To and fro

So it is revealed - the demotic, friendly tones of Rob Cowan are off Radio 3 and back to Classic FM, where he was part of the starting line-up in 1992. Cowan and Charlotte Hawkins (off Good Morning Britain and Strictly) replace Alex James and Charlotte Green (essentially).

Born in London in 1948, one of Rob's first jobs was promoting sales for Hungarian classics label, Qualiton (a catalogue owned by Robert Maxwell). He had a spell in the BBC Music department, which gave him skills with a Ferrograph reel-to-reel tape recorder, and then set up his own LP label, Melos, transferring old recordings. 19 years with Boosey & Hawkes followed, in education and archives, with a growing sideline in classical record reviews.