Greatest Hits Radio presenter Ken Bruce refuses to play Taylor Swift songs on his show until ‘she writes something that isn’t about her ex-boyfriends’
Ken Bruce has stated that he will not play Taylor Swift songs on his show until “she writes something that isn’t about her ex-boyfriends.”
The 73-year-old presenter moved from the BBC to Greatest Hits Radio last year with his show PopMaster Quiz, which now attracts 3.8 million listeners a week.
But he won’t bow to Taylor Swift’s mania and play the 34-year-old’s music.
He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘All her songs are the same. I’ll play her on my station if she writes something that’s not about her ex-boyfriends. Good radio songs have three beats and then they go straight into the song, not those long intros like she does.
“We’re a ’70s, ’80s and ’90s radio show because our core audience is older.”
Ken Bruce has said he won’t play Taylor Swift songs on his Greatest Hits Radio show until she ‘writes something that isn’t about her ex-boyfriends’
His comments come as the Shake It Off singer leaves the UK for the European leg of her $1 billion Eras Tour, before returning for five more shows at Wembley Stadium in August.
Swift’s arrival in the UK earlier this month sent the nation into a frenzy, with Scotland naming a lake after her and Capital FM dedicating an entire station to her music.
But Bruce has admitted he only plays short snippets of her music occasionally on his PopMaster Quiz show, in order to maintain a variety of genres.
He said: ‘For our audience we do music from the 70s, 80s and 90s. We do early 90s and 2010s – not a whole lot – but we expect people to know things from recent and current music, only the biggest names though.
Mr. Bruce claimed that Ms. Swift’s songs had too long intros for radio songs, but admits that he occasionally plays very short snippets of her music on his PopMaster Quiz show to accommodate a variety of genres.
“We also ask questions from the fifties and sixties. Our core audience on Greatest Hits Radio is older, so they should be able to answer most of the questions.”
Mr Bruce revealed on air last year that he was leaving Radio 2 after 30 years, saying that while he ‘loved working at the BBC’ he ‘wanted to try something different’.
But his show was axed a month earlier after it became “essentially free advertising” for his new position on rival Greatest Hits Radio.
He now presents the 10am pre-lunch slot on GHR and has grown his audience from 2.2 million a week to 3.8 million.