Carl Emms (born 31 December 1966, Swindon Wiltshire), known professionally as Carlos is a British radio presenter and disc jockey. The only child of Vernon and Elsie Emms, he spent his childhood and teenage years living in Royal Wootton Bassett.

Early career

His broadcasting career began at 15 on Wiltshire Radio whilst still at school, presenting an early morning show. In November 1983 he was a guest on

Russell Harty Frederic Russell Harty (5 September 1934 – 8 June 1988) was an English television presenter of arts programmes and chat shows. Early life Harty was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, the son of greengrocer Fred Harty, who ran a fruit-and-veg ...

's TV chat show as the youngest radio presenter in the country. In October 1985, when ''WR'' merged with Bristol's ''Radio West'' to form ''GWR'', Carl presented the first day of test transmissions from Bristol's Watershed. In 1987 he joined Signal Radio in Stoke-on-Trent, where he presented the Drivetime show, still under his real name, where his vocal style was compared by many to that of the already successful

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content ...

DJ Steve Wright. He went on to appear on Cardiff's Red Dragon FM, followed by a stint at the Chiltern Radio Network where he presented the late night 10pm2am show. After this he moved to their breakfast show. When this programme was split from being networked over all three Chiltern Radio Network stations, to local shows, he continued with the Northants 96 Breakfast show, known as ''Carl Emms and The Breakfast Bunch'', which he presented for 4 years. In 1991 he appeared in a pantomime production of Aladdin in Northampton alongside

Barbara Windsor Dame Barbara Windsor (born Barbara Ann Deeks; 6 August 193710 December 2020) was an English actress, known for her roles in the ''Carry On'' films and for playing Peggy Mitchell in the BBC One soap opera, ''EastEnders''.Northants 96 he presented drive time.

The Midlands

He joined

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

's BRMB in June 1993 following a shake up at the station, hired by Richard Park. At BRMB he initially presented the evening show before moving to drivetime. During this period he was best known for his request show; ''Call Carlos'' where listeners were invited to call in with requests for their favourite songs. He was also the host of the station's huge pop concerts. After 4 years with BRMB, he moved to

100.7 Heart FM Heart North East is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to North East England from studios in Newcastle. History Century Radio Century Radio was the first regional station for Nort ...

, where he spent 8 years hosting the mid-morning show and developed the station's popular ''Time Tunnel'' ( A copy of the Radio 1 classic feature The Golden Hour), where hits from a particular year are played and listeners have to guess the year.

Wave105

Carlos was removed from the

mid-morning show in May 2005. Station bosses at the time said that they wanted younger presenters, and several of Carlos's colleagues, such as Nick Piercey were also axed that year. Carlos moved to

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

where he joined Wave 105 and presented a show on Saturday morning. Around this time, he was also heard on Magic 105.4, where he stood in for presenters who were away. From late 2005 he was the host of Wave 105's morning show from Mondays to Saturdays. He achieved record audience ratings for the show prior to his departure in September 2007.

Smooth Radio

Carlos joined Smooth Radio in September 2007. As a presenter on the network's

105.7 Smooth Radio Smooth West Midlands is an Independent Local Radio station for the Birmingham and the West Midlands. It is owned and operated by Global as part of the Smooth network. History GMG Radio The station launched following GMG Radio's purchase of the ...

in Birmingham, he fronted the weekday afternoon show from 1 to 4pm, as well as hosting a programme on Saturday between 10am and 1pm. Carlos joined the newly launched national Smooth Radio station in Manchester in October 2010 as its Drivetime and Saturday afternoon presenter. In April 2012 he moved to present the weekday afternoon show swapping roles with David Jensen who took over Drivetime. Carlos also presented on Smooth 70s on Bank Holiday Monday 27 August 2012. In January 2013 Smooth overhauled their schedules, giving Carlos the weekday evening slot, succeeding Andy Peebles in that role. Smooth's owners, Global Radio announced a relaunch of the Smooth Brand in February 2014, taking effect from 3 March. This coincided with a return to some regional programming, and the departure of several presenters, including Carlos. Carlos's last Smooth Radio networked show was on 14 March 2014. He then moved to present Drivetime and Saturday afternoons on Smooth North West in Manchester. However, it was announced via his Twitter page that he would leave the station in August 2019. His final show was broadcast on Friday 16 August of that year.

Heart 70s

Carlos launched and presents Breakfast on new global station Heart 70s from 29 August 2019

Other Work

Carlos, under his real name Carl Emms, sat in for Keith Middleton on the Saturday late show on BBC Local Radio in the West Midlands including

BBC WM BBC Radio WM is the BBC's local radio station serving the West Midlands. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Mailbox in Birmingham. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 236,000 lis ...

, BBC Hereford & Worcester,

BBC Coventry & Warwickshire BBC CWR (Coventry & Warwickshire Radio) is the BBC's local radio station serving Coventry and Warwickshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Priory Place in Coventry city centre. According to RAJAR, t ...

, BBC Radio Shropshire and

BBC Radio Stoke BBC Radio Stoke is the BBC's local radio station serving Staffordshire and South Cheshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, Freeview and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Hanley area of Stoke-on-Trent. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekl ...

on Saturday 15 March 2014 and on several other occasions. He took on this show permanently from 16 January 2016. This show came to an end on 18 March 2017 and it was later announced that the new host of the show would be Alex Lester. During the summer of 2014 he regularly sat in for Graham Torrington on BBC Local Radio across the Midlands. He also anchored the European Election Special on the stations on 25 May 2014.

Personal life

Carlos married former

Smooth Radio Smooth Radio may refer to: * Smooth Radio (2010), the original national network in the UK * Smooth Radio (2014) See also * Smoothfm smoothfm is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by NOVA Entertainment. From original ...

and ITV newsreader Claire Lavender in October 2009 at a ceremony in Yoxall Staffordshire. Claire gave birth to their first child, named Martha on 2 May 2011. They live in Cheshire. In June 2013 Carlos revealed on his Facebook page that Claire was expecting their second child. Their son George William was born on 29 November in Cheshire. He is known for his love of floral shirts and collects vintage fountain pens. He also drives a Volkswagen Touareg. He was voted "Best Broadcaster" by Amateur Beekeeping Monthly in 2009.

References

External links

Carlos on Smooth North West
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlos 1966 births Living people British radio DJs British radio personalities Smooth Network presenters