Meet the team: Jonty Messer
Jonty presents our evening programme alongside Kylie five nights a week, having taken up the role full time in January 2018. You'll also see him presenting the late news at 10:30 two nights a week.
Jonty grew up on a farm in Wiltshire and spent his summer holidays from the age of 13 driving tractors during harvest. With nothing but a radio for company in his Case 175, it was here that his love of broadcast started during countless hours driving up and down fields.
Armed with a post graduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism Jonty began freelancing for BBC and Commercial radio stations across the South West, including BBC Somerset, BBC Bristol, Heart FM and Brunel Radio which closed shortly after his first shift (he's adamant he wasn't responsible).
Jonty joined ITV News West Country in 2010, initially working as a web journalist before moving on to produce the regional news bulletins. At weekends he would sneak into the studio and try his hand at presenting, (thanks to an incredibly patient technical crew) sending his attempts to the Head of News.
A couple of years (and many practice bulletins) later Jonty began presenting the early and lunchtime news and shortly after covered for Ian Axton on the main programme.
After a short spell as the region's Sports Correspondent, Jonty took over the role as main presenter full time. You'll see him presenting from our studio most nights, but occasionally you'll also spot him on location, whether it's Cheltenham Racecourse, or Bristol Balloon Fiesta. Jonty has covered a variety of stories for the region, including the tipper truck crash in Bath, the Becky Watts murder investigation and the Rugby World Cup.
Jonty says:
You can connect with Jonty on Twitter.