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Presenter Profiles
Roger Mathews
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Roger, who started his radio career whilst serving in the RAF, later swapped the air for the sea and broadcast from the
Mi Amigo as part of Caroline's late 1970's
team. Later during the heyday of landbased pirate radio in Ireland in the early
80s he worked on several stations in the West of Ireland, including WABC and Castle Radio.
Happily married with a teenage daughter, Roger lives on the English South Coast, where he runs an Engineering and consulting company.
E-mail Roger
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Johnny Lewis
 Johnny Lewis worked on Caroline in the 1970s as both broadcaster and engineer until the
Mi Amigo sank in 1980. He later worked for The Voice Of Peace and Laser 558 before rejoining Caroline on the
Ross Revenge. He has also worked for a clutch of Irish stations as well as local commercial radio in the UK - the latest being Kent's KMFM in
Thanet.
Johnny's other interests including golf, walking and fund raising for the RNLI. He also gives after dinner speeches on offshore radio, loves to listen to soft rock and soul and says his fantasy date would be Sandra Bullock!
Johnny is also an expert on beer (especially drinking it) but promises not to spill any on our CD players!
E-mail Johnny
Mark Stafford
 Mark’s radio career
began in the late ‘70s as Station Manager for Atlanta Radio, recognised
as one of Europe’s top short-wave free radio stations. In 1982 Mark became
Programme Controller of the International Service of RBL. This provided an FM
commercial radio service from the French Coast covering the South Coast of
England. Mark
joined the Invicta Supergold on-air line-up in 1991 and subsequently moved on to
become a permanent presenter on Invicta FM.
From
1994 onwards Mark was involved with countless RSL stations in South East
England. In fact he may hold the record for appearances on different RSLs!
Having worked on 13 different broadcasts for 9 stations including Coastline FM
for which he was Station Manager.
In
1996 Mark joined the board of East Kent Radio Ltd (EKR), as part of the team behind their
bid for local radio licences in East Kent. 1997
saw Mark joining the on-air launch team at Medway FM before moving on to become
Head Of Music for European Klassik Rock (EKR), Britain’s first real rock radio
station broadcasting on satellite and DAB. Following EKR’s closure in early
1999, Mark joined the Radio Caroline team and has been responsible for Caroline
music programming for the majority of it’s time broadcasting on satellite from
Maidstone. Mark’s
popular Sunday evening shows have been broadcast from the Maidstone studios, since they began on EKR back in 1997. Email
Mark.
John Patrick
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John Patrick presented The
Friday Rock Show and The Saturday Request Show for five years before retiring
from regular broadcasting in October 2005. However he vows to pop up from time
to when we broadcast from our 'spiritual home' the Ross Revenge.
John is a major fan of rock music
and is well known for promoting new rock bands. John's involvement with Caroline
goes back to the 70s when he helped many a covert supply operation to the Mi
Amigo radio ship when it was anchored off of the UK coast. John blames 70s
Caroline engineer and DJ Dick Palmer for schooling him in 'cosmic' broadcasting
although JP is self-taught in the art of air guitar and drums. "Dick is a
wonderful bloke but to describe him as being off his trolley is an insult to
trolleys. He taught me everything I know and is to be blamed for the complete
mess I broadcast".
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Roger 'Twiggy' Day
No.1 Beach Boys fan Roger Day with Beach Man Bruce Johnston
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A Radio Caroline original from our offshore heydays of 1967-68, Roger was
onboard when the Mi-Amigo was hijacked and towed to Holland on March 3rd 1968,
ending Caroline's first glorious offshore era.
"Working on Caroline South were the happiest days of my life and when it
was towed away was one of the saddest days of my life," reflects Roger.
Prior to his stint on Caroline South, Roger cut his radio teeth on the highly
americanised offshore stations Swinging Radio England & Britain Radio from
1966-67. Both stations broadcast from the same ship 'Laissez Faire.' After his
original Caroline stint Roger worked on Radio Luxembourg (Fab 208) in 1968-69
and the Swiss owned multi-coloured radio ship Radio Northsea International in
1970. After a brief return to Radio Caroline in 1973, Roger worked for a string
of UK commercial stations. He was the first voice on-air at Picadilly Radio
Manchester in 1974 and appropriately worked for the landbased local station
Pirate FM in Cornwall. 'Being back on Caroline feels like coming home,' says
Roger. Email Roger.
Roger can still occasionally be heard on Caroline but currently works for Saga FM in the Midlands and sometimes for BBC local stations in the South East.
Jim Ross
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Hailing from
Liverpool, Jim grew up listening to Caroline North in the 60s. Jim was involved
in running several landbased pirates in the Wirral region during the 70s. More
recently Jim relocated from Wales to Kent to join the Radio Caroline team.
"Today we are still playing music that you don't hear on heavily regulated
British corporate radio. Caroline is unique and I'm happy to be part of
it." E-mail Jim |
Steve Silby
 Steve Silby has been broadcasting for longer than
he cares to admit but still sports all his own teeth. Although raised on a diet of
Caroline throughout the 70's and 80's Steve says that it was our
own Pat Edison that lit the spark for his career with London's fantastic 70's
pirate 'Radio Kaleidoscope'. The closure of the 'Big K' found Steve broadcasting
up a variety of South London trees from 1977 but, after accidentally tuning into
a dose of late night pirate radio from Ireland, Steve relocated to the Emerald
Isle in 1980 and was one of the very first wave of 'Brits' that took up
residency on the illegal Irish wavebands. A winter with Radio Caroline on the
North Sea in 1986/87 made a man of him and he his well remembered for his
culinary skills in the Knock Deep. Well, the Cod remember! A music loving disc
jockey with UK commercial radio stations Ocean FM & Wave 105, it was only a
matter of time before he was rumbled and Steve hanged his headphones up for the
last time in 1999 in order to concentrate on a career in broadcast technologies.
He returned to Radio Caroline in 2004 after suffering sweats and cramps
resulting from too many years away from the microphone to present our breakfast
show until March 2006. Steve's voice can currently be heard on-air promoting
various items for the Caroline Webshop. E-mail
Steve
Rob Leighton
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Rob Leighton is a
power freak! Having got his hands on the Voice Of Peace transmitters off of
Israel's coast as their engineer in 1980, Rob more recently has run Imagination Radio with 250kW
on short wave and several RSL stations in the Midlands. Rob now brings his 'Imagination'
show to Radio Caroline
Thursday nights and presents Friday's breakfast show Rob is well known for his tasteful mix of the more obscure old
and new music that deserves to, but rarely gets heard on UK radio. E-mail
Rob. |
Pandora
 She's
played keyboards in rock bands and tour managed both tourists & musicians. She has studied Chinese medicine, aromatherapy & counselling and the power
of music in healing mind, body & soul. How about spending many years up in
the mountains of northern New Mexico and experiencing many strange, weird and
wonderful and spooky, unexplainable things??? ... yup, she's done that too...
She has even crossed the doors of death & other dimensions to glimpse the
other side and has an insatiable appetite for knowledge of the known and
unknown. PANDORA
feels she is here on earth to try and help everyone - including herself! - with humour & happiness, try and unravel the mystery of that crazy MAZE of
REALITY that is LIFE and LOVE...Check out Pandora's Rock Box every
Saturday, visit
her web-site and E-mail Pandora.
Rob Ashard
 Rob's
work schedule varies somewhat, which makes a regular slot impractical, but he
tries to do as many Thursday breakfasts as possible. His first radio experience
was in 1976 on Hospital Radio Ipswich. This was also a time when Rob listened to
Radio Caroline from the Mi Amigo and is an era very close to his heart. Rob
presented programmes on an occasional FM pirate called Brett Valley Radio in his
old hometown of Hadleigh in Suffolk using his audio equipment and a friend's
transmitter. He got a job on the sound department of LWT in 1980, which he left
to go freelance in September 2004. In the meantime he had done the Saturday
night rock show, "Thames FM Rocks!" on Thames FM in Kingston, London
when the station first got its licence and joined Caroline at around the time of
the Southend RSL, with his first show from Maidstone being re-transmitted from
the Ross. Rob also helps out with some of the technical aspects of the station
both at Maidstone and on the Ross, and his highlight at Caroline so far is the
Summer 2004 RSL from the ship. "A technical triumph and a great
vibe!", he says.
Martin Turner
 Martin
Turner has worked as a Radio Presenter since 1978 when he joined the Gateway
Hospital Broadcasting Service (Dover & Deal’s Hospital Radio) serving for
20 years. He has also Presented on Radio Boulogne Littoral, Atlanta Radio
(49mb), White Cliffs Sound (Dover), Shepway Sound (Folkestone) & Coastline
FM (Dover) where he was also Station Admin Manager / Ad Traffic. Martin joined European Klassik Rock in August 1997, before the
Station went on air. Recording some 1300 tracks from CD to MiniDisk and T/O
approximately 30 hours of Test Transmissions. Martin was the main Technical
Operator of the Rosko Show / Klassik Rock Jukebox before being given a regular
evening "slot". Martin presented just two shows on Radio Caroline (on Astra
Analogue) shortly after his Daughter was born in March 2000, then discovered
"Parenthood". Now Kelly is at school Martin returned to Radio Caroline
on the 1st of August 04 (and Loves every show !). E-mail
Martin.
Barry Marsh
 When
you're young something very often fires the imagination which stays with you for
life. In Barry's case it was music and radio and in particular free radio. From
the age of seven whilst on holiday on the Isle of Man, when fascinated by the
Radio Caroline North ship which could be seen out in the bay, Barry's interest
in radio grew. After leaving school his passion was met with several years in
the entertainment business. However this was put on hold, as building a career
in business paid better. During his time away from radio, his passion for music
was maintained and his record collection continued to grow. His interest in
radio also remained. In fact it was his irritation with the poor state of
formula driven radio in the UK that steered him to Radio Caroline. E-mail
Barry.
Paul Meier
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Paul
Meier was born in 1952.
He turned onto Caroline in 1966 and is has been a proud anorak since the age of
15.
1973 he set up his own clandestine station Radio Sunrise in Germany. The Station
was on the air for 9 years.
In summer 1979 he worked on the tourist "Radio Gloria" on the Gardasea
and "Radio Fortuna" on the Italien Riviera.
Married since the year of 1984, Paul has two children.
Since May 2001 he presents "German Caroline" a German program on Radio
Caroline Saturday mornings.
Vocationally he is an RF technician.
Hobbies include being a Radio Amateur since 1991,
Broadcasting good music and all things RF (Radio Frequency.) E-mail
Paul.
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Alan Watts
 Alan
Watts has been one of the trusty side-kicks to radio god Bob Harris for the past
ten years including stints at GLR in 1994, moving on with Bob to Thames Valley FM
and of course since 1997 at BBC Radio 2. Alan even worked with Bob at Radio 1 on
two Saturdays when he sat in for Johnnie Walker during the Matthew Bannister
era. At GLR Alan was often heard on air helping with competitions and gig
guides. He also enjoyed looking after Bob's many guests at GLR. Alan's close
collaboration with Bob Harris lead to his TV appearance on Bob's episode of
'This Is Your Life' in 2003. Alan was also resident DJ at the 'Frog &
Frigate' student venue in Southampton where he spun tunes between live acts at
weekends and did midweek DJ only stints. E-mail
Alan
Cliff Osbourne
 Cliff
Osbourne got the radio bug at an early age and following involvement with a
number of hospital radio stations had lots of fun in woods and fields around
south London stringing a length of wire between two trees and 'accidentally'
connecting it to a transmitter (honest!). He did a couple of stints with Radio
Caroline on the Mi Amigo in 1978 although you might have blinked and missed
them. Cliff decided to join Caroline for a second time as he heard they were
looking for presenters with personality, enthusiasm and experience. Despite this
he got in touch and has been let loose on-air ever since. The more numerically challenged listeners may also
recall him on the popular land-based pirate station, London Music Radio back in
the mid 1970's. E-mail Cliff
Jim Richman
Jim Richman was with the Caroline North ship in 1965-1966, originally as an
apprentice transmission engineer. One day senior jock Gerry Leighton asked if
he would like to fill in on-air - so he did! He says he enjoyed all but the
rock ‘n’ roll of the ship swaying side to side!
After leaving Caroline in 1966 Jim became resident DJ at the Marquee club in
Wardour Street, London for three years where he gained lots of experience on
the club circuit.
As the 70’s approached he became a PR for Radio Veronica in Holland until
the Dutch Marine offences act became law in 1974. Back in the UK he married
and worked as a driver and a warehouse packer before joining BBC Radio Kent
for a summer stint as relief in 1976.
In 1977 he joined Hospital Radio Lion in Guildford where he is to this
day (www.radiolion.org if you want to
view at their website). There Jim has been everything from programme director
and ward co-ordinator to general dogs body. Now he is delighted to be back
with his first love - Radio Caroline. E-mail
Jim
Pat Edison
Born in Croydon, South London, Pat was smitten by the radio bug 14 years later and was forced
to launch his own station via a pair of walkie-talkies. His parents, sisters and the cat may have been his only listeners, but at least it was a start!
A little while later he moved onto landbased pirate radio, firstly with the legendary Radio Jackie, then Radio Kaleidoscope which gained a reputation of being one of the most regular and professional pirates in London.
After Kaleidoscope closed in 1976 some of its staff set up a radio service at The London Hospital, Whitechapel and Pat spent many years there as presenter, engineer and later programme director.
In 1996 he spent some time finding out about life outside radio, including a spell
practising Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism. However the pull of radio was too much, and after 5 years in the wilderness he returned to radio as part of the Radio Caroline team.
Pat can currently be heard on
Monday, Thursday and Sundays mornings the latter featuring the fabled
"Mini Anthology".
Pat has also presented for the legal Radio Jackie in South West London, and a number of Restrictive Service Licence stations.
E-mail Pat.
Clive Garrard
Clive Garrard first got the radio bug as a schoolboy after meeting his hero Emperor Rosko. This had a profound effect on the lad and he realised that he simply had to become a DJ.
Greatly influenced by listening to Radio Caroline because of "the great music not played anywhere else" Clive began doing mobile disco's throughout the 1980's and joined Hospital Radio Tunbridge Wells in 1982. Later he was able to put this experience to good use presenting patients requests for BBC Radio Kent. He has also worked for Club Med in the South of France - they were looking for an exciting DJ with tons of enthusiasm - but they still picked Clive!
On November 25th 1984 he joined Invicta Radio - a date he remembers well as it was the same day as Band Aid were recording "Do They Know It's Christmas".
Clive has also done stints at Hospital Radio Hastings, Radio D.G.H., Sovereign Radio in Eastbourne and numerous RSL's. He was delighted to be involved at the beginning of 107.8 Arrow FM in his home town of Hastings where he co-presented the breakfast show from 1998 to 2001.
A regular on the RSL station Hastings Rock since 1995 Clive was amazed to have rock group R.E.M. tuning in via the Internet from their recording studio in Miami. They had just finished mixing their Around The Sun album and had been tipped off that Hastings Rock were featuring their Automatic For The People album that day.
Clive joined Radio Caroline in 2002 presenting the Tuesday evening 60's & 70's Request Show and now the Saturday lunchtime programme.
E-mail Clive
Clive Thomas
 It was the original Radio Caroline that inspired Clive to open hospital radio with school friends in Swansea in 1966 at the tender age of
17. He went on to be an actor and drama teacher, even starring in the rock version of Henry V at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but he
couldn't leave the DJ bug alone, first as a mobile DJ in the East End of London and then as a pirate on the legendary Radio Kaleidoscope in 1975-6. He went on to set up the prize winning Whitechapel AM at the Royal London Hospital with other Big K veterans and in 1978 became Station Manager at the Home
Office's experimental commercial cable station, Radio Basildon, beating Radio One and Capital in the ratings war in the Essex District, where he still lives with his wife Christine and 2 of their 4 children, the others having married and left home.
In 1982, the poacher turned game keeper and joined the Performing Right Society, and was its Performance Sales Director for 10 years from 1995. Despite a busy career and family life he ran a number of experimental
'restricted service licence' stations in the 80s & 90s including Baz Radio, Baz Country Radio and Luke Light FM (in support of
Basildon's Hospice). In 2006, he took early retirement from PRS to pursue his own interests and fulfilled a 41 year old ambition to join Radio
Caroline. Clive says: "I applied to Caroline House in 1965, it's just taken a while to process the
application!". E-mail
Clive
Martin Smith
 My first real introduction to radio was with the pirate radio era of the 1970’s, Radio Caroline, RNI & Radio Atlantis. At 14 I did the young DJ spot on Capital Radio, from then on I was hooked.
Hospital Radio Medway then Maidstone experienced my services before helping out Mike Brill on Kent Rocks for BBC Radio Medway as a backroom chappy and stand in presenter.
Various Voice Over works for Radio, TV & Audio Visual companies during the 1980’s and then RSL’s for Medway in the 90’s
2003 and Radio Caroline beckoned with a year of doing the Sunday morning Breakfast Programme.
So what goes around, comes around and now its Breakfast Monday & Tuesday mornings.
E-mail Martin
Tony Christian
 Tony Christian has done it all, show-biz wise. He started off by running a popular UK disco roadshow, progressed to become resident DJ at such nightclubs as Cinatra's, Davinchi's, Watertown, The Millionaire, T's Nightclub, Raffles, Mucky Duck, Twilight's, Gino's, Samantha's, King's and the Hippodrome just to name a few! He has also been a compare on the Cabaret circuit working with many top names like Jim Bowen, Bobby Davro, Jimmy Jones, Frank Carson and Mike Read, as well as presenting shows and introducing bands at pop festivals and
presenting on the Soul Train TV Show.
Tony's radio career began on Hospital Radio, then popular landbased pirates such as JFM Radio, LWR and Skyline Radio with Breakfast Shows. After a spell with Radio Sovereign International on the Italian Riviera (now Riviera Radio in Monaco), Music Power Radio in Ireland, Radio Thamesmead, RTM FM, Tony then joined Radio Caroline on board the Ross Revenge in the North Sea during 1985. While climbing the radio ladder Tony worked with Pat Sharp, David "Kid" Jensen, Mick Brown and Paul Phear on roadshows. Since then he has worked on RTM FM, Hastings Rock, Radio Caroline on the Dutch Cable Network, WBCQ in the USA, Millenium FM and more recently Radio Seagull in Holland. These days Tony can still be heard presenting shows on Radio Caroline, as well as managing and presenting shows
on TNI Radio - a Worldwide Classic Rock Internet Radio Station, and BLR FM a local community Radio Station in the UK.
E-mail Tony
Martin Fisher
 Martin Fisher has Radio in his blood. Hailing from the birthplace of radio, Chelmsford, he remembers his Grandfather explaining how one could receive the early Marconi broadcasts with no more than a poker in the ground, a piece of coal and a pair of headphones! The young Martin's own experiments with crystal sets proved very disappointing though as he could only receive the BBC Home and Light programmes.
Despite this, he continued to develop an interest in music until one day at school, rumours started about a new Radio Station on board a ship Radio Caroline. He was hooked and wondered what it would be like to work on a radio ship. Little did he realise that he would find out first hand just a few years later when he was invited to a secret London location and offered the job of Transmitter Engineer and DJ!
So it was that Martin Fisher found himself on board the famous Mi Amigo early in January 1977. During that first stint not only did Martin DJ for the first time, but also assisted with the move from 259 to 319 metres. He remained with Radio Caroline for nearly three years but has continued to work behind the scenes in the broadcasting world ever since.
Martin jumped at the chance to return to the fold in the late 1990s for Caroline's new satellite service, and 2007 sees him celebrating 30 years since first joining Radio Caroline. You can hear Martin Fisher on Wednesday nights, with his regular show.
E-mail Martin
Dell Richardson
 Dell Richardson started his broadcasting career in 1996 when he joined the team at Country Music Radio based in central London where he co-presented
Rocking Good Country with Bryan Chalker. He also presented a rockabilly show once a month on the station with Roy Williams. Dell stayed with CMR for 4 years until they stopped broadcasting. He then moved on to satellite station Merlin Network One, based in the City of London, where he stayed for 7 months. Dell joined Radio Caroline in the year 2000 where his Tuesday rock'n'roll show
Good Rockin' Tonight has grown from strength to strength. On it he has interviewed many big names over the years including Bruce Welch (The Shadows), Linda Gail Lewis, Wee Willie Harris, Vince Eager, Chas Hodges, Alvin Stardust, Doc Cox, Stuart Colman, Emile Ford, Lee Curtis, Paul Evans, John Leyton, Russ Sainty, Cliff Bennett, Tommy Bruce, Charlie Gracie plus many more. For more information on his show, check out Dell's website at
www.caroline.rockers.co.uk
Dave Foster
 Dave Foster started his radio career in 1977 with Dart Radio at West Hill Hospital in his hometown of Dartford, Kent where he'd already been a disco DJ.
His next move was in 1987 when he joined Radio Caroline at sea on the Ross Revenge. It was only for an 8 week spell but he wouldn't have missed it for the world. After that it was back to Dart Radio where he rose to the position of Programme Controller.
Dave next joined satellite station European Classic Rock through his good friend Mark Stafford and was with the station until it's closure in 1999. Radio Caroline took over the EKR studios at Maidstone and Nigel Harris asked Dave to help get the station back on the air which required rebuilding the studio. This he did with help from his friend Jay. Dave has been with Caroline ever since.
He tries to visit the Ross Revenge as often possible to help the restoration crew and in 2005
spent some time upgrading the on-air studio for the digital era. " It was tough going", he says, "but worth every
minute".
Dave can be heard on Radio Caroline on Sunday afternoons between 2 and 6 p.m. and also on Holland's Radio Seagull - the station started by former Caroline Dutch Service man Sietse Brouwer.
E-mail Dave
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