Jonathan Bufton

Jonathan Bufton first experienced YSTV during his university open day in October 2001, when he was shown around the station by Jenny Gordon. Upon arriving in York a year later he wasted no time in joining up, and was immediately co-erced into presenting the first Bulletin of the academic year.

After toying with the idea of getting more involved in URY (where he presented shows for all three years at York) he soon saw sense and plunged head-first into YSTV, with early assignments including set-buildings on Games Disaster, filming a head-shaving record attempt and persuing Prince Philip through the science park with a DV Camera. In early 2003 he was elected Controller of Entertainment and Drama and soon after produced his first show Have I Got News For YUSU. At the May 2003 AGM he became Production Director, pledging to simply make more shows and decrease the amount of simulcasting of other channels. He ended up producing around a dozen shows over his time at YSTV (including URYVision Song Contest and Off The Cuff), and also oversaw a long overdue relaunch of YSTV's news output, becoming YSTV Week.

He was part of the Gang of Four that had to keep the station going during dark days in mid-2003 when the majority of the station's active members left all at once, and helped recruit a new generation to ensure the station continued to operate. During this period he launched his own TV review show Small Screen, which went on to run for twenty-four editions over nearly two years and win an award for "Best Light Entertainment Programme" at NaSTA 2004. The previous year had seen his Snow sequence win "Best Ident". In his second year he also co-produced Elections 2004, a considerable task due to the three remaining members who had crewed the show before and the new split-site format which was pioneered that year.

In his final year he held the post of Scheduling Manager, indulged his love of the YSTV Archive with Elections Past, showed off his embarrassing knowledge of 90s pop music on Children In Need 2004 and was stalked periodically by Sarah Leese. He also managed to keep Small Screen going every fortnight despite trying to pull back (ever so slightly) from YSTV to concentrate on his degree. This must have worked to an extent as he graduated in the summer of 2005 with a 2:1. His final week in the station saw the legendary one-off Good Morning Campus, the YUMAs and the final Small Screen - an exhausting but rewarding few days!

Soon after graduating he got a job at ITV, where he is now a Senior Junction Scheduler for ITV1. He lives in north London with other half and one-time News Biatch Kate Rushworth, and like many Old Farts returned a number of times for big events and outside broadcasts, including YUSU Election Nights, Freshers' Fair, a total of five NaSTAs and of course YSTV40.