Tim Smith

Why organisations work with Tim Smith

• Two decades on Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2 is rehearsal time most corporate hosts do not have. He arrives on stage already knowing how to read a room of strangers in real time.
• He has built a working production relationship with FTSE-scale internal communications teams through podcast series for BAE Systems, Network Rail, BT, Jaguar Land Rover, Diageo, UK Power Networks and McVitie’s. He understands what a regulated employer can and cannot put into a sponsored programme.
• He interviews senior leaders, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair on the Steve Wright Show, without losing the audience or the executive. That craft transfers directly to fireside chats and keynote interviews at corporate events.
• His current weekday morning slot on Magic Classical and continuing radio practice keep his interview rhythm sharp. Buyers are not booking a former broadcaster; they are booking someone still on air every week.

Biography highlights

• Co-presenter on Steve Wright in the Afternoon, BBC Radio 2, from 1999 to 2022.
• Presenter of the UK Top 20 Chart Show on BBC World Service for 13 years, succeeding Paul Burnett.
• Weekday morning presenter on Magic Classical from June 2025.
• Corporate podcast presenter for BAE Systems, Network Rail, BT, Jaguar Land Rover, Diageo, UK Power Networks and McVitie’s.
• Sony Award-nominated for Picture Show on BBC GLR.
• Covered the 2000 Open Golf Championship at St Andrews and Wimbledon for official broadcast platforms.

Biography

The hardest part of a corporate set piece is rarely the strategy on the slide. It is the twelve seconds after the host introduces the CEO, when the audience decides whether to listen. A broadcaster trained on live national radio knows how to fill those twelve seconds. Most corporate MCs do not.

Tim joined BBC Radio 2 in 1999 as co-presenter on Steve Wright in the Afternoon and stayed for 23 years, alongside Janey Lee Grace and Joyce Frost. Before that he had presented on BBC Radio 1, on BBC GLR where Picture Show earned a Sony Award nomination, and the UK Top 20 Chart Show on BBC World Service for 13 years.

The corporate work runs in parallel. He presents podcast series for BAE Systems, Network Rail, BT, Jaguar Land Rover, Diageo, UK Power Networks and McVitie’s, working inside the editorial and compliance constraints that internal communications teams in regulated industries actually operate under. From June 2025 he also presents the weekday morning show on Magic Classical.

For a buyer, the proposition is narrow and clear. He is not a subject-matter speaker on a business theme. He is a host with two decades of live national broadcast behind him, hired to make a conference, awards night, town hall or branded podcast sound like something the audience wants to keep listening to.

Key speaking topics

• Conference and awards hosting
• Keynote interviews and fireside chats with senior leaders
• Corporate podcast presenting and production
• Internal town hall and all-hands hosting
• Panel moderation
• Live broadcast craft for corporate events

Ideal for

• Internal communications and employee experience leads commissioning town halls, all-hands events and leadership broadcasts
• Marketing and brand teams running awards programmes, conferences and customer events
• Corporate affairs teams producing branded podcast series for employee or external audiences
• Event producers and agency partners briefing on plenary and panel hosting

Audience outcomes

• A plenary that runs to time, with senior speakers introduced and handled without dead air.
• A keynote interview that draws the answer the audience came to hear, not the answer the executive rehearsed.
• A panel that moves, with questions sharp enough that the panellists have to respond rather than recite.
• An awards night with pace, where category presentations land and the room is still engaged at the final award.
• A podcast episode that sounds like national broadcast quality rather than a recorded internal meeting.