Paul Golder writes for the Brentwood Gazette

We’re saying goodbye – sort of – to one of our long-standing presenters, Antonia Jones.

Antonia has been presenting the breakfast show every Saturday since June 2015, apart from a few weeks off – I calculate she’s had to get up early on a Saturday 260 times to make sure she’s in the Phoenix FM at 7am bright and breezy and ready to wake up the rest of the town.

Antonia is one of our many hard-working volunteers and has a new job which clashes with the time slot, so she’s taking time off firstly to have a break from regular presenting, and also to concentrating on developing a new podcast for us, AJ’s Soundbooth – so we’re hoping Antonia will be continuing to create some great content for a long time to come.

AJ’s Soundbooth has come out of a regular feature of the same name on her breakfast show, where she has been giving airtime to some great artists, bands, DJs, MCs and rappers, including local performers Dave Mascall, Flamezee, Azim, The Untold Poet, Laughta, Benny Elom and Island Banks.

You can follow Antonia on Instagram @ajssoundbooth – and all of her show highlights over the years have all been archived on her section of our website at https://www.phoenixfm.com/author/antonia/

And keep an ear out too for our new Saturday Breakfast host Karin Ridgers – she’s been presenting her own show, House of Fun, over recent years but is actually one of our longest-serving members, having been part of the original Phoenix team that formed way back in 1996.