 due to disagreement with some members of the Board about the direction that the station was taking. Following his resignation Shaft began working for various radio stations across the North West of England, these included Marcher Sound, Piccadilly Gold, Piccadilly Key 103 and Wear FM. During this time, Mike also co-presented a television series for Central Television, Birmingham called One World.

Shaft returned to frontline broadcasting in 1993 when he presented the mid-morning programme on The Bay, during his stint he was also head of promotion for The Bay. In 1996 he left The Bay in order to work for Jazz FM and The Christian Broadcasting station Reach FM in Bolton. Additionally Shaft returned to Piccadilly Radio in 1993, where he became Head of Music and also fronted the popular late night show Takin’ care of business, which featured briefly in the first episode of Cold Feet's fourth series.

On television Shaft has commentated for Sky Television's Basket Ball programme, he has presented programmes for The Christian Channel and regularly contributed to BBC Breakfast.

Currently Shaft presents the Sunday morning breakfast show on BBC Radio Manchester.

References

External links

• Mike Shaft official website
• Mike Shaft on twitter
• Mike Shaft – Back in Business programmes