Chris Pearson

Chris was with Caroline on the Ross in spring 1985 but doesn't have a single photo of himself in the studio from that time after he lent the pics (and negs!) to a friend who lost the lot. Prior to that, he'd been on Dart Radio in his hometown of Dartford, Kent, alongside future Caroline colleagues Dave Foster and Tony Christian. A spell on a cable station, Radio Thamesmead, in south London, lead to former Radio Caroline man Jason Wolfe handing Chris's demo tape onto the team onboard the Ross.

Chris says he'll never forget clambering up the rope ladder to board the ship for the first time on that dark March night, "It was just mind-blowing to actually be setting foot onboard as one of the team". Finally getting to bed at around 5:30am, he was awoken by knocking on his cabin door to be told that he would be on-air in 15 minutes as someone had gone ill. "Thanks to Nick Richards for the ten minute crash course on using the Ross desk!".

After leaving Caroline, Chris spent six months aboard the Peace Ship with the Voice of Peace 'from somewhere in the Mediterranean' before returning to instore radio with the newly launched Radio HMV in Oxford Street. Several years in commercial radio followed (Invicta Radio, Essex Radio, Ocean Sound, Power FM, Chiltern Radio, Horizon Radio, The Superstation and Key 103) before Chris joined the forces station BFBS.

He's been travelling with them ever since as a presenter and Station Manager in the Falkland Islands, Germany, Cyprus, Belize, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq and two three-month long tours of Afghanistan using the BFBS studios at Camp Bastion. Off-air highlights for Chris have included flying a Red Arrow Hawk jet from the back seat, ramp riding Chinook helicopters and Hercules aircraft, a Royal Navy trip to South Georgia, a back seat in a Tornado jet in the Falklands and being winched into a helicopter from the Belizean jungle. His day job sees him running ten stations across the UK from Edinburgh via Belfast and Catterick to Brize Norton and Salisbury Plain for BFBS.