Joe Ferguson (radio presenter)

Joe Ferguson (born Dunmurry, Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1965) is a Northern Irish radio presenter.

Biography

Ferguson was born in Dunmurry, on the outskirts of Belfast and educated at Dunmurray High School. While working in a Top Shop store which had an in-store DJ, Ferguson stood in for an absent DJ. Eventually, it became his regular job. The shop was firebombed just after Christmas in 1991 and Ferguson went to work for Riverside 101, a small local radio station in Derry. Soon afterwards, he sent a demo tape to Cool FM and was hired.

Ferguson's show on Cool FM was very successful with the local audience, but he left Cool FM in 2000 for Liverpool's Radio City station. At first, he presented the morning show but was then switched to an afternoon slot. He was named UK Radio Personality of the Year in 2002. A year later, he left the station, denying rumours that he'd been fired. It emerged that his contract was not renewed.

On 27 June 2004, he returned to a latenight slot on Belfast CityBeat station claiming that the CN Group, who own CityBeat, planned to syndicate his show throughout the UK to another ten stations." This did not happen. On 8 September 2004, The Mirror reported that Ferguson had been involved in a "bar brawl with a holiday rep during a free trip to Bulgaria". He resigned from Citybeat on 15 March 2005 claiming "personal reasons".

On 12 June 2005, the News of the World reported that he had moved to the United States to work on satellite radio, having been signed up by Sirius in New York. To date, he has made no appearance on an Sirius station. His current whereabouts and professional activities are unclear.

Sonya Mac Libel Case

On 14 May 2007, Ferguson and his former employers, Citybeat, paid "substantial" out-of-court damages and issued a public apology to the Cool FM DJ, Sonya Mac, following comments made about her on an EDition of The Joe Ferguson Show broadcast on 1 December 2004.