Ralph Mitchell Bernard (born 11 February 1953) is a British journalist, and a former chief executive of commercial radio group

GCap Media GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. ...

Early life

He attended Caterham High School in north-east London.

Career

He started his career as a journalist at Sheffield's

Radio Hallam Hallam FM is an Independent Local Radio station based in Sheffield, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to South Yorkshire. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 283,000 ...

in 1975,http://www.mediacsrforum.org/_media/documents/gcap_media_AR_07.pdf before moving to Hereward Radio in Peterborough. In 1982 he moved south to launch Wiltshire Radio as programme director, becoming managing director in 1983. From here, he helped develop the GWR radio group which later merged with Capital Radio to form the biggest commercial radio company in the UK, GCap Media. He was chief executive of GWR Group PLC between 1987 and 2001, when he was appointed Executive Chairman. GCap Media's portfolio includes Classic FM and London's Capital Radio. He was appointed a Fellow of The Radio Academy in 1998. , he won the Sony Gold Award in 2000 for his contribution to the radio industryhttp://www.bbccharterreview.org.uk/seminars/bios.pdf and was appointed a CBE for his services to broadcasting in 2002. He left GCap in March 2008 to be replaced by Fru Hazlitt. He is chair of the

Broadcast Journalism Training Council The Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC) is an industry-led body offering accreditation to courses for aspiring journalists. History In the late 1970s, the National Union of Journalists was pushing for a more structured approach to training ...

(BJTC), a partnership between the major broadcasters, th
National Union of Journalists (NUJ)
and academics who teach broadcast and multimedia journalism.

Personal life

He is married with four children and lives in Wiltshire. He was awarded the CBE in the 2002 Birthday Honours.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard, Ralph 1953 births British chief executives British company founders British radio executives British radio journalists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire GCap Media Living people