John Mellis was born in Inverness, Scotland in January 1973, approximately a fortnight late by Caesarean, and to this day retains a fondness for hot tubs and an overwhelming desire to leave buildings via the skylight.
Although difficult to believe, he was a mostly quiet, only child, invariably burying his nose in a book, unless outside in his back garden battering a football aimlessly off his garden gate, or playing badminton on a Saturday evening at a church hall, taken along purely because his parents couldn’t source a babysitter.
In school, his favourite subject consistently remained English, thanks mostly to a series of wonderful teachers, most notably, at the business end of the schooling years, led by the wonderful Mr Hutcheon at Inverness Royal Academy who John still credits for being pivotal in starting him along the path which was to lead to his media career.
Upon leaving school, John knew he wanted to try for something media related with English as its backbone, but couldn’t be certain which path to take so registered for a broad SNC in Media Studies at Inverness College. From there, an HNC in Radio at Glenrothes College, and finally to complete that course a period of work experience at local stations BBC Radio Highland and Moray Firth Radio, back home in Inverness.
John completed his three weeks at the BBC without note, and moved onwards to MFR. At the end of that three week period, nobody had said anything about leaving so he called Jimmy Urquhart, one of his tutors at Glenrothes.
[Jimmy] “Have you enjoyed yourself there? Taken it all in?”
[John ] “It’s been brilliant Jimmy. I’ve loved it.”
[Jimmy] “Has anyone mentioned leaving?”
[John] “No. Not a thing. So what do I do now?”
[Jimmy] “Nothing. You’re IN! We’ll send your certificate out in the post. Well done John. Well done!”
And the receiver was placed back in its cradle. That’s how long ago it was.
John remained UNemployed in various capacities at MFR for the next three years in what was the most wonderful apprenticeship in commercial radio you could ever imagine, but, equally, he realised, with the station staffed mostly by volunteers, he was unlikely to source a paying position there any time soon.
So he set about sending out demo tapes (again, it was that long ago) on spec to radio stations up and down the length of Britain.
What followed were more knock backs than Plug from The Beano would get on Tinder.
It was at this point John learned the value of a saying he still holds dear today:
You have to be the right person, in the right place at the right time.
Any two of those three won’t be enough. Everything has to align.
Fortunately, eventually it did, and John left Inverness for his first real job at the end of 1994 to start on night time at Northsound 1 in Aberdeen.
He presented Nights (10pm -1am) from January 95 to March 95.
Drive Time (4pm -7pm) from April 95 to September 95.
Breakfast (6am – 10am) from October 95 to June 2003
Evening (6pm -10pm) July 2003 to June 2004 (It wasn’t a great year)
Daytime (10am – 2pm) July 2004 to December 2015.
All around those regular Monday to Friday slots John also hosted every weekend show at some point, including, latterly, Friday Sport – a Dons based programme which he’d only initially agreed to host on a short term basis until they found someone else – John’s only connection to Aberdeen being that he was a lifelong supporter, and, by now, the Club’s Match Day Stadium announcer, a role he took on in the season 2005/2006 and continues today.
In October 2015, John was offered a role in Central Scotland, based in Glasgow working on Smooth Radio for Global Media.
Being a bigger marketplace, it was too good an offer to resist, and although a wrench to leave a station he’d known as home for 20+ years, it was a move he knew he had to make.
John still works for Smooth Radio today, hosting Smooth Breakfast in Scotland, in addition to being a regular BBC Contributor, a podcast presenter and producer and occasional magazine correspondent.
The days he isn’t working, are spent with his small but perfectly formed family consisting of his wife Lynne and kids Josh and Gracie.
John is also a Dog Father to Ernie.
Through all that time, somehow it’s gone from this to this.
