Stuart Cameron Biography

Stuart captured by cartoonist Paul Richards at the controls of BBC Radio Oxford's early consol.

Stuart in his athletics days at Crystal Palace trying to jump the magic 2 metres... and failing - but it was close!! He ended his career with a personal best of 1.97 metres / just under 6'6".

An early publicity shot for the Radio Times when he started the country show at BBC Radio Oxford.

Read all about it! DJ collapses live on air - not ideal but fantastic publicity for Fox FM!

Stuart in Paris while covering a France v Scotland international. Amazingly there was a gap of 40 years between seeing his first Scottish victory on foreign soil (in 1971) and the second in 2011!

A more modern radio studio at Radio Borders than the one at the top of the page.

Awards:

1992 - Independent Radio Advertising Awards
Winner - Best Use of Music in Advert

1993 - Sony Radio Awards
Winner - Best UK Station, Fox FM

2000 - British Country Music Awards
Winner - Services To Country Music

2000 - German Country Music Awards
Winner - Best Overseas Country Music DJ

2001 - Texas USA Country Music Awards
Winner - Best Overseas Country Music DJ

2002 - CMA (USA) Awards
Winner - Best Overseas Country Music DJ

2003 - European Country Music Awards
Winner - European Music Promoter of the Year

2005 - British Country Music Awards
Nominee - Best British Single: Invisible Lines

2014 - Scottish Press Awards
Wnner - Innovation of the Year for
"The Scotsman Rugby Show"

2014 - Bauer Media Awards
Nominee - Innovation of the Year for "Borders
Railway - From Start To Finish"

Stuart Cameron Biography.

Born in Edinburgh in 1961, his early days were spent in the Scottish capital where he was educated at Trinity Academy. Stuart was eight when he was introduced to rugby. While at Trinity in 1968 scrum half Gordon Connell was capped for Scotland. Connell dropped a goal on his debut against England and Stuart went to Murrayfield to watch him do it. Sadly England won 8-6.

Stuart was hooked on rugby from that day. His father took him every Saturday to a school game in the morning and a club game in the afternoon. He bought him an autograph book and started collecting. His first signing was Scotland full back Colin Blakie, one of many capped by Heriot's. His second was Scotland's number 7, Rodger Arneil, and his meeting with Rodger would change his life.

"Rodger was selected to play for Scotland against France in Paris in 1969 and I remember writing to him to see if he would get me the programme from the match," recalls Stuart. "My dad sent a postal order to cover costs. A few days later the money was returned accompanied by a nice letter from him saying that he would happily get me a programme and that he would get it signed by both the Scottish and French players!

"You can imagine what impact that had on me and true to his word he sent me the signed programme, and he also gave me the leather-bound programme presentation cover given to players, and enclosed his fully autographed team sheet from when he played for the British Lions in 1968. Gareth Edwards, Barry John, Mike Gibson, they were all there! I could not believe it. What a kind gesture from the man. I have never forgotten this and I often tell the players of today never to underestimate the influence they have on youngsters." To cap it off Scotland won that day and they had to wait 26 years before they won in Paris again!

Stuart played rugby for Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, after moving down South with his parents in 1970. He would have loved to have played in Scotland but it was never to be. He played full back - the position of his hero Andy Irvine, another Heriot's and Scotland No. 15 - but had to retire at the age of 15 for medical reasons. He was born blind in his right eye - a rare condition called Coats' Disease. It wasn't a problem to him except he would never know what watching a 3D film was like! When the left eye became long sighted it became an issue. His best day on a pitch was when he played for his school, against Magdalen College, Oxford, and scored four tries. The school team was very successful winning most of their matches.

By that time he was finding success as a High Jumper. His older sister Marjorie, like most girls, was a horse lover and when the two of them went on holidays in Suffolk to relatives they would spend time pretending to be show jumping horses, making fences out of dustbins and bamboo sticks. This led to Marjorie representing Oxfordshire at the English Schools Athletics Championships, finishing 7th, while Stuart went on to represent the county and came 2nd in the Under 15 English Championships. He jumped at Meadowbank Stadium in the Scottish Championships as a 13 year old and won the Under 15 event, returning a year later to successfully defend his title against the 13 year old World Record holder, Ross Hepburn. Stuart went on to break the National League Under 17 record with a personal best of 1.97 metres (just under 6'6") at Crystal Palace representing Oxford City A.C. He still holds the Under 15 Oxford City A.C. record 37 years on!

Stuart didn't grow taller than 1.78m/5'10" and when he stepped up to senior level, he was at a huge disadvantage, giving away sometimes up to eight inches in height to competitors. He retired at 17 but his success brought him into contact with the media. He became athletics correspondent for the Oxford Mail and spent hours putting together rankings lists and giving unprecedented coverage to the local athletics scene. By this time he was also covering the sport for BBC Radio Oxford as well as football and rugby, and he would soon break into music broadcasting too.

After leaving Abingdon School at 15 he went to the Berkshire College of Art and Design in Reading and Maidenhead. He was fascinated by printing ever since his mum bought him a typewriter. He would spend school holidays at local printing presses learning the trade and helping out, and with his bedroom turned into a radio studio Stuart was always going to be involved in the media! Every week he would produce his own in-house magazine, which became a glorified diary as well as covering entertainment and sporting events.

He worked on the country music show on Radio Oxford for two years helping presenter Graham Rowe with interviews and features and became involved in the country music scene. When Graham died at a tragically young age in his 30s Stuart was asked to take over the country music show as an 18 year old and from there did more shows including regular mid-morning programmes. He also worked with "Whispering" Bob Harris for two years at BBC Radio Oxford and he was to become a big influence on him, as were Martin Stanford (now at Sky News), Garry Richardson (BBC Sport) and Timmy Mallet (Children's TV icon) who all worked at the radio station.

Stuart began promoting shows at the Apollo Theatre in Oxford and the Abbey Hall in Abingdon, organising and hosting the Oxford Country Music Festivals. He put on big name acts including Bernard Manning, Showaddywaddy, The Blues Brothers and several 60s and 70s events, plus a number of "Teenage Rampage" concerts presenting Boyzone, 911, Peter Andre and many others. He would also sing with his band on several of the events and of course enjoyed the buzz of being on stage in front of 2000 screaming teenagers!

He founded a successful printing company, Quick Print, to run alongside Ghost Entertainments, his music agency. After a year at Thomas Leach Printers in Abingdon, he moved to Oxford's Pergamon Press to work in their Design Studio for 12 months, often seeing the larger-than-life boss Robert Maxwell come into the work place and order everyone about! From there he was invited to join Oxford City Football Club, whose team he had been covering for BBC Radio Oxford for two years. He became their Promotions Manager. While he was there the legendary Sir Bobby Moore took over as Head Coach with his assistant, Harry Redknapp. Interesting times indeed!

Stuart went self-employed in 1980 and specialised in printing Order of Services for all the funeral companies in the area. It was a good business to be in and was successful until such time as computers made it possible for people to print their own thanks to desktop publishing. That marked the end of his involvement with the printing trade although the skills he learned stood him in good stead for the future.

Stuart was broadcasting regularly with the BBC and was still involved with music in a big way. In 1989 he joined Fox FM, the new commercial station for Oxfordshire, and was with them for six years presenting the country show, the overnight Gold Fox programme and the Saturday Sports Programme. It was there that he made the front pages of the local news (and the inside pages of many of the national tabloids) when he collapsed in the middle of the night on one of his shows, resulting in 40 minutes of dead air. Burning the candle at both ends has a way of catching up with you!

After the initial concern from the bosses at Fox FM, they absolutely loved the publicity they received from that dramatic event! Stuart's milkman friend Marcus Buck came to the rescue after hearing the "Sound of Silence" at 4am during his rounds and the rest, as they say, is history!

Cutbacks meant that a computer took over the overnight show and the country music programme was axed. Stuart freelanced for a number of radio stations after leaving Fox FM including Radio Caroline, Apple FM, Kick FM and QCMR, a new 24-hour country music station broadcasting on satellite. It was a new venture which lasted two years before going bust but it was a fantastic place to work. He particularly enjoyed the fact that all the presenters were music experts who had 100% control of the music they played rather than having computers to programme the music which is largely what happens now.

The station would morph eventually into CMR Nashville with owner Lee Williams finally getting the format to work and it has now turned into a very successful internet radio station which broadcasts throughout the world. Stuart has been presenting shows for them ever since.

In 1998 Stuart founded Hotdisc, a company set up to promote country music acts all over the world. The idea was simple - produce a monthly CD, send it to country music DJs all over the world and provide feedback for his clients. Helping talented acts get airplay was a popular one and Hotdisc is still going strong. The CMA (Country Music Association) awarded him with the prestigious Overseas Award for Services to Country Music in 2002, and further awards would follow from the UK and European country music industry.

The singing and songwriting would continue with various projects covered in more depth on the Music page, but in 2000 Stuart returned to Scotland to get back into rugby in a big way and immerse himself in the Scottish Borders. He formed Scottish Rugby Radio and then Borders Rugby Television as well as freelancing for BBC Radio Scotland, Radio Borders, Southern Reporter, The Rugby Paper and The Scotsman. He went on to cover Scotland games for TalkSPORT, Britain's only 24 hour sports radio station, and has broadcast for Sky Sports Television. In 2011 he went out to the Rugby World Cup for TalkSPORT in New Zealand, covering the Scottish team's campaign and in 2013 began producing and presenting regular rugby bulletins for ITV Border. In 2014 his production of a 17-part rugby television show for The Scotsman newspaper won "Innovation Of The Year" at the Scottish Press Awards, the 'Oscars' of the newspaper industry in Scotland.

As a producer he has completed a six series project documenting the return of the Railway to the Scottish Borders. "Borders Railway - From Start To Finish" which is now available in an 8-DVD box set which includes the film "The Story Of The Borders Railway." The series and movie features presenter Paul Brownlee in front of the camera while Stuart handled the filming and production. The radio version was nominated at the Bauer Media Awards in the "Innovation of the Year" category.

In 2016 Stuart was contracted by Scottish Rugby to produce and film a series of 25 programmes documenting the BT National League Division 1, including commentary and highlights of a match every weekend throughout the 2016-17 season. He has also been working closely with Borders College producing a series of promotional films putting the spotlight on the various courses covered by the College, including the Armed Forces, Horse Care, Rugby and Football as well as making the official film of the Annual Graduation Day.

2016 also saw Stuart edit and produce a thrice-weekly one hour show for Sky TV's new 24 hour country music channel, "The Hotdisc Top 20" which led to the inaugural Hotdisc Country Music Awards show.

Among the projects lined up for Stuart in 2017 will be a film documentary about Jackie Storrar, the Scottish country music star and radio presenter who sadly lost her battle with cancer in 2016. Stuart spent time with Jackie and her friends and family in the last weeks of her life as she successfully attempted to record one final album before her passing.