Former BBC Essex presenter Ray Clark is joining Radio Caroline, where he started his career, following a year of uncertainty over the changes to BBC local radio.
Ray’s BBC show was broadcast across East Anglia and the South-East on Sunday evenings, and his new programme on Caroline will air at the same time, covering the same area and beyond.
Ray says: “Since the BBC has decided it no longer wants many highly experienced and long serving presenters, then it’s reasonable to assume that they’re not really worried about the people that listened to the shows they presented. But at Radio Caroline we’ve been making listeners welcome for nearly 60 years.
“My new Sunday early evening show on Caroline will be in the same style as my former BBC show and I’ll be playing the best songs, Caroline Classics, with, perhaps an occasional witty comment – it’s what I do!”
For Ray, this is a return to where he began his 40-year broadcasting career on the pirate radio station. He has often presented on Radio Caroline over the years, including some of the monthly broadcasts from the station’s radio ship Ross Revenge.
Radio Caroline station manager Peter Moore said: “There is the saying, ‘when you are in a hole, stop digging’, but BBC management are continuing with a reorganisation of their local services while refusing to see that it is a disaster.
“Ray is just one of many loyal and competent BBC presenters who have been dismissed or placed in a position where they felt obliged to resign. But their loss is our gain, and we are delighted to welcome Ray, or welcome him back in fact, and to place him on all our broadcast platforms.”