A former daily newspaper editor brought in a top scoop on his first day freelancing for a local BBC radio station.

Steve Dyson, who quit the Birmingham Mail at the end of last year, is currently doing some freelance work on political issues for Radio WM.

But there was un unexpected surprise in store for station bosses when Steve turned up for work on Monday.

For the former Mail news chief had brokered an agreement to pre-record an interview with creative industries minister and local MP Sion Simon, in which he revealed he was quitting parliament in a bid to become Birmingham’s first elected mayor.

The story led the station’s news bulletins from the start of its breakfast show at 7am on Wednesday and was swiftly picked up by the rest of the media.

The broadcaster shared the spoils with Steve’s former paper, the Mail, as Mr Simon had also given the story as a print exclusive to its London-based political editor, Jon Walker.

Said Steve: “Sion had confided in me his plans to resign on Wednesday and he agreed to do the interview as long the BBC promised not to use it before 7am.”

Radio WM’s managing editor Keith Beech added: “Steve has huge local knowledge and contacts and certainly his good relationship with Sion helped get the story on air.”

Comments

happyjack (05/02/2010 11:22:14)
When I first read in paragraph 6, ‘The broadcaster shared the spoils….’ I thought you were implying a great bit of media co-operation, whereas you then made it clear it was media-savvy Mr Simon who had done the sharing.
I know htfp has a vested interest in presenting Steve Dyson as God’s gift but please don’t try too hard. He took in a shared scoop set up by an MP. Great but not that great.

Subbed Out (05/02/2010 11:28:29)
Sion Simon ? Hardly a big hitter. Doubt he’ll even make it as Brum mayor.

Paul Linford, Editor (05/02/2010 13:47:25)
To be fair, Happyjack, we’d give exactly the same coverage to any other former regional editor who turned up at the BBC with a prerecorded interview of a minister’s resignation.

nottoohappyjack (05/02/2010 18:37:15)
Nah Happyjack, the BBC would much rather cover errors made by local papers rather than work with them….

Hamburger Bill (10/02/2010 17:02:34)
Well given Karren Brady’s decision to skip town, SD needed another pal to try and shoehorn into a job that no-one either wants or even cares about in the city.