BBC cheated listeners out of final 18 months of Steve Wright’s life

The anger is actual. BBC workers are seething at Radio 2 boss Helen Thomas for her tribute following the loss of life of DJ Steve Wright — when she was the lady who sacked him.

Even by the requirements of Beeb executives, the hypocrisy is eye-watering. Praising Wright, who died on Tuesday aged 69, for ‘bringing sensible tales to our listeners,’ Thomas mentioned: ‘He was a consummate skilled whose consideration to element was at all times second to none.’

Then she revealed he had been her mentor. ‘Steve was the primary presenter I ever produced greater than 20 years in the past, and I bear in mind the pure amazement I felt sitting reverse this legendary broadcaster.’

Small marvel Steve felt so betrayed and shattered when, in September 2022, Thomas unceremoniously ousted him from the afternoon slot that had been his dwelling on the airwaves for greater than 40 years.

Though he not often made public statements exterior his present, that day he instructed reporters sadly: ‘Sometimes individuals need you, generally they do not . . . That’s the best way it goes.’

If he was the one star to be handled so callously, it could be arduous for the general public to forgive. But this has turn into a sample at Radio 2, with beloved presenters both being proven the door or made to really feel so unwelcome that they’ve little alternative however to give up.

Not solely are their careers broken or destroyed, however the hundreds of thousands who’ve grown to like and belief their voices are robbed of one thing irreplaceable.

Presenters reminiscent of Steve Wright, whose conversations and delicate banter have lightened our days for years, turn into like outdated buddies. And it seems as if they’re being summarily banned from our lives, for the crime of being ‘pale, male and rancid’.

We get no say on this. Neither do they.

Some of the best-loved voices on the Beeb have been shunted off Radio 2, together with Simon Mayo.

Listeners are anticipated to tune in to their replacements, reminiscent of Sara Cox, with out noticing the distinction. That’s a measure of the snobbery of executives, obsessive about range and ‘the youth demographic’.

I would not be shocked if lots of them do not take heed to the reveals, as a result of they regard Radio 2 as ear-filler for the superannuated.

Well, we do discover.

Wright’s cheerful banter, tacky jokes and fervour for trivia had been a part of the British soundscape since his afternoon present was first heard on Radio 1 in 1981. His chatter made him fantastic firm.

It’s hurtful to grasp that greater than six-and-a-quarter million individuals who tuned in every day to take heed to him have been cheated out of the final 18 months of his life on air. Though he was allowed a Sunday morning shift and a podcast as a comfort prize, he by no means broadcast within the afternoons once more.

Paul O’Grady was equally mistreated — axed from Radio 2 in August 2022 after refusing to share his slot with comic Rob Beckett. Never one for diplomatic silence, O’Grady let rip: ‘I used to be disillusioned, as a result of I’m a fantastic believer in continuity. Radio 2 has modified, it is not what it was. They’re making an attempt to goal for a a lot youthful viewers, which does not make sense since you’ve acquired Radio 1. Radio 2 was at all times for an older viewers.’

He, too, died not lengthy after being dropped. How a lot happier everybody would have been if he might have stored on along with his much-loved On The Wireless present till the tip — everybody, that’s, besides a number of overpaid fits on the highest ground in Broadcasting House.

Ken Bruce, sensing which manner the wind was blowing, selected his personal time to go, to the chagrin of BBC bosses who most likely did not need him anyway. When he introduced his departure, they instructed him sulkily that they’d been about to supply him one other three-year contract — although it hadn’t been talked about earlier than.

His leaving current was a small hamper from Fortnum & Mason, a bottle of wine and a bunch of flowers. You could be fairly positive that some executives at Broadcasting House, incomes six-figure salaries in extra of the Prime Minister’s pay, give extra extravagant items to their cleaners at Christmas.

This high-handed perspective to their stars is likely one of the causes that workers have reacted so angrily to the BBC’s two-faced perspective. Any eulogy for individuals whose jobs have been axed is sure to sound cynical, however Helen Thomas has provoked real disgust.

‘It was completely disgraceful,’ one staffer instructed the Mail. ‘It actually would have gone down higher if she had mentioned nothing in any respect.’

To add to the insult, the BBC has introduced digital ‘spin-off stations’ to complement Radios 1, 2 and three. These embrace a model of Radio 2 with ‘much-loved skilled presenters’ enjoying hits from the Fifties to the Seventies. One of these much-loved specialists in line to spearhead the station, which can air through digital radio and on-line, was anticipated to be Steve Wright.

The irony, then, is breathtaking. Helen Thomas and her colleagues have wrecked the preferred radio station in Britain, by dumping a few of its favorite DJs and forcing the remainder to play dross that listeners do not need to hear.

Then they backtrack, by making an attempt to recreate what they’ve ruined, and pretending that is some form of forward-looking ‘digital coverage’.

All that is accomplished, in fact, on the expense of you and me as licence-payers.

Along with Simon Mayo, Ken Bruce has discovered a solution to struggle again. Both have switched to the business sector, becoming a member of Greatest Hits Radio (GHR). Mayo attracts a wholesome 2.5 million listeners, however Bruce’s morning present is the large winner with 3.7 million, lots of them loyal followers from Radio 2, the place Vernon Kay’s morning present has seen rankings plunge.

When Bruce was in cost there, 8.2 million tuned in. That determine has dwindled to six.9 million. Overall, Radio 2’s viewers has dropped by one million in only one 12 months.

Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s ‘Chief Content Officer’, claimed she was ‘delighted with the flying begin Vernon Kay has made to mid-mornings’. It’s honest to say that, if she was a passenger on an aeroplane dropping altitude as quick as Kay’s radio present, she would not name it ‘flying’. That’s extra like freefall.

Other presenters on the failing station embrace Scott Mills, who changed Wrightie, in addition to Rylan Clark, Michelle Visage and DJ Spoony. They aren’t solely up towards GHR. Amazon’s Alexa Radioplayer accounts for 14 per cent of listeners at dwelling, utilizing algorithms to search out music customers would possibly like.

At the opposite finish of the technical scale, there’s the veteran ‘Diddy’ David Hamilton and his contemporaries on Boom Radio, together with Roger Day, Simon Bates and Nicky Horne — acquainted voices all, whose presence generally is a consolation.

The significance of a voice we all know was underlined final week when the Boom Rock sister station launched, with the gravelly tones of Tommy Vance giving its jingles gravitas.

My technology grew up listening to Tommy’s Friday Rock Show beneath the bedclothes on a transistor radio.

His annual countdown of the ten best heavy anthems was a nationwide occasion, even when we did all know that Layla by Derek And The Dominos, Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zep’s Stairway To Heaven have been assured to comprise the highest three.

The factor is, Tommy died in 2005, aged 64. His voice has been recreated by Artificial Intelligence, and it is indistinguishable from the actual factor.

‘Rock,’ he growls from past the grave. ‘That’s why we’re right here.’

The BBC must cherish its outdated troupers, not kick them out of the door. Because in the event that they hold dropping listeners, it will take greater than AI to revive Radio 2.