Tributes were paid today to Charlie Gillett, a British radio presenter who championed world music, a day after his death aged 68. During a long career on the BBC World Service and elsewhere he was known for championing world music artists including Youssou N’Dour, Salif Keita and Portuguese fado singer Mariza.
“His broadcasts brought together music and radio fans from far-flung corners of the globe. He was a very special broadcaster and he will be sorely missed,” said World Service director Peter Horrocks. “His postbag was one of the biggest, most affectionate and diverse in Bush House which confirmed his special place in listener’s lives.”
(Source: AFP/BBC)
on Mar 19th, 2010 at 10:47
I enjoyed the smooth sound of Charlie’s voice and the chance to hear music on BBC WS I knew I wouldn’t hear almost anywhere else. I hope BBC WS doesn’t use this sad event to give up on music entirely. There is almost no music output now compared with 10 years ago. I think when they started reducing the music output, one excuse was that music wasn’t suited to crackly shortwave. Now that they have given up on (analogue) shortwave in many parts of the world, they’ll have to find some other excuse. Probably they’ll say music is available to most people from other sources.