About Us

Rob Quicke

"I grew up in Cambridge, England, listening to my Dad's stories of his school classmates' Syd Barrett and Roger Waters. As a teenager I lived on the same street as Syd and I used to hope that eventually I would walk round a street corner and bump into him..."

Rob Quicke’s passion for radio and British music has led him to create radio history three times. First, with fellow students at Oxford University, Quicke helped design and launch the UK’s first student FM radio station in 1997. Second, he was the architect of the first radio journalism course of its kind in India at the Asian College of Journalism in 2000. Third, Rob created and launched the only radio show of its kind in America—Britsound—in 2005, playing the very best of British music to audiences in the US.

Rob has been a radio DJ in England with a market-leading morning show, and he also produced news features for broadcast on the BBC. From 2002 to 2007, Rob taught radio at Saint Xavier University, Chicago, where he won a Silver Dome Award for broadcasting excellence from the Illinois Broadcasters Association. He was also General Manager of WXAV 88.3 FM. During his time in Chicago, Rob has been featured in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune, Time Out Magazine Chicago, Chicago Public Radio WBEZ FM, and Chicago Tonight, Chicago’s premier public affairs program, on WTTW Channel 11 television.

The nationally syndicated Britsound Radio Show is the fastest growing syndicated radio show of its kind, reaching an estimated 250,000 listeners every week. Time Out Magazine Chicago wrote that Britsound “exposes some great, largely unknown Brit bands. Listen in with pen and paper ready for gems..." The show has appeared in AllAccess.com several times and is currently being broadcast on over 18 stations around the US and the UK. Rob regularly interviews British bands and artists such as Jamie Cullum, Editors, Chris Rea, Gomez, Art Brut, Supergrass, Elbow, and Eric Burdon, to name just a few.

As host of the show, Rob is an expert in all eras of British music and is dedicated to exposing American audiences to the very latest music from the UK, as well as playing classic songs that remain audience favorites.

"I started Britsound because I realized that many British bands don’t get played or noticed over here in America. I wanted to do something about that – hence Britsound."

Kevin Baxter

Kevin Baxter joined the Britsound Radio Show in July 2007, bringing with him much musical and radio expertise from his many years in American radio. Charged with looking after Beatles Corner, Kevin digs up interesting and informative Beatles facts and stories every week on the show. Kevin is also currently station manager for WPSC FM in Wayne, NJ. You can send Kevin your Beatles requests here.

Graeme McGinty

British music is pretty cool. Vinyl is also pretty cool. That said it’s not the only thing I listen to. I’ve been known to even purchase from the I-tunes store, which is a series of zero’s and ones, rather than a shinny spinning disk. I’m not going to bang on about the “sonically better”, “ohh, but its the warmth of vinyl” argument you often here about with digital versus analogue, because it’s dull. But having a 7” single stored in a shoe box to be plucked and enjoyed at a whim is what I enjoy, the physicality of it. Also a nice big picture sleeve is very pretty, especially if its signed. Then there’s the picture disk and coloured vinyl.

I’m not a compulsive collector, like some people I know, I don’t feel the need to have original pressings of records, or that limited edition Portuguese import with the inverted record label. It’s a cliché, but it really is about the music, man.

I probably buy more British singles than anything else. Mainly due to our chart system and also the resurgence of the vinyl format on the high street. But I do enjoy music from elsewhere, I’m not a UK music only snob. Also most reviews are likely to be of an indie and alt rock variety, because that’s what’s coming out on the wax, but there are some good pop songs out there. I will, in my reviews, try to be as diverse as I can with music type.

There is also a lot of great new music being played by BBC radio one, radio six and 1 extra. By people who love the music, Steve Lamacq, Zane Lowe etc. Music is great recorded, but it’s even better live. I’m in the great position of being able to see live music where I work, and there is a new music scene returning to most cities. See it and buy it, buy it then see it.

Matt Berry

I hail from Grand Rapids, Michigan where I was born and raised. I am a survivor (barely) of a long Catholic School education, kindergarten through high school to be exact, recently turned 30, and have a 5 year old daughter who thinks she’s 18, so you can imagine where my mentality is – pass the Percoset please.

I have a Bachelor of Arts in English from Grand Valley State University, my fourth stop on the college circuit, located in Allendale, Michigan – the Mecca of British music in the United States (no joke, you can look it up on the internet). I also attended Central Michigan University, which is surrounded by farmland and a large Indian Reservation; UNC Charlotte, which is now known as Charlotte University; and Grand Rapids Community College. I hope to one day continue my education through Graduate School for a career in publishing and writing.

I currently work for AMI Entertainment as a Song Publisher and Researcher. AMI Entertainment, subsidiary to Rowe International, is the content and software provider for domestic digital jukeboxes created by Rowe International, which has been producing them for over 80 years.

Music has always been a huge part of my life; it seems I have never been able to do anything without having at least the radio playing in the background. Like most people, I have gone through many regrettable stages of musical inclination, from the heavy metal stage, hip-hop and rap, grunge, easy-listening, to the alternative/modern rock stage. However, there’s always been the ones that have stuck around through it all, and I’ve come to rely on these now in my regular rotation: blues, funk, old school Motown, classic rock, jam bands, any rock bands able to blend a good dose of rhythm and blues into their music, and real jazz (not that elevator/dentist office crap they play on WLAV’s “Sunday Morning Jazz Brunch” – what a brain tumor that is). I do still dig on a lot of the 80’s pop; I’m not afraid to admit that.

Up until recently, my only exposure into British Rock was minimal at best, with the classic bands, such as The Who, The Rolling Stones, Beatles, and Clapton; pop bands of the 80’s such as Depeche Mode, New Order, Duran Duran, and The Smiths (and Morrissey as a solo artist); 80’s and 90’s rock bands such as U2, Oasis, The Police, and Radiohead. A few years ago, after falling under the spell of the Strokes and The White Stripes, I began to look further into modern rock music and came across many British bands such as The Hives, Badly Drawn Boy, and Travis. To be completely honest, aside from these instances of British bands that have made it big, I haven’t really dug too deep into the British music scene. My best friend is a DJ who spins techno/house/electronic/trance, and because of that I’ve been exposed to many of those artists from the UK as well as other parts of Europe.

Unfortunately, I will be writing for Britsound.com only temporarily, and very occasionally thereafter, until my career as Vin Diesel’s stunt double takes off.

Shouldn’t be long now. ;-)