Giacomo Shimmings

Giacomo Shimmings is a former student of Southampton Institute, who studied Media and Cultural Studies. He is the founder of SIN Radio (now known as Radio Sonar) in 1997.

During the first year of his degree, Giacomo discovered there was no student radio station at the University. Over the summer of his first year he came up with the idea of a Radio Project. With the Media Arts Faculties assistance, the Radio Project founded a Radio Society and created a station management structure. The Media Arts Faculty gave a room with desks and a telephone line to the project and found space in the basement for a radio studio to be built. The station was called SIN FM (an acronym for Southampton Institute Network) which was later renamed to SIN Radio and again to Radio Sonar.

Giacomo wrote the application (and held) the first radio license for the station, a 28 day FM RSL. He also wrote the Low Powered AM (LPAM) license application. The LPAM license was handed back to OFCOM, when it wasn't used by the station.

Giacomo was the first ever Station Manager from 1997 to 1999.

He currently works for the BBC in central London as a Senior Producer for Radio & Music Multiplatform.