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Charlie Gillett born Feb 20, 1942 is a British radio presenter and writer, and in recent years has become one of the country's most influential proponents of 'world music'.

Gillett began in journalism in 1968 with a weekly column in the Record Mirror. His 1970 book, The Sound of the City, was a history of popular music, originally written as his Masters thesis for Columbia University. It received excellent reviews in both Time magazine and The New York Times and enabled Gillett to further his music journalism career and write a second book, Making Tracks. He wrote for a variety of music magazines including Rolling Stone and New Musical Express and currently contributes to The Observer.

He began a weekly radio programme, Honky Tonk on Radio London from 1972, leaving in 1978. He brought Ian Dury to public attention, and was the first DJ to play demos by by Graham Parker, Elvis Costello and Dire Straits ("Sultans of Swing").

With partner Gordon Nelki, Charlie launched the Oval record label in 1974 with Another Saturday Night, a compilation record which popularised Cajun music in the UK. The duo managed Ian Dury's first group Kilburn & the High Roads, co-produced the first Lene Lovich album (including the hit "Lucky Number") and published Paul Hardcastle's worldwide number one hit, "19". Most recently they have worked with producer David Lowe on the projects Touch and Go and Dreamcatcher.

In 1980 Charlie joined London's leading commercial station, Capital Radio, and began to play more independent music. He was fired in 1983 but after listener complaints was re-hired with orders for a new format. He chose to follow his new interest in music from the rest of the world and his show, A Foreign Affair, is credited with helping to launch 'world music' [1]. Having been the first British DJ to play Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, "Hot Hot Hot" by Arrow (Alphonsus Cassell) and many more, he left Capital in December 1990. He was presented with the Sony Gold Lifetime Achievement Award the following year.

Returning to the BBC, Charlie has presented a weekly two hour show on BBC London 94.9 from 1995 to 2006 and a weekly world music programme on the BBC World Service since 1999. In 2006, Gillett was awarded The John Peel Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music Radio by the Radio Academy. However, in July 2006, after eleven years of broadcasting his regular Saturday Night show of world music, Charlie had to end his weekend slot due to ill health. Charlie said: "While being disappointed that the show has had to come to an end, there is great pleasure and satisfaction in looking back at what we have enjoyed over the past eleven years." 94.9's Executive Editor David Robey said the news was a huge loss for the station. "Charlie is hugely respected and renowned for his knowledge and expertise in world music and for the talent he has uncovered over the years," he said.

Each year each year since 2000, he has compiled a double-CD world music album, World 2000, 2001, etc, the first four for EMI, the next two for Wrasse. The latest, World 2006, is through Warner/Rhino.

Gillett and his wife Buffy have two daughters, Suzy and Jody, and one son, Ivan.

• Interview and profile, fRoots magazine, 2001

• Personal site
• Wrasse Records website