We
were all sad to hear of the passing of Rob
Leighton. Tim Charles was especially sad
because he had been a regular "stand in" for
Rob since becoming a presenter on Radio
Caroline. I caught up with Tim on board the
Ross Revenge recently and talked to him
about his involvement with Radio Caroline.
Tim's first two broadcasts were for
Pirate BBC Essex with Paul Graham with the
LV 18 project but he tells me that John
Patrick was his mentor and he learnt a lot
of the trade while sitting in with John
assisting him with his programs. One night
they saw a gap in the system with no one to
fill in so he did the slot. After speaking
to the programme controller it was agreed
that he could take over an overnight slot
permanently. This then led to him standing
in for Robs Imagination show. Tim tells me
that he had similar music tastes to Rob and
really enjoyed doing the shows for him. He
used to phone Rob on many occasions to
discuss the shows and the music content. Tim
didn't want to copy Rob but felt that he had
to respect his audience. Tim said that Rob
had better access to new music so the shows
were changed slightly with Rob's approval.
Tim's own shows take a more classical theme
with the Magic Carpet Ride which is a legacy
of the old Overdrive shows that was a
feature of Radio Mi-Amigo's overnight
service. Tim got the name from a
Steppenwolfe track and thought to himself
that it would be a good name for an
overnight show. On the first Saturday of
every month Tim has his Blues R240 show
featuring Blues Rock music and has had a
good reaction from his audience. He says
that there are a lot of good bands out there
that don't get their music played on the
radio and regularly phones up contacts and
bands to get their music.
Tim's
favourite music is AOR to Medium heavy
Symphonic Goth, these are European bands
many fronted by women and are experienced
musicians. Like many of us he doesn't like
the policy these days of pulling
inexperienced people off the streets and
putting them on a TV talent show. Tim puts
in a lot of planning to his shows and
listens to every track he plays in advance.
Tim's earliest memory of Caroline was in
1964 during the second week on air. After
the Marine offences act Caroline's change of
format to an album track station had a big
influence on his music choice when he found
classics like King Crimson and Prog Rock. He
joined Caroline in 1989 when he heard the
raid on the ship. He became very upset and
after hearing appeals for supplies of
equipment he felt that he could offer his
services. Tim is a production engineer
and had access to surplus equipment and
though John Knight and Ian G. offered his
services. He first went on board the Ross
Revenge in Dover and he is still supplying
the ship with goods and services.
Tim is passionate about music and his
favourite groups are Mostly Autumn, Epica,
Nightwish, After Forever, The Goona Goyle
and Evanescence. He likes album track music
and feels that the station should keep the
legacy of playing album Rock. Tim plans to
continue with his overnight show but he may
not be available to continue with his new
Thursday evening 9pm to midnight show.
Before Rob passed on Tim had been talking to
him about doing a progressive music show and
a show based on a 4 hour musical search /
quest for Avalon the Mythical Kingdom. He
said that Rob had many musical ideas and
planned his shows so that one track leads to
another.
Tim said that Caroline
played music that other stations have failed
to play but the listeners come first. He
tried to combine the two. He takes
particular notice of text and e-mail
messages from listeners and tries to find
the tracks they want to hear even if this
means searching for the tracks during the
week to play them on the next show. He plays
mainly CDs and is always interested in music
ideas from listeners. Tim comes over as a
presenter that takes a keen interest in his
programs, the listeners and certainly has a
passion for the music that he plays.
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