Alex Belfield

Alex Belfield (born 14 January 1980) is a British radio presenter, journalist, and entertainer.

Alex Belfield
Alex Belfield Las Vegas 2013
Born (1980-01-14) 14 January 1980
Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
Career
Style
  • Radio presenter
  • journalist
  • entertainer
Previous show(s)BBC, ITV
Websitewww.celebrityradio.biz

Radio career

In September 1997, Belfield began his career as part of the launch team of Radio 106. In 1999, he moved to Nairobi, Kenya to present 'Belfield at Breakfast' at 98.4 Capital FM.[1] He then returned to the UK to rejoin Century 106 for a third year working on the breakfast show. In September 2001 he began his career as a talk/personality radio host after joining BBC Radio Leicester. After 18 months Belfield moved to Mansfield 103.2 FM in January 2004 to present The Lunchtime Mega Phone-in.[2] In February 2001, he launched his own production company, Alex Belfield Productions, providing bespoke celebrity programmes which have been broadcast on over 80 radio stations in the UK.[3] His subjects have included Ozzy Osbourne, Andrea Bocelli, Donny Osmond, Frankie Valli, Dame Edna Everage, Katherine Jenkins and Lord Sugar.[4] In 2002, Belfield presented a special programme, Live From New York,[5] to mark the first anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks, which was broadcast on 18 BBC radio stations in the UK. Guests included Ricki Lake and the Duchess of York.

Between 2004 and 2010, he appeared on radio stations, including Mercia FM, Touch FM,[6] BBC Bristol, BBC Radio Shropshire and BBC Hereford and Worcester.[7] Belfield also recorded programmes for 3 years for both Coastline FM in Spain and CityTalk 105.9 in Liverpool.[8] In 2006, he presented the breakfast show on Capital Gold in Birmingham for six weeks, before moving to London to take over the station's networked national late show called "The Late Night Revolution". He also presented Saturday Breakfast 6 am – 9 am.[9]

In May 2010, he joined BBC Radio Leeds to present the mid-morning show. Belfield attracted 50,000 listeners at 9 am, the station peak.[10] In February 2011, Belfield was on holiday in Egypt during the uprising against Hosni Mubarak and reported on events for BBC 5Live, BBC Breakfast on BBC 1, BBC News and BBC World.[11] Belfield also appeared Live on BBC Look North for Children In Need.[12] He raised £120,000 for the charity.[13] Belfield left BBC Radio Leeds in March 2011, saying "I'm not a journalist, never have been and frankly don't want to be".[14] He has since described his time at BBC Leeds as "the worst year of my life".

In December 2011, Belfield made his debut on BBC Radio 2 with Jimmy Savile's "last in-depth interview", recorded at Savile's Leeds home in February that year.[15][16] The interview was broadcast on Christmas Day 2011.[17] The interview was later republished in the Daily Star on 12 October 2012 following the ITV Exposure programme exposing Savile as a prolific paedophile.[18] Belfield also recorded the last UK interview with Andy Williams, published in the Daily Mirror the morning after the singer's death.[19] Since 2012 Belfield has focused on presenting and producing content for his website Celebrity Radio.[20] This website offers audio & video celebrity interviews as well as international theatre, travel & restaurant reviews. His material has attracted over 58.8 million minutes viewed on YouTube since 2009, 11.9 million minutes in 2019 [21] and over 25.8 million unique hits.[22]

Radio controversies

Over the years Belfield has courted controversy. In 2004 at Scarlet FM he regularly made the local newspapers after various stunts and controversial statements, with one listener describing his style as "moronic".[23] At Mansfield 103.2, he established a series of 'fake sackings' (one of which would involve Mansfield 103.2's managing director Tony Delahunty), in which he would pretend to be fired on the air and then magically reappear the following day.[24] In 2005 whilst hosting the late night radio show for Capital Gold Belfield referred to a mother of triplets as a "slapper". Belfield's comments were described as "ill-judged".[25] In 2010 whilst hosting BBC Radio Leeds mid-morning show Belfield was suspended for 1 day after making "lewd" comments about BBC Look North weather presenter Keeley Donovan.[26]

Journalism

Since 2013 Alex has worked as a freelance writer for The Sun, Sun on Sunday, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Sunday People and Daily Star.

In 2017 he has had three front pages exclusive stories and over 100 page lead stories published in the national press.[27]

Belfield's biggest global story happened in June 2015. He flew to New York after breaking a world exclusive of a near fatal accident at a Criss Angel magic show. He broke the story in the Daily Mirror which later ran on over 200 outlets, the most watched morning show in the USA, NBC Today Show as well as CBS, FOX & CNN. The clip has had 789,000+ hits to date on YouTube. The clip was featured around the world on 'Magic Gone Wrong' TV Special in 2017.[28][29][30][31]

In August 2015 Belfield made national headlines with his controversial Noel Edmonds interview in the Daily Mirror [32] This interview was later printed in the Daily Mail, Huffington Post, The Guardian, Radio Times & debated on BBC 5 Live & more.[33][34][35][36]

References
  1. "Capital FM Nairobi". Celebrity Radio. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  2. "Mansfield 103.2 Phone-in". Celebrity Radio. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  3. "Alex Belfield". Alex Belfield. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  4. "Belfield's Celeb Best Bits 2010". Celebrity Radio. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  5. "9/11 Ground Zero Documentary". Celebrity Radio. 9 November 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  6. "Touch FM". Celebrity Radio. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  7. "BBC Local Radio". Celebrity Radio. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  8. "Belfield's Life On The Air". Celebrity Radio. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  9. "Capital Gold". Celebrity Radio. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  10. "Official BBC Leeds Listening Figures". Media UK. 5 September 2014.
  11. "Happy Holidays in Egypt!". Celebrity Radio. February 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  12. "Alex Belfield Live on BBC Look North". YouTube. 18 November 2010. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  13. "Children In Need appeal for 2010". BBC Leeds. 12 October 2010.
  14. "Wasn't up to the job". Yorkshire Post. 9 March 2011.
  15. "Alex Belfield". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  16. "Jimmy Savile Final Interview". Celebrity Radio. December 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  17. "Jimmy Savile BBC Radio 2 Website". BBC.
  18. Hall, Emily (12 October 2012). "Jimmy Savile hinted at dark side in last interview before death". Daily Star. London. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  19. "Andy Williams' last interview: I just wanted to make people happy even if I was sick of singing the same old hits". Daily Mirror. London. 28 September 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  20. "Celebrity Radio". Celebrity Radio. 3 April 2012.
  21. "Alex Belfield Celebrity Radio". Celebrity Radio. 3 April 2012.
  22. "Alex Belfield Official YouTube Channel". YouTube. 17 August 2017.
  23. "Belfield Press Cuttings". Celebrity Radio. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  24. "Belfield Fired Live On-Air". Celebrity Radio. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  25. "Reprimanded by Ofcom". The Guardian. 23 January 2006.
  26. "Lewd Comments on Air". Yorkshire Post. 2 December 2010.
  27. "Celebrity Radio Newspaper Stories". Celebrity Radio. 22 March 2015.
  28. "Mirror Criss Angel Near Tragedy". Daily Mirror. 27 June 2015.
  29. "Celebrity Radio Criss Angel". Celebrity Radio. 27 June 2015.
  30. "YouTube 786,000 Hits Criss Angel". YouTube. 27 June 2015.
  31. "Today Show Criss Angel". NBC. 28 June 2015.
  32. "Mirror Noel Edmonds". Daily Mirror. 5 August 2015.
  33. "Radio Times Noel Edmonds". Radio Times. 5 August 2015.
  34. "Guardian Noel Edmonds". Guardian. 5 August 2015.
  35. "Huffington Post Noel Edmonds". Huffington. 5 August 2015.
  36. "5 Live Noel Edmonds". BBC. 7 August 2015.
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