Some of your oldest friends, whose kind conversations and banter have lightened your days for years, are being excluded from your life.
You have no say in this. Them neither.
Because those old friends are beloved radio presenters… and the controllers are senior BBC executives.
Some of the Beeb’s best-loved voices have been booted from Radio 2, including Simon Mayo and the great Ken Bruce. Listeners are expected to tune in to his replacements, such as Vernon Kaye and Sara Cox, without noticing the difference.
The utter injustice of this was highlighted yesterday by the sudden death of 69-year-old Steve Wright. Wright’s light-hearted banter, corny jokes and passion for trivia have been part of the British soundscape for over 40 years. His afternoon show was first heard on Radio 1 in 1981.
Steve Wright’s light-hearted banter, corny jokes and passion for trivia have been part of the British soundscape for over 40 years.
His death is a loss to millions like me who considered him a friend for much of our lives. We may never have met him (Wright was a private man, not given to public appearances), but his talk made him wonderful company.
It is painful to realize that more than six and a quarter million people who tuned in daily to hear him have been deceived during the last 18 months of their lives.
Wright was booted from his show in September 2022, and although he was allowed a Sunday morning shift and a podcast as a consolation prize, he never returned to broadcasting in the afternoons.
Paul O’Grady was similarly mistreated – sacked from Radio 2 in August 2022 after refusing to share his slot with comedian Rob Beckett.
O’Grady, never a fan of diplomatic silence, blurted out: “I was disappointed because I firmly believe in continuity.” Radio 2 has changed, it is no longer what it was. They’re trying to target a much younger audience, which doesn’t make sense because you’ve got Radio 1. Radio 2 was always for an older audience.’
He also died shortly after being abandoned. How much happier everyone would have been if he had been able to continue his much-loved show On The Wireless to the end; That is, everyone except a few overpaid executives on the top floor of Broadcasting House, who imagine that listeners don’t care or can’t tell the difference between O’Grady and Beckett.
That’s a measure of executive snobbery. Many of them do not listen to the programs because they consider Radio 2 to be filler for the ears of the elderly.
Mayo and Bruce have found a way to fight back, at the BBC’s expense. They have moved into the commercial sector, joining Greatest Hits Radio (GHR). Simon Mayo attracts 2.5 million listeners, but Bruce’s morning show is the big winner with 3.7 million, many of them loyal fans of Radio 2, where Vernon Kay’s morning show has seen ratings decline.
Ken Bruce has found a way to hit back at the BBC’s expense with a move to the commercial sector, joining Greatest Hits Radio.
Some of the Beeb’s best-loved voices have been booted from Radio 2, including Simon Mayo, above.
When Bruce was in charge there, 8.2 million tuned in. That number has dropped to 6.9 million. In total, Radio 2’s audience has dropped by a million in just one year.
Charlotte Moore, BBC content director, said she was “delighted with the good start Vernon Kay has made to mid-morning”. It’s fair to say that if she were a passenger on a plane losing altitude as fast as Kay’s radio show, she wouldn’t call it “flying.” That’s more of a free fall.
Other presenters on the failing station include Scott Mills, who replaced Wrightie, as well as Rylan Clark, Michelle Visage and DJ Spoony. They are not only facing GHR. Amazon’s Alexa Radioplayer accounts for 14 percent of at-home listeners and uses algorithms to find music users like. At the other end of the technical scale is veteran David Hamilton and his Boom Radio contemporaries, including Roger Day, Simon Bates and Nicky Horne, all familiar voices, whose presence can be a comfort.
The importance of a voice we know was underlined last week when sister station Boom Rock launched, with Tommy Vance’s raspy tones lending gravitas to its jingles.
My generation grew up listening to Tommy’s Friday Night Rock Show under the covers on a transistor radio. Their annual countdown of the top ten heavy anthems was a national event, even if we all knew that Derek and the Dominos’ Layla, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird and Led Zep’s Stairway to Heaven were guaranteed to be in the top three.
The thing is, Tommy died in 2005, at 64 years old. His voice has been recreated by Artificial Intelligence and is indistinguishable from the real thing. “Rock,” he growls from beyond the grave. “That’s why we’re here.”
The BBC needs to value its old actors, not throw them out the door. Because if they continue to lose listeners, it will take more than just AI to revive Radio 2.