EXCLUSIVE: UK radio host Greg James has become Creative Director of the nascent Crossed Wires podcast festival.
James, who hosts one of the BBC’s most popular radio shows, has been tasked with helping grow the one-year-old Sheffield fest and has joined the company that runs it alongside My Dad Wrote a Porno host Alice Levine, ex-News Agents producer Dino Sofos and James O’Hara.
The fest launched last year with the likes of Katherine Ryan, Jon Ronson, comedian Adam Buxton and Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Laing on the bill. Announced so far this year are DJ Jordan North, etiquette expert William Hanson and a group of QI researchers.
James is well known to millions of UK radio listeners via his BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show. He also presents the Tailenders cricket podcast and was host of Channel 4’s short-lived Rise and Fall gameshow.
James said: “After banging on about how amazing podcasts are for 20 years, I’m glad the world’s finally caught on. I went to Crossed Wires last year to see what all the fuss was about and immediately fell in love with its ambition and mission statement to not only bring some of the biggest names in the industry to Sheffield, but to find the next generation of on and off-air stars from it.”
Levine said plans for year two of Crossed Wires are “even bigger and more ambitious” than the last. The fest takes place July 4 to 6. More lineup will be unveiled next week.
