BY day, Alex English and Connor Stevenson work at a specialist school, but come Friday night they swap times tables for turntables at Bolton FM.

The duo work at Raise Education and Wellbeing School in Great Lever where Alex, aged 31, is the creative arts leader and Connor, aged 26, a teaching assistant.

Alex said: “I have worked with Connor delivering music-based youth projects to young people for many years and we both realised that we had a mutual passion for Hip Hop and Rap music.

“We talked about how awesome it would be to have a radio show and in March, 2018 we decided to pitch our idea for a two-hour show to Bolton FM who kindly gave us the 10-12 slot on a Friday night. We called it The Realness Radio Show.”

The show is growing a loyal fanbase and the numbers of listeners are increasing.

Alex said: “It’s a great way for us to round off the working week and I think our love for this kind of music, helps make us more accessible to the children at the school.”

He takes the reigns for the first hour playing non-stop hip hop. Then at 11, Connor takes over, assisted by DJ Dappa T, to play all the latest in rap, grime and r’n’b.

“We’re both trying to represent underground music and shine a light on music that doesn’t always get a lot of airplay,” explained Alex.

“We have also started to use the show as a platform for up and coming artists. In September we had live performances from Yorkshire rapper ExP and Bolton’s own Dollar Bars. We also heavily promote any urban nights local to the area and are passionate about the local music scene.”

You can listen back to the shows at

www.mixcloud.com/therealnessradioshow