Radio International - Presenters

JP's, (Jürgen-Peter Börnig) dream of having his own English speaking radio show in the Netherlands came true in November 1998. He had former experience as a DJ and radio show presenter in his spare time while employed with the American Forces Network (AFN SHAPE) in Belgium. He adopted his initials JP as his disc jockey title at this time. He plays Squash, Badminton, loves Beach Volleyball, and swims to keep fit. He is also an avid European Song Contest fan. As an easy-going person with a great sense of humour, he is good fun and enjoys life to the full.

Jutta Krause came to Radio International the first time as a guest in a Eurovision Special Show, just to find out that “making radio” and Eurovision can be a lot of fun. When JP asked her to join the team she didn’t hesitate. Jutta is always interested in everything and now she is getting to love the great Eurovision Song Contest and the entire Eurovision Community - she has been infected with the Eurovision Bug. She now contributes to the show by reporting the local news, finding events, films and regional tips for our listeners.

Remote Members - Our Eurovision Song Contest Correspondents and Experts.

Dermot Manning is from Dublin, Ireland, the most successful country in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. He studied law in University and now practises as a Barrister. Dermot has watched the Eurovision Song Contest every year since 1975. He went to the contest for the first time in Millstreet in 1993, and has been to 16 contests since. He broadcasts for Irish Independent Radio at Eurovision. His most memorable moments at Eurovision were being in the audience in the Point Theatre in 1994 for Riverdance, and meeting and hearing Severine sing "Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue" in Athens in 2006, which is his all-time favourite Eurovision song. Dermot's other great passion is travelling

Marcus Keppel-Palmer lives in Bristol, England and brings his own Eurovision slant to the show. A long term music fan, Marcus first watched the Eurovision back in 1970. His favourite winner is Severine's "Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue". Any dream of actually entering Eurovision evaporated when his inability to hold a tune was discovered, although some might say that is no bar nowadays! He updates Radio International listeners on the latest eurovision news and gossip.

Chris Poppe lives in the Buckinghamshire countryside in the UK and owes his love of music to having been the son of a publican because he was given the old records off the jukebox every week from the age of 5! A University graduate, he has had a variety of jobs from running a sandwich bar to maintaining the electoral register! He now sells antiquarian books. In his spare time he goes to the theatre, loves foreign travel and his infatuation with the Eurovision Song Contest grows stronger every year!

Alasdair Rendall lives in London, although studied in Edinburgh and grew up in the small town of Bedford. He was always fascinated by songs in foreign languages and became addicted to the Eurovision Song Contest from an early age, watching every year since 1989. After graduating in Modern Languages and European Union Studies he qualified as a broadcast journalist, and now works in political journalism. The Eurovision Song Contest is without doubt the highlight of his year, and thinks the social aspect of Eurovision, meeting fans from all over the world, is just as important as the musical side of the contest.

Ross Bennett lives in Brighton, East Sussex in the UK although he grew up in West London, a short distance from the BBC Television Centre. As a maths graduate, he always found the Eurovision voting procedure intriguing. He reviews past and present ESC singers and songs of his own choice on the show. Ross has been told his wittiness would make him a great successor to Terry Wogan. As a great fan he looks forward very much to the Eurovision experience every year.

The Hit-Hunter (our Mystery Man) grew up in Frechen near Cologne (Germany), where still lives. He works quietly and anonymously in the background making show-openers, jingles, voice overs, reports and "hit hunting", whereupon he adopted his nickname "The Hit-Hunter". IHe loves the world wide web, traveling and enjoys all music. He is not called ‘The Hit Hunter’ for nothing – he can sniff out hits of all music types. He is a devoted fan of Radio International and has become a great asset to the team by using his talents remotely.

Michael Goodrich, our youngest member of the team, lives in the USA but do not let the location fool you. He is an avid fan of the Eurovision Song Contest and likes the contest for the fact that the music is different then in the US. He helps Radio International and the Hit Hunter by making jingles, show openers, medleys and much more. He loves to travel to different places and hopes that one day he will be able to travel Europe. In his spare time he likes play soccer, tennis, and golf. One of his biggest goals in life is to enter the Eurovision Song Contest as a singer and/or composer and since he can now enter the contest with breaking the age rule, he is already planning to go for this.

Lilian Brunell has grown up in the Swedish-speaking part of Finland. Since 1985 she is living in Stockholm, Sweden. She has a university degree in music science and has been playing the trumpet since an age of 9. By co-incidence she started to work in the travel trade business but music has always been a major interest. Lilian has been following the Eurovision Song Contest since early days. To see Finland win with Lordi 2006 was as fantastic as when ABBA won for Sweden 1974. Another hobby is travelling and by joining Eurovision finals it's always possible to end up in unexpected, exciting places. For some years she maintains her own Eurovision blog (www.lilianseurovision.blogspot.com ) and she also writes for various newspapers and web-sites.

Eric Lehmann, native Luxembourger supplies Radio International with great interviews of Eurovision Performers and works closely with JP during the busy period of the Eurovision Song Contest and the National Selection in various European countries. Soon more to be published about Eric here. Stay tuned ! :)

Stephen Boddington is a British expat living in Brussels. He discovered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980 and was very disappointed when his parents told him he had to wait a whole year for the next one. Still, it was worth the wait as Bucks Fizz won the following year, a UK victory cementing a passion that would grow to become a full-time hobby rather than something that comes round just once a year. Travelling to various national finals and fanclub conventions, he was frustrated at the lack of detailed information about such events and decided to do something about it, hence Radio International's Eurovision Calendar was born! His other passion is birdwatching and he has travelled all over the world seeing well over 1000 species as well as being a guide for foreign birdwatchers visiting Belgium and the Netherlands.

Helena Reuterwall joined our remote as substitute for Malcolm and Judy when interviewing Eurovision hopefuls on location. she was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden where she still lives. She works in the research department at a Bio-pharmaceutical company. Helena keeps fit and spends as much time in the gym as possible. Not only does she work for Radio International at Eurovision locations, but is also a big fan of the E.S.Contest itself with a vast knowledge of the biggest music extravaganza there is.