'James Masterton' (b.
September 2 1973) is a headline
columnist for the music website
Yahoo! Launch. He writes a weekly column analyzing new entries in the
UK Singles Chart. Masterton is a technical
producer for
TalkSport, having previously worked in
information technology at the independent production company
Unique Broadcasting and as a presenter at the Bradford
ILR station
The Pulse. He has made several television appearances, most recently on
Channel 4's "100 Worst Pop Records".
Masterton began posting his weekly comments about the latest singles chart on
Usenet in
1992, while a student at
Lancaster University, whence he graduated in 1994. While at Lancaster, he was also a regular presenter on the campus radio station,
Bailrigg FM. In
1995 he became an important element of
BT's
Dotmusic website, an online hub for the UK music scene and one of the few sites that posted the entire UK top 75 every week. His commentary on new entries in the chart was fully integrated into the site. When Dotmusic was purchased from BT by
Yahoo! on
October 28,
2003, Masterton's commentary moved to Yahoo! Launch with it.
External links
★
Personal website and blog
★
Autobiography
★
Chart commentary from James Masterton
★
Yahoo! acquires BT content sites