\n Lewis Smith from Spennymoor idolised radio presenters like football stars when he was younger – but never imagined that one day his voice would be one thousands would hear across the airwaves.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 25-year-old was selected as one of 14 music lovers from across the country to present on the world-renowned station over the festive season, and took on presenting duties for BBC Introducing Rock on December 30 at 1am.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lewis Smith, 25, from Spennymoor. (Image: LEWIS SMITH)\n<\/p>\n
\n Following the opportunity, which he has described as “surreal”, Lewis is hoping he can get behind the microphone again in the future for other national stations.\n<\/p>\n
\n He told The Northern Echo: “I never considered being a radio presenter as a real career opportunity until I began studying media at New College Durham.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I was about to drop out, but one of my lecturers suggested I try doing radio as one of my projects. It was then that I just fell in love with it.”\n<\/p>\n
\n This led Lewis to begin volunteering at community station Spark in 2021, based out of the University of Sunderland, where he was soon able to find his niche.\n<\/p>\n
\n By September 2022, Lewis was presenting his very own show entitled ‘It Was Never a Phase’, focusing on nostalgic emo hits from the 90s to mid 2010s.\n<\/p>\n
\n But when the opportunity came up to present on Radio 1 late last year, Lewis couldn’t resist having a go and had an agonising wait to find out whether he was successful.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Aldi worker added: “I have gone for the Christmas presenter opportunities before, but haven’t been successful.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Then, I got the call and it was so surreal and being down there in the studio where other presenters have sat was a massive pinch me moment.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I dreamed of that ever since I decided that I wanted to be a radio presenter but never had the mindset that it was something I could make happen.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It was the most exciting and rewarding experience and hearing myself say ‘it’s Lewis on BBC Radio 1’ has lit a fire in me that I didn’t think could burn any brighter.”\n<\/p>\n
\n As he looks toward the future, Lewis is hoping his appearance on Radio 1 can act as a springboard for future opportunities and also inspire other aspiring radio presenters from the region.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lewis added: “I would love it to open doors for me elsewhere, whether that’s Radio 1, 2, Kerrang, Radio X, it’s my goal in life to have a job where I can talk about rock music.\n<\/p>\n
\n “For anyone else hoping to get into radio, I’d say don’t let being from the North East, or your accent, hold you back from going for it.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Get in contact with community stations like Spark and get involved, and also, don’t be disheartened by your first ‘no’.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Keep improving, keep going at it and keep the fire burning inside of you.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Smith from Spennymoor idolised radio presenters like football stars when he was younger – but never imagined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-399757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}