Christmas 1972 was a life-changing time for Chris as he unwrapped his first transistor radio and decided to become a Radio Luxembourg DJ or a BBC radio announcer.
Armed with a maths degree and hospital radio experience, he convinced the BBC to take him on as a sound engineer. His duties included archiving many hours of Hitler’s speeches from the 1930s; spending the whole day on a crutch in a Radio 3 Drama studio as the sound effect of Paul Eddington’s wooden leg; and being one of Steve Wright’s Afternoon Boys.
Chris spent time as a producer for Radio 5 then joined the Radio 4 announcer team in 1995, going on to lead it as Senior Announcer and Newsreader for 18 years. Having read some 3,000 shipping forecasts he decided last year to take semi-retirement and continues to appear regularly on Radio 4 on a freelance basis. One of the highlights of his 36 years at the BBC has been to spend a day with the Archers and meet his ‘radio uncle’ Brian Aldridge (who to Chris’s delight wears a cravat in real life).
In his spare time Chris can be spotted running around the locality and completed his first Barns Green half-marathon last year in a personal best time…though found it hard to accept being placed in the veterans’ category. He can also be seen wielding mattocks and hacksaws with Horsham’s Green Gym and claims to have a penchant for DIY – though his wife remains to be convinced until the bathroom tap is fixed…