THE secret of JK and Joel's success is being played out in a bizarre interview.

Ever the professional, Jason King is talking earnestly about the broadcasting duo's new Radio 1 show and how it will basically be a couple of mates discussing the things that lads discuss.

Joel Ross thinks for a second, pulls the pin from an imaginary hand grenade, and somehow manages to drag the conversation down to the explosive level which the boys have become renowned for.

"It's for lasses as well," he interrupts, prompting King to drop the radio science for a bit of human biology.

"Oh yeah, you've gotta have the token bird as well," he sniggers.

"If you aim at lads, then all you're gonna get are the lads," Ross bounces back in broadcasting style. "But if you aim it at females, then the lads will follow anyway.

"It's great to talk about lap dancing and football and everything else, but it's great also to talk about the hair straighteners and fake tan. It's all good fun."

Today show

The banter might not be suitable for the Today show, but it's easy to see why Radio 1 fell for JK and Joel's politically incorrect quips.

Having spent three-and-a-half years with Manchester's Key 103, the pair will begin their Radio 1 careers on August 1.

Before having even appeared on air, they have been banned from breaking wind in the studio by their female producer - the first female they have worked with - and admit that the Radio 1 regime is a little different to what they are accustomed to.

"We have already been down to London a couple of times already to try things out," Ross adds. "Whereas, at Key it was a bit more slapdash. If you've got an idea, let's just go for it. At Radio 1, you've got to put it through the right channels and make sure it's right and change bits and bobs.

"That's not what we're used to. We're used to coming up with an idea in the pub. Eight times out of 10 it works - the other two you just forget."

But, despite the japes, JK and Joel are clearly good at what they do.

Their Key 103 breakfast show became a must for young Mancunians and even beat Terry Wogan to a coveted gold Sony Radio Award earlier this year.

The win was made all the sweeter by the fact that Ross had by then been sacked by Key 103 for missing a show the day after a party he had been ordered to attend by the station's management.

"I went to the party, over-indulged and didn't wake up. Then the boss phoned me and said, 'I think we'd better knock it on the head'," Ross adds.

HIS solicitor negotiated a return to the airwaves just in time for his final show. So, will they be on their best behaviour for Radio 1?

King

"Well, you can be smutty but clever," King answers. "You can have a laugh with the kids but also with the adults as well. That comes with experience. We have done a breakfast show now for seven or eight years and, because you have every range of age listening, you have to be on your best behaviour. We have made mistakes."

He means the time on Key 103 when they used extremely adult language while asking a member of Westlife whether he'd ever attacked a fan.

However, Ross suggests that experience means that the airwaves don't tend to turn blue quite so often.

At 29, Jason King comes across as the more mature half of the outfit. He lives with his girlfriend, an optometrist, at Higher Green, near Tyldesley, and began DJing in clubs when he was 15, moving into radio when he was 18.

Joel Ross, 27, is the less reliable partner in crime, and landed his own radio show with Yorkshire Coast Radio when he was 16.

"I was really, really bad," he says. "I got fired from there after two- and-a-half years. I was covering the breakfast show and I slept in. The boss phoned me up at 7.30am and said, 'There's nothing on air'. I'm not a morning person."

He is still going out with Galaxy 102 DJ, Lynsey Horn, and has a place with her in the city centre.

The lads first became mates while working on different shows at Viking FM in Yorkshire and were initially unhappy to share studio space when the station's bosses suggested a double act.

"It should have also been Joel and JK," quips Ross.

"Nah, I'm the eldest," King replies, "That's how it works. In radio and TV they always put people together. Very occasionally it works. But I don't really believe in putting people together. The first six months were hell, absolute hell, and we literally kicked the proverbial out of each other. It was a clash of egos."

Despite those initial setbacks, they are friends off air and recently visited Portugal together for the Euro 2004 final - which they watched in a pub.

So what does the future hold?

"We'd like to nick Moylsey's job," Ross says, referring to Radio 1's coveted breakfast slot. "When he finally gets himself sacked we'll be there."

And he should know how likely that is.

JK and Joel's Radio 1 show will be on air between 1pm and 4pm on August 1.

Tweet