Roger Hill

Roger Hill has presented the alternative music programme on BBC Radio Merseyside since 1982, and overseen most of its developments and changes. He has also broadcast on architecture and other arts-related subjects for Radio Merseyside and contributed to network BBC on Radios1,3, 4 and 5. Whilst his broadcasting commitments have continued Roger has pursued parallel careers in theatre, the arts and performance. He has been Associate Director of the Liverpool Everyman Theatre, a prime mover, from the 1980’s when he was Youth Theatre Organizer at that theatre, of the Youth Theatre movement in the UK and internationally. He is currently President of the National Association Of Youth Theatres, and his association with NAYT dates from 1983 when he was its founding Chairman. He lectured for 7 years at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts as part of the Community Arts Department. As an arts consultant he has worked for the Arts Council, The Council of Europe and many overseas bodies, producing several influential reports on arts development and young people. He currently works as a Live Artist with residencies at the Liverpool Bluecoat Arts Center and the Cable Factory in Helsinki in his portfolio, alongside his continuing theatre and consultancy work.

Originally from Leicester, Roger has lived in Liverpool since 1978 and traveled widely including two round-the-world trips, and he saw in the Millennium on the Great Wall Of China.

Richard Matanda

Richard Matanda’s Bio (Technical Operator)
Richard Matanda joined the Popular Music Show team as a trainee in 2005.
Job description:

- Management of programme

- Managing communications

- Live band engineering

- Occasional presenting 

- Assistant producer

Personal statement: We love working with a variety of music artists in a range of experimental musical genres from all corners of the globe, please contact us if you would like to jam.

Karen Timms

Hailing from the deepest darkest depths of West Yorkshire, Karen Timms first moved to Liverpool in 1997 to study at the University of Liverpool.

It was here that she met her fellow members of infamous punk band Flamingo 50. With Karen bashing away on bass, the trio staked their claim in world domination by rocking around the UK and France with the likes of Le Tigre and Nerf Herder, and playing festivals including Ladyfest, Widstock, Munkyfest and Punk Aid.

After a four year stint with the '50 and several near death experiences, Karen joined the psychedelic Victorian pop noir band Lovecraft, who she currently performs and drinks tea with on a regular basis.

Karen's fascination with music was explored from an early age, learning to read musical notation as soon as she could read the English language. Expanding on those trusty adolescent recorder and clarinet lessons, her musical tastes now include thrash metal from the San Francisco Bay area of the late 1980s, the post Riot Grrrl music of the late 90s and noughties, Claude Debussy, Steve Reich, Björk and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

Karen is currently studying for a degree in Music and Music Technology at Liverpool Hope University, studying electro-acoustic and acousmatic composition with sonic arts composer Ian Percy, and hopes to graduate in the summer of 2008.