User:Neal Bowden/sandbox

Neal Bowden is a British radio presenter, programmer and consultant currently working in the Middle East.

Biography
Bowden was born in Harrow and grew up in Worcester. He started out collecting ward requests for Worcester Hospital Radio before getting a weekly slot aged 16. His first paid radio job was at BBC Hereford and Worcester and joined the station shortly after the launch.

1990-1991 Neal spent some time at GWR FM where he would record demo tapes in the Swindon studios. In 1994 he was offered weekends at Sunshine_855 and eventually became the stations main cover jock up until 1997. After a 3 year break from radio, late 2000 he joined Classic Gold 954/1530 based in Worcester intially as a weekend jock. He later becme the the stations main swing jock covering all dayparts.

In April 2003 Neal Neal headed overseas to Egypt to set up and launch 104.2 Nile FM in Cairo. From there he headed to Channel 4 FM in Dubai Janury 2004 initially as the afternoon presenter. In 2005 Neal was promoted to Head of Music and moved to Breakfast. The show was rebranded to "Neal & Vicky in the Morning" with co-host Vicky White. Early 2006 Neal became Programme Director and took full control of the radio stations output while staying on Breakfast.

In June 2006 Neal was assigned with launching a Soft AC station for Dubai operated by the owners of Channel_4_FM called The Coast. The station started out on 105.4 but soon shifted to 106.5. A few months later there was another frequency change to 103.2. In 2007 The Coast changed ownership to Emirates Neon Group and Bowden carried on with his Programme Director position at Channel 4 FM.

The Coast was later bought out again by the owners of Channel 4 FM in February 2009 and Neal once again became Programme Director. Over the next 4 weeks the station was given a total relaunch as 103.2 The Coast on March 16th, 2009.

Neal briefly returned to the UK in 2011 and freelanced for UTV Media based in Stoke-on-Trent at Signal 1. He covered shows a number of shows across the UTV Network as well as shows for Signal 1.

Neal currently lives in Muscat, Oman as Head of Music and Programming Support for Merge 104.8.