Will Manning

Hello,

Thanks for coming to have a read of this! I have some news I wanted to share and it’s quite a big one.

Maybe you’ve been following my ‘journey’ (vom) since the beginning of my internet radio station days. You could’ve first heard me during my short (not short enough some would say), stint on BBC Radio 1Xtra back in 2009-2010. You may be a listener from my time doing The Hits Radio drive show OR possibly just a KISS listener. Whatever the option, thanks so much for even taking a minute out of your day to hear me try and be slightly entertaining!

Joining KISS had always been my ultimate dream since I first started DJing back in ye olden times. DJ Swerve with his weekly Tuesday night show on KISS was the guy who got me hooked on the DJing side of things, after years of bedroom practise my interest and passion for presenting also grew bigger. My constant pestering of my friends to listen to me constantly (and some hard work) eventually brought me to KISS in 2013 and, after covering basically every show on the station I got my own weekend shows. Six months on I was offered the opportunity to take on the 7-10pm evening slot, a huge beast which I was so excited to make into something engaging and a must listen. I managed to give it the highest listening figures for 18 months straight since taking over, beating Radio 1 and commercial rivals. I was also offered my own Sunday show with Charlie Tee, we had the insane task of covering drive and breakfast on a regular basis, literally a dream, my favourite times on the air were spent with Charlie. It was amazing.

Now for the news… I’ve made the decision to leave KISS & The Hits after an incredible and literally life changing 3 years on air. I have a lot of people to thank…

KISS

Thanks to Andy Roberts for putting me on air in the first place, he gave me all of my opportunities to cover breakfast and drive – I know how protective he is of his station and rightly so, with that in mind I’m very grateful. Thanks also to Simon Long for giving me the right words of encouragement when I thought I was shit, Mikey Watson for producing my favourite shows, Nathan Thomson for always getting my music ready even if it was 2 minutes before the show – someone give this guy a holiday seriously. Everyone in Marketing for the incredible live opportunities, the cleaners for sneaking me the posh biscuits out of the locked cupboard in the basement, to Charlie Tee for being my best friend, and most importantly to YOU for listening, tweeting, saying how crap I sounded or how much you laughed at me being a prat.

The Hits

Thanks to Maxwell Smalley for always being ahead of the game, putting up with me being me, believing in me and actually giving away his job all those years ago so I could take it instead – weirdo. Darryl Morris – my personal advisor and friend for life, Mike Cass for being a legend and for buying everyone a curry that time. Louis Chadwick, Sam Van Geffen, Danny Bates and Joseph Flinders for building my weekend shows and making me sound good. All the work experience guys who sat in on my shows and had to fake phone calls #content.

So my last live KISS show is Sunday 27th 2-5pm on KISS, I also have another week on KISS Fresh 3-7pm. My last Hits Radio shows are this Saturday & Sunday 8am-12pm. After that I’m off on a very long holiday around the world.

Keep up to date with me: itswillmanning on Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram. I may have something exciting to say soon…