CHILTERN NETWORK
THE GUARDIAN
ANN KARPF REVIEW .....
Chris Tarrent may make big money from Capital Radio; Big George at the Chiltern Radio Network in Milton Keynes doesn't make a penny. But Big George is of the old school and passionately hostile to drum -machines, samplers, the record industry - jeez, even Dolby(TM). His Thursday evening show consists of the music he prizes, an idiosyncratically eclectic mix of country, rock, new bands and even (last week) a Scottish mod group as well as Woody Guthrie. No polished patter; his speech is confined to exhortations to buy this or that record and invective against the record companies (playing a band who couldn't secure a deal in Britain, he says it's because they don't have a member in the cast of Eastenders) in unmistakable tones of the proselytiser, giving his show the feel of a pirate station. The ads in between sound surreal - shopping malls and Alice On Ice. George, who composed the rousing theme tune for "Have I Got News For You", is a bit of a bully and seems to get off on being a Luddite, but by God he loves the music, and it shows
“I got the gig (my first presenting job) after jamming Horizon Radios breakfast show for seven minutes, in protest of their music policy. My show only played music performed by peoples fingers, no computers, samplers or digital trickery. I resigned, on air the day after the network was bought out by a company who play wall to wall adverts occasionally interrupted by Tina Turner, Wet Wet Wet or Phil Collins. In fact I dedicated the entire show to one of their core artists, Phil Collins. Although not the housewives favourite, cuddly Phil Collins, but the unlistenable to Jazz Fusion drummer live with BrandX Phil Collins. They'd have sacked me anyway, as I don’t possess the skills to read cue cards and fire off the next piece of playlist safety”
