BroadcastPR Expert – Getting Brands on TV & Radio | Broadcast Consultancy & Media Relations | Media Training | Speaker | bebroadcast.co.uk

👋 Why listen to me? Because I have built campaigns for leading organisations across almost every sector and delivered consistent award-winning work since 2010. I’m now taking the approach that has helped me to grow and putting into my own agency – Be Broadcast.
 
I love getting under the skin of issues and working out what makes people impacted tick to inspire change. I work back from that weaving in the role the brand plays in order to solve or make it better.

🤩Now it’s your turn…

You’ve seen me (and your peers) sharing their incredible broadcast results on LinkedIn, hitting key messages, and finding creative ways to reach their audiences. 

And that’s without mentioning the possibilities to bring in new customers and the limitless potential broadcastPR can have on the bottom line. 

But you’re either not sure where to start, or you’ve started and you seriously want to level up.

If you’re ready to see a real ROI through broadcast PR your operatives need to be doing it right, not handling it like a factory – churning out ‘hit and miss’ content. 

I can work with you to develop strategies that my clients use to increase their sales, grow their brands and 
take advantage of audio and visual media on behalf of the brand. 

I provide:
✅ Broadcast Consultancy 
✅ Broadcast Media Relations
✅ Help With Spokespeople
✅ Research
✅ Global Broadcast Media Relations
✅ Media Training
✅ Podcasting – Development, Planning & Creation
✅ Podcast Hosting
✅ Podcast Promotion
✅ Adhoc Broadcast Media Clippings
✅ Monitoring – Week-Long and Ongoing
✅ Broadcast analysis – To Build Competitive Advantage

All available on https://bebroadcast.co.uk/ 

What my clients say:

“We cannot emphasise enough how Be Broadcast evolved the story for us delivering results like we have never seen before”

“Be Broadcast were great at shouting about our news. We got tonnes of engagement with people getting in touch from seeing and hearing the news. On a subject that could be seen as sensitive, Be Broadcast were there all through the week, with suggestions and support. We can’t wait to work together again”

“Josh was able to guide us through the entire process, provide on-the-spot media training and help us articulate what we wanted to say in the best way”

“Dynamic, ambitious and very hard-working, Be Broadcast is eminently capable working at the most senior level with clients, delivering superb client service and terrific results.”

Drop me a DM, let’s do this. 
And if you’re not ready yet – you can find free advice and guidance here: 
https://bebroadcast.co.uk/case-studies/

Josh Wheeler

Update: Thankfully has been taken down now

In today’s episode of “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.

A school has publicly posted identifying information about a child: name, year group, and other details that make them easier to find.

The child’s mum has just won The Traitors.

A primetime show watched by millions - including unfortunately people who don't see things the way the rest of us do.

Which means the child is now part of the story too, whether they like it or not.

And for what?

To “join the conversation”. To ride the moment. To borrow a bit of relevance for the brand.

This is where comms forgets safeguarding.
If your content requires a child to be identifiable, it’s careless. And it should have been a hard no.

We need a hard reset on judgement: just because something will get likes doesn’t mean it’s worth the risk.

Can I be really honest? The world probably doesn't need your take on Brooklyn Beckham.

Entertainment TV didn’t lose people because humans changed. And PRs need to be wary.

Humans haven’t changed. I don’t even think our behaviour has shifted that much.

What changed is that entertainment TV started serving us more of the same, right as we all got devices designed to pull us apart.

And streamers didn’t “change” us either. With the odd exception, they are putting out content you can get anywhere else. The same shapes. The same safe bets. Just in a different app. We’ve all paid £4.99 on Amazon for something we later find on ITVX.

That’s why I think The Traitors matters.

Not because it’s “a clever format”.

Because it’s human emotion in HD. Suspicion. Loyalty. Shame. Relief. Vindication. The stuff that makes people watch together, message mid-episode, and argue about it the next day.

It’s landed in culture. And the ripple effect arrived fast. Including the inevitable “incredible” stunts. Meh. OMG A CLOAK.

Once The Traitors became the breakout hit, schedules filled up with more “smart competition” shows built on the same ingredients:
>> The Fortune Hotel (ITV)
>> The Inheritance (Channel 4)
>> Destination X (BBC)
>> Genius Game (ITV)
>> The Trust: A Game of Greed (Netflix)

Not heard of them? Quite a few didn’t land. Because “what worked once should work again” gets tired fast.

We’ve seen this before. The biggest shows that truly gathered us were emotional rituals.

Strictly. X Factor. Big Brother. Love Island. Soaps.

Then the industry got scared. Networks and platforms chased safer repetition. Same beats. Same casting types. Same twists. Then acted surprised when audiences drifted off.

PR has the same trap. The safe set pieces. The familiar templates. The “winning” angles on repeat.

When the world zigs, it’s tempting to zig harder. But that’s how you end up invisible.

So here’s what we keep close at Be Broadcast.

When they zig, we jag.

Not zag. Someone else is already zagging.

Jag means sharper. More human. More specific. More emotionally true.

Attention is fragile.

But emotion still brings people together.

Yesterday, I wrote about entertainment TV and what we as PRs can genuinely take from it. 

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: attention isn’t the problem. Emotion is.

That’s why I keep coming back to The Golden Girls. Not because it was “ahead of its time” in a naff, Pinterest-quote way. But because it did things PR still bottles, even with bigger budgets, better data, and far more channels.

This wasn’t a calm “progress is inevitable” era. This is Reagan into early Bush: culture wars hardening, “family values” politics everywhere, AIDS stigma, abortion battles, disability rights still being fought for (the ADA wasn’t signed until 1990), and women’s rights at boiling point. Anita Hill’s 1991 testimony, then the “Year of the Woman”.

Sounds familiar?

That’s the America The Golden Girls lands in. So when I say it was “bold”, it isn't just a compliment.

Against that backdrop, it did this:

> It told America (and the world) that women didn't disappear at a certain age.
> It dragged HIV stigma to the kitchen table. In 1990, Rose faces possible HIV exposure from a blood transfusion. Fear, shame, ignorance from the people closest to her.
> It didn’t give you one racist villain. It made the room complicit to make us all face our prejudices.
> It made elder care and cognitive decline personal. Sophia realises a friend has Alzheimer’s. Denial, recognition, grief.
> It normalised later-life financial precarity. Rose loses her pension and has to start again.
> It took domestic emotional abuse seriously inside a sitcom. Blanche misses the warning signs: power, manipulation, humiliation.

And it did all of this without sounding pious. It earned the right to go there by being funny, warm, messy, and human first. Humour wasn’t a safety net to get away from something - it was the way in.

Entertainment-education works. A 2025 systematic review found story-led content can improve knowledge, confidence, and even behaviour. When people are carried by narrative, they lower their guard. They listen. They reconsider.

So here’s the uncomfortable question for brands:

If four fictional women in Miami can do all of this in the 80s, what exactly is stopping your brand from telling a story with a backbone?

I’m not even talking about “purpose comms”. Just light, shade, and emotion that actually lands.

Because “safe” doesn’t mean “responsible”. Safe usually means forgettable.

Don’t waffle like a St Olaf storyline. Be a friend. Tell the truth. Make it land.

Here's some inspo of what they took on...

And if you’ve got this far, you might recognise Blanche’s bedroom wallpaper in the Be Broadcast office. Everything we do is intentional.

Resharing this from 6 months ago because it’s happened again. This week, crime scene photos from the Idaho murders were released, then pulled.

And what’s horrific is what came after.

The families had to put out statements begging people not to turn their loved ones’ deaths into content. Begging strangers not to zoom in, screenshot, “analyse”, repost, and pick it apart for clicks.

The families of kids murdered had to say “Murder is not entertainment”.  Imagine writing those words about your loved ones?

That is the bit I cannot shake. Yes, crime scene photos can/should/are be released in some cases. But we are not in that world anymore. We are in a world where the moment something is public, it is fed into an attention machine. A machine that rewards outrage, speculation, and the most graphic angle. A machine that makes grief searchable. A machine that can spill into real life and, in some cases, risk the integrity of legal proceedings.

Social media is having a “change moment” around under 16s. Good. But let’s be honest – they reflect us and we are not behaving like adults either.

So, I still think social media platforms must be accountable. Legally and ethically. Like media.

That means:
 -Removing defamatory content once notified
 -Disabling comments on sensitive and live cases, and doing more than that
 -De-ranking speculative crime content until legal proceedings are over
 -Blocking monetisation of harmful content
 -Suspending accounts that harass survivors or families
 -Real legal recourse against perpetrators

This isn’t about PR. But PR helps explain it.

Earlier this week I watched a documentary on the Idaho college murders.

Four young people killed. Brutally.

What stuck with me wasn’t just the horror of the crime. It was what happened next.

Not by the killer. By us. By people online, convinced they were part of the story. Solving it. Avenging it. Getting clicks from it.

Two young kids survived the attack. They were in the basement. One thought she heard something, checked in with her housemate, and they went back to sleep.

That’s the level of detail people obsessed over. Not out of compassion. But to accuse. They became suspects. Received death threats. Were doxxed. Hounded on every platform.

All while going through a trauma we can barely imagine. And as bits of blummin kids.

Another victim’s best friend was sent messages like “I hope you fry.”

His address. His parents’ workplace. His car. All posted online. All because people were “just asking questions”.

And here’s where the PR lens matters.

The Police Dept weren’t equipped to handle a quadruple homicide. Press conferences were delayed. Clarification took too long.

And as any comms professional knows, a vacuum like that doesn’t stay empty. It fills with speculation. Assumptions. Rage. Fame-chasers. Grief-baiters. TikTok theories.

It became a sick game.

The accused even seemingly joining dedicated Facebook groups about the case. He dropped cryptic posts. Played along. 

***This is the part I can’t stop thinking about***

We regulate press (to a degree)
We regulate courtrooms.
We regulate who can shout with a megaphone in public.

But anyone can build audiences and profit off trauma in real time.
No duty of care. No checks. No protection for those left behind.

One survivor talked about trying to move on. But their name lives online - tied to conspiracy and hate. Did they really conspire to murder their friends?

Imagine being about to graduate, trying to get a job and THAT is your name online.  

And when the consequence is lives shattered again and again by we say: “Oh well, that’s the internet.”

Social platforms are not neutral. They are publishing engines. Recommendation engines. Outrage engines. They shape public opinion faster than any newsroom ever could.

And yet, we still hold journalism to higher standards than TikTok or X.

That needs to change.

So what’s the ask?

Social media platforms must be accountable. Legally and ethically - like media.

That means:
 • Removing defamatory content once notified
 • Disabling comments on sensitive and live cases (and going further)
 • De-ranking speculative crime content until legal proceedings are over
 • Preventing monetisation of harmful content
 • Suspending accounts that harass survivors or families
 • Genuine legal recourse against perpetrators

This isn’t censorship. It’s protection. Of real people. In real pain.

If we wouldn’t let someone scream abuse outside a murder trial, why let thousands do it from their phones?

This is genuinely bleak to read.

I’ve followed Jack Murley’s work for a while, and whatever you think about the wider case, it takes a lot to stand up, challenge a culture, and keep going when the easiest option is to stay quiet. 

Not everyone has that in them.

What struck me most is how rarely we talk about the everyday stuff. The microaggressions. The “just banter”. The throwaway comments that slowly teach someone to shrink themselves at work. 

I guarantee you it happens.

And I don’t think we measure it properly. We don’t really explore it. We rarely spotlight LGBTQ+ leadership in our industry either.

I did a quick straw poll of my LGBTQ+ pals in comms and media. Every single one had a story that felt uncomfortably familiar.

Every. Single. One.
So where’s the line?

At what point is a joke not a joke?
At what point are you “too sensitive”?
At what point are you labelled “too woke” - as if basic respect is a trend?

And in a world where LGBTQ+ rights are being pushed back (and if we’re honest, they’ve often been pretty light-touch protections anyway), we need to be stronger and louder.

The people with broad enough shoulders to take the heat have to speak up - not just for ourselves, but for the ones who don’t feel able to yet.

Truth to power. A bit harder. A bit more often.

Episode 9 of Be Broadcast's Accidentally Brilliant is out.

I’m joined by Darryl Sparey (Chart.PR, FPRCA, FCIPR), co-founder and MD of Hard Numbers 📈.

This conversation is basically about confidence. Not the loud kind. The practical kind. Where it comes from. How to get it type stuff.

The confidence to say what you will deliver.
The confidence to measure it properly.
The confidence to commit to it in writing.

We also get into the nitty gritty on #GEO and the uncomfortable truth that PR needs to own what happens next, or somebody else will.

Link in comments

A skilled marketer with over 21 years experience of achieving excellent results.

My background includes working as regional marketing manager for national newspaper, magazine and digital publisher, Reach Plc.

Since 2008, I have been supporting businesses throughout the North West to achieve their marketing and business goals. My range of clients includes businesses and organisations from sectors such as health & social care, arts, leisure and health & fitness. 

Clients include:

NHS Liverpool CCG - Liverpool CAMHS (child, adolescent, mental health services) 

The UK's oldest arts centre http://www.thebluecoat.org.uk

Merseyside Youth Association http://www.mya.org.uk

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