Chris Ryder aka Caesar the Geezer (b. 9 November 1958) is a British radio personality of Greek descent, best known for his claims that he could heal listeners over the radio. A fan of Kenny Everett, Caesar emulated Everett's use of imaginative and catchy jingles within his show. ("50 million listeners can't be wrong", "Get an aerial, screw it to me head, have a little radio implant-ed") However, unlike his hero, these jingles were not self-produced. Caesar's style of show was often aggressive and deliberately offensive which would often provoke outrage from some callers and support from others. Caesar would often cut callers off for little or no reason.
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Early career
Invicta FM
Known at this stage as Caesar the Boogie Man, he orchestrated some ambitious on-air practical jokes during his time at Invicta Radio. One example; he built up the premise that an asteroid was about to hit the moon, creating a bright light. It would only be safe to look at the light by wearing sunglasses. He used characters in his 9-1am slot including :
- Barry Bethell was 'Basil the Butler',
- Ian Collins was 'The Yob', and
- Bobby Prior was 'Venus'.
- Paul Wilson was 'Baby Bubbles'
- Scott was 'Arnold The Alien'
- Kevin was 'Zeus'
- Steve Mallion was 'Spartacus'
His job with Invicta FM was terminated in 1991 over criminal charges related to theft from charity. He was ultimately found not guilty on these charges, but was convicted of intent to defraud.
After Invicta
He joined Essex Radio 96.3/102.6 FM where he presented a competing night time show to the one he had left at Invicta. He later moved onto Kiss 100 hosting the early breakfast show.
Talk Radio UK
He joined Talk Radio UK for its launch in February 1995 where he became known as a shock jock. He presented the weeknight (Mondays-Fridays) phone in between 22:00 and 01:00. He was joined on some Friday evenings by football agent Eric Hall and lawyer Gary Jacobs. He regularly combined his programme with a similar American show presented by Tom Leykis, alternating between UK and US callers. He continued his ambitious practical jokes during his time at Talk Radio. Another such wind-up involved making listeners believe he was broadcasting his show from the street outside the Talk Radio building in protest at the station's anti-smoking policy. In reality, he was producing his show from inside the studio with a microphone hanging from the window to pick up the background noises of the street below. During his tenure at TRUK, he was often accompanied by the show's Canadian Producer Colin Lloyd, assistants Dixie, Jane and Aphrodite, and the man on the phones, also called Chris (although renamed by Caesar as Bogey - "Because he always gets up my nose" being the explanation.) He was fired from Talk Radio in September 1995, along with fellow controversial presenter Terry Christian. After this he started doing voice links for UK porn TV station, The Adult Channel; and presented a programme called Caesar's Rude Arena for Television X. He was also a weeknight DJ for Capital Gold in the second half of the 1990s.
Brass Eye
Caesar was to be duped into appearing on Channel 4 spoof show Brass Eye. In the episode "Science" he talked about the force of 'heavy electricity' and how it 'could cut me in half'.
87.9 SFM
Caesar is now with a group campaigning to get a full time commercial radio station for the Swale (Sittingbourne, Sheppey & Faversham) area of Kent, 87.9 SFM. [1]
Current
Ryder now goes by the name Chris Rogers and works as marketing and promotions manager for the night club 'Fat Sams', where he also moonlights as the in house DJ.
