As a hospital radio DJ, Karl filled news bulletins with strange-but-true stories and used the transmitter to broadcast pirate radio, so was sacked and moved to Manchester's Piccadilly Radio, where he hosted a late-night show filled with impenetrably cryptic puzzles. He then moved to Xfm in London, where he was producer and later a star of Xfm's Ricky Gervais Show, forerunner of the legendary world-record-breaking podcasts.