With 6Music, it was the fact that we were breaking in new technology with the DAB digital radio. And getting to play so many of my own records, about a dozen a day. Xfm radio says that it's alternative, but it is heavily rotated playlist pop - commercial jocks get one of their own tracks a week.

My mum got the Express and my dad brought home the Evening Standard - the classic Home Counties, Middle England collection. My dad was drawn to subculture shops where he bought me Oz and Private Eye.

The Old Grey Whistle Test and The Week in Review - the week's news in half an hour, with subtitles. I was a big Warner Bros fan - whoever saw that Tom and Jerry was on the telly would just shout, "Toons!" and we would come running from every corner of the house. On the radio, it was Jimmy Young, Tony Blackburn, and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

Harry, my driver, puts on Five Live in the car - Wake Up to Money is one of the best factual shows on radio today. I used to listen to the World Service and Farming Today, but then I realised that I wasn't a farmer.

In the studio, I skim the broadsheets in whatever order they fall in front of me, but don't bother with the tabloids - so many breakfast shows lean on that nonsense.

First discovering and then meeting new bands. In the past few weeks, I've found a couple: Purple Wizard, a five-piece fronted by two girl guitar-players who play rowdy garage pop, very grungy with good harmonies; and Gogol Bordello, a Ukrainian who lives in New York and has a folky punk band.

I have got two. The first was when Billy Bragg let me direct the video for his song "Sexuality". I came up with the gags and the visuals, and helped with the editing. And then it got nominated for a Brit award. The second is playing in the West End, when my mum got to see my name up in lights.

Poor Harvey Goldsmith booked me to do a gig with The Who at the Royal Albert Hall. There were all these bands, with me in the middle. They didn't want me to be there, I didn't want me to be there - it was just a nightmare.

Whatever CDs I find on the floor when I tidy up. I don't watch a lot of telly, and don't get the time to go to the cinema during the day any more, so I buy DVDs of TV series from the States. I'll watch a whole series of The West Wing or Lost, say, in three days.

John Humphrys, an excellent broadcaster. I like the fact that the BBC gives people a hard time. I met him once: we were talking current affairs and he started swearing beautifully. No, I won't tell you what he said.

This is cache, read story here