A new radio show for travellers and gypsies in the East of England was launched by the BBC this weekend. Rokker Radio (Sundays 1800-2000 UTC) is presented by Jake Bowers, Britain’s only Romany journalist, and is a weekly radio show broadcast across six local radio stations in the BBC East region. Jake started working for the BBC a few months ago when he launched Rokker Radio (the Romany term for Talk Radio) on BBC Three Counties Radio, broadcasting across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghashire. The show has been a big success with travellers and regular Three Counties listeners so is being expanded to broadcast across the East of England on BBC Essex, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, BBC Radio Norfolk, BBC Radio Suffolk and BBC Radio Northampton.
Karen Shrosbery, the programme’s producer, says: “News of the show’s existence has been passed by word of mouth and we’re getting people contacting us from all over the country and as far away as eastern Europe, where there is a large gypsy community.”
More information about the programme can be found here.
