mike powell is a british former newspaper and radio journalist who hosted shows on several uk music radio stations before transitioning to station management after working in provincial newspapers in the westcountry powell joined devonair radio exeter and torbay at its launch in 1980 as a senior journalist then head of news and current affairs he later jointly hosted the breakfast showpowell moved to guildford surrey in 1983 as launch news editor of county sound radio he was promoted to program director from 1984 to 1986 and then ceo from 1986 to 1991 growing the group to four radio stations his innovations at county sound included being the first uk radio station to use rcs radio computing services selector musicscheduling software 24 hours a day and introducing the uks first gold format radio station county sound gold powell designed the programming for awardwinning station fox fm a joint venture with capital radio londonafter taking county sound to a uk stock market listing he departed to form radio investment research and management company infinity radio which set up pirate fm cornwall with powell as launch ceo pirate fm was featured on the bbc technology programme tomorrows world for its pioneering use of computerised music playoutshortly after the launch of pirate fm infinity radio merged with ukrd group where powell became ceo eventually building the group to over 20 radio stations and associated companieswhile running ukrd powell played a key role in launching manchesters kiss 102 and served as launch ceo of berkshires star fm which was joint launch customer in the uk for the computerised rcs master control studio automation system in 1995 he launched the new county sound radio network consisting of county sound radio 964 the eagle and delta radioin 2001 powell became chairman of infinity media which then separated from ukrd to concentrate on digital platform technologiesin october 2002 he joined rcs as vice president of its international division based at its world headquarters in white plains new york in october 2014 he was promoted to senior vice president international operations and chief compliance officer