Journalist-turned radio chief Phil Dixon talks about how he progressed from newspaper trainee to radio MD, in charge of Smooth Radio in the Midlands.

It was during a momentary lapse of reason in one of those ‘losing the will to live' school history lessons about the Protestant Reformation that I decided I wanted to become a journalist.

And when my careers teacher told me journalism was such a difficult career to get into and I should think of engineering instead my mind was made up – journalism was the career for me.

Having read Evelyn Waugh's Scoop I decided I wanted to become that innocent hick reporter; the William Boot of my native Newcastle under Lyme.

So, deciding I hadn't a hope in hell of achieving good enough, if indeed any, A-levels to get me to university I wrote off to my local weekly newspaper asking for a job.

And, as good fortune and I collided that summer way back in 1971, I received a favourable response, went for an interview and a month later I became a local newspaper reporter.

The job was far from glamorous. Unlike the character in Scoop I didn't cover any war in Ishmaelia or have a lavish expense account.

In fact my first journey was on the bus to try to see various contacts to drum up support for a local sports centre and an early duty was to collect my editor from the local police cells where he'd spent the afternoon sobering up after one of those famous long lunches that are now well and truly confined to the annals of history.

My training was occasionally structured, especially in the early days, and I passed the only formal qualification for journalists at the time, the National Council for the Training of Journalists Proficiency Certificate. Mostly, though, I've learnt by experience and instinct, making mistakes and just doing the job.

My career in the media has taken many twists and turns over the years with the inevitable ups and downs.

Seedy bedsits, long days and sometimes nights, irregular hours, interminable deadlines, interviewing people who don't want to be interviewed, and covering news stories some of which remain memorable, unfortunately, because they were so tragic.

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