Jez Nelson

Last updated

Jez Nelson
MBE
Born
Jeremy Nelson

1 April 1964 (1964-04) (age 60)
Education Dulwich College
Alma mater King's College London
Occupations
  • Jazz broadcaster
  • television producer
Known forFounder and CEO of Somethin' Else

Jeremy Nelson MBE (born 1 April 1964) [1] is a jazz broadcaster and television producer. He is the founder and CEO of media production company Somethin' Else, which in 2021 became part of Sony Music Entertainment. [2] [3]

Contents

Education

Nelson was educated at Dulwich College (a boys' independent school in Dulwich, South London) and at King's College London, where he first began to DJ.

Career

After working on several pirate jazz radio stations, including KJazz, which he and DJ Gilles Peterson set up, Nelson joined Jazz FM soon after it was licensed in 1989. [4] His first show on Jazz FM was on 4 March 1990, [5] and he went on to present a nightly four-hour programme called Something Else, on which he interviewed jazz stars including Herbie Hancock, Nina Simone, Wayne Shorter and Sun Ra. [4] [6]

Having left Jazz FM in 1991, Nelson joined Kiss 100 and, along with former colleagues Sonita Alleyne and Chris Philips, he founded the media production company Somethin' Else. [7] The business has become the largest independent radio production company in the UK and is a leading cross-platform content producer. In 2009, Nelson succeeded Alleyne as CEO of Somethin' Else. [8] In 2021 Somethin' Else was fully acquired by Sony Music Entertainment to become part of a new Global Podcast Division. Jez Nelson, along with Steve Ackerman, became head of this division. He has also presented many BBC television and radio programmes, including It'll Never Work? for Children's BBC, which led to a presenter's role on the primetime Tomorrow's World show. [9] He has also presented Formula Five on BBC Radio 5 [10] and Radio 3's Jazz on 3. [7]

Nelson is a Fellow of The Radio Academy. [11]

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References

  1. Companies House
  2. "Jez Nelson". HuffPost .
  3. Sweney, Mark (16 June 2021). "Sony Music buys UK podcast producer Somethin' Else". The Guardian .
  4. 1 2 "Jez Nelson". Jazz on 3 | BBC Radio 3 . Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  5. "Jez Nelson". planetradio.co.uk. Jazz FM. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  6. Moss, Elliot (9 November 2019). "Jazz Shaper: Jez Nelson". mishcon.com. Mishcon de Reya . Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  7. 1 2 Thackray, Rachelle (22 September 1999). "Me And My Partner: Jez Nelson and Sonita Alleyne". The Independent .
  8. Shepherd, Robert (16 October 2009). "Nelson replaces Alleyne as Somethin' Else CEO". broadcastnow.co.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  9. Nelson, Jez (17 June 2019). "Jez Nelson: Tomorrow's World". broadcastnow.co.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  10. "BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  11. The Radio Academy "Fellows" Archived October 24, 2014, at the Wayback Machine