It seems everyone has an opinion on smoothfm. Will it, won’t it? Why and by how much? Today, radioinfo publishes Peter Saxon’s exclusive in-depth discussion with the man whose opinion counts most, dmg’s Group Program Director, Paul Jackson. Here, to be going on with, is one part of that interview where Jackson talks about how his father shaped his career and the influence he still has to this day. Note: This story is unlocked.

Jackson is not Paul’s real last name. It’s really his middle name. His last name is actually Park. Why doesn’t he use it? Having done some research into the subject I thought I’d impress him by opening the interview with, “I understand your father is also in radio.” As it turns out, I may as well have asked Prince Charles if his mother’s a royal too. “I didn’t go with the surname ‘Park’ initially,” he says, “but with ‘Jackson’ to try and help me get in (to radio) and not just use ‘I’m my father’s son.’ But pretty quickly people knew anyway, they just had to look at me and hear me talk.” 

Imagine being the son of a kind of Rod Muir, Michael Gudinski and Simon Cowell all rolled into one. Recently described as ‘Britain’s godfather of modern commercial radio’ in the Birmingham Post, Jackson Senior, better known as Richard Park is currently Executive Director of Broadcasting at Global Radio after a stellar career spanning 46 years both on and off the air. He also owns a record label and was voted “most influential person in the music industry” by record and radio industry executives in 2001. On top of that, he is best known to the UK public as The Headmaster, the nasty judge on BBC TV’s The Fame Academy.

Jackson is enthusiastic and proud to tell his dad’s story, “When the family first moved to London he came down to be the program director at Capital Radio in the mid 1980’s. He was the guy who rejuvenated it in the first place, made it the “Rocking Tower” with the people that I grew up with like Pat Sharp and Mick Brown, David Jenson and Neil Fox . And Chris Tarrant of course on the breakfast show.

Capital really took off in its modern era in the late 80’s, and he split the FM and AM and created Capital Gold as well, Tony Blackburn, Kenny Everett and these guys all on that station together. Through the 90’s Capital was utterly dominant across both channels. And the radio landscape didn’t start to change in the UK till the mid 90’s and the Hearts and Virgins came along.”

radioinfo: Did you feel as if radio was coursing through your veins?

Jackson: My dad was my hero as a kid. There he was commentating on the Scotland football matches and doing radio shows. So, in life, if you can talk to your dad about football and music, it’s a pretty cool thing. I think I wanted to do radio, subconsciously, before I even knew.

I grew up going into the studio all the time, spent my summer holidays in Radio Clyde, picking the records off the shelves, answering the phones. I was there around all the sports games as well as doing the music shows.

It was Malcolm Gladwell who wrote that book about 10,000 hours, so when you’ve done 10,000 hours of study or practicing something, its not just about basic talent. I mean, if you wanted to be in the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra, the people that got in were the ones who practiced the hardest over the years.

With music, without even realising it over the years, I put the hours in, because at our home, back in the day when the DJ’s did pick a lot of the records, my dad had one of the biggest record collections of anybody in the country. Literally, pre-iTunes, I could sit in my bedroom and listen to any song by any artist, because we had every record at our house, ridiculous as that might sound. So I think my love and passion for music was all accentuated through that.

I was very close to my dad. And, you know, I would hear over the dinner table all the conversations of my dad and the family and stuff about the entertainment business.

radioinfo: For a time, you actually worked for him. Was he a tough boss?

Jackson: A great boss. The single most inspirational person I’ve ever worked with. We’re still very close.

He was probably the first person outside the key people here (at dmg) that knew about smoothfm. And obviously, I would take his counsel on things as well, chew the fat and talk stuff through. And still do. We still talk about records, you know. What’s big on that side of the world, that sort of thing. What should we be looking out for?

Now on Nova we’re doing the Live live London promotion, sending people to the Summertime Ball in London, which is Capital’s gig at Wembley Stadium. And obviously they’ve very kindly sorted out all the tickets, we work with them and stuff like that. We obviously have great relationships for using their studios and all manner of sharing things.

I wouldn’t be talking to you today, quite probably, without having had him gone before me. 

But then once you get there, you’ve got to stay there. You have to prove it on your own, that you’re good enough. I’m hanging in there.

On Monday radioinfo will post the rest of the interview in which Paul Jackson talks about what his expectations really are for smoothfm and the Nova Network. Why he took the job in the first place and how a jock once described him as “scary” while a judge described him as “tactful and sensitive.”