Ross Mawhinney
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Ross Andrew Mawhinney (born March 6, 1980 in Belfast) is a British radio DJ and currently presents shows for Italian radio station BluRadio.
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[edit] Career
Ross currently produces and presents the Friday Drive-time request show between 5 and 7pm and the Saturday Mid-Morning Show between 11am and 1pm on one of Italy's and Switzerland's biggest regional radio stations, BluRadio 102.2fm.
[edit] Pre-BluRadio
Ross started his career at the early age of 15 on Ulster Hospital Radio, Dundonald, Northern Ireland, quickly moving from producing and collecting requests to presenting one of the most popular request shows. From this early experience, Ross went on to work in the Promotions department of Cool FM as lightning jock for Glen Pavis in the Clandeboye Lodge Discoteque.
At the age of 18 Ross started producing shows for Belfast Citybeat, and soon after started presenting shows on a "fill-in" basis at the weekends. Ross Mawhinney, at this stage just 19, took over from Boy George on the stations popular Saturday night dance slot and increased the listenership by 10 fold in the Greater Belfast area alone. Ross left Citybeat in February 2003. He was nominated for best dance music radio show in all of Ireland by BBM music magazine.
[edit] Australia
He then moved to Australia where he gained vast radio experience on stations such as Nova 969 Sydney and it's sister station in Perth, as well as various community stations. He moved to Italy in June 2004.
[edit] BluRadio
Established in 1976 as Radio Vergante, BluRadio remains one of Italy's most listened to Radio Stations. It transmits from Massino Visconti, through-out Italy and southern Switzerland. Ross Joined the station in 2005. Ross was quickly promoted to present the Drive-time show between 5-7pm weekdays, but has recently only presented the Friday Drive-time Request show and also the popular Saturday Lunch-time between 11am and 1pm due to contract obligations.
His success on BluRadio is largely due to his strange accent and quirky fast-paced humour and style. Italian people enjoy his perspective on the Italian way of life. Ross recently exclusively interviewed "Italy's Strongest Woman" Micela Fre, and made headlines after getting beat in an arm wrestling competition live on-air.
[edit] Personal Life
Ross also teaches English in a Private Institute in Intra, VB. He doesn't refer to his personal life too much on the radio. He's said "Working in Radio allows me to have two lives, this one, and my one." referring to the fact that he's not the same person off-air.
He has one daughter, Italian born, Julia Caterina-Violet Mawhinney who was born on the 13th October 2005 to long-term girlfriend Susanna. He remains unmarried and refuses to comment on any speculation that wedding plans have been made for July 2007, even when recently quizzed "on-air" by co-presenter Alice.
Ross is a keen surfer. He says his ambition is to one day surf the 50 foot swell of Jaws (beach),Peahi on the island of Maui because it has some of the biggest and smoothest breaks in the world.
