Broadcaster ready to hear the stories of the people through music

Broadcaster Tim Beech has been talking to people from across the region for his show "Inside Tracks", which goes out every Tuesday on Wolverhampton Community Radio.

The show follows the theme of the BBC Radio Four programme Desert Island Discs and sees those being interviewed for the show picking between eight and 10 songs which Tim then uses to tell stories about their lives.

He said it was about capturing the accents, the words, the experiences and people of the local area and hearing what they have to say.

He also said that as a local boy, it was great to talk about an area he thought was very special and said that it was important to capture the oral history of it.

He said: "I was born in Walsall and grew up in Bloxwich and worked all of my BBC broadcasting career and commercial radio in and around the West Midlands area and it's a wonderful area full of rich stories.

"There's something very special about capturing oral history as opposed to writing it down as you don't get the pauses and emphasis, which can really reveal an awful lot, so it brings out a personality that makes a difference.

"I think it's really important that we can capture the vocabulary changes as well as, over time, words that people use go completely out of fashion and I think of my grandfather and some of the phrases he used and they are words you never hear today."

He said that the only qualification to be on the programme was that you were a human being from the area and encouraged people to get in touch as he wanted to hear their stories.

He said: "In the end, we've all grown up and lived in this area and we all have that shared experience in common.

"No matter what age we are and no matter what our background is, we all have being from the Black Country in common, and when people come into the studio, we're all talking from a similar base.

"It's an absolute pleasure to do the show and I love doing it as it really is a privilege to meet people."

To find out more and to get in touch, email tim@wcrfm.com. The show airs on 101.8FM, DAB digital radion and online.