A lot of people know the voice of Tim Beech from many years service on midlands radio, but now on his WCR show is on the search for people with interesting stories to tell about there lives living in the Black Country. It is an alternative way to tell local history with the voices of those who have lived it rather than having to read it off the written page.
00:00 Hello sir. Hello. A voice many people know from radio. A distinguished career in BBC Radio Shropshire and Sports Radio.
00:09 Yes, BBC Radio WM, yeah. Working on an interesting project at the minute, just fill us in, this is for Radio WCR?
00:15 Yes, WCR FM is a community radio station based in Wolverhampton, it's the only radio station that actually broadcasts in Wolverhampton these days.
00:23 So we are the radio station for the city, and what I'm doing is I'm collecting people's stories really.
00:29 I do a show every Tuesday night, it goes out at 6pm for an hour, it's a bit like a desert island Discs, but basically what we do is we invite people of any walk of life,
00:38 or any background whatsoever, to come in, give us 8 pieces of music or tracks that mean something to them, and tell us a little bit about why each track means something.
00:49 Why it's important to them. And in doing that you start to get an archive obviously of local history and local stories.
00:56 How people have lived in the area, how they've experienced life in the area, all the various experiences,
01:02 and we're hearing them in their first person voice, which I think is the important thing.
01:06 You're getting the emphasis, you're getting the accent, you're getting the vocabulary,
01:10 and we're capturing bits of history that hopefully will still be around for people to enjoy and appreciate in 100 years time.
01:17 And you haven't got to be a Lord of the Manor or a former football star, it's kind of everyday people isn't it, and sometimes that's where the best stories can come from.
01:24 Absolutely, I totally agree with that. It's just the opposite actually. It isn't about having qualifications.
01:29 Your only qualification is to be a human being, basically. And if you've lived a life, then you've got stories to tell.
01:35 People don't think that their lives are interesting, or they don't think that they've got stories to tell,
01:39 and then are surprised at just how interesting and fascinating their lives have been when they start to talk about them.
01:45 And when you use music as a vehicle to just bring nostalgia and bring memory, it's a bit like smell.
01:51 Music takes you to a particular time and a particular place when you hear it,
01:55 so it's a very powerful vehicle to use to actually spark people's memories and get them talking.
02:01 But also it makes for a great radio show as well, because you've got a mixture then of speech and music,
02:06 and the music means something, you're not just playing something for any old reason.
02:09 It's because it means something to the person who's playing it.
02:12 Well we've got some old shop bells there, just give them a ring.
02:14 This will remind a few people of popping down to the corner shop, says, "This is a sound we haven't heard for a while, isn't it?"
