CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Snobby BBC execs have wrecked Radio 2 – just like the axing of Paul O’Grady and Simon Mayo, listeners were cheated out of the last 18 months of Steve Wright’s life

The anger is real. BBC staff are seething at Radio 2 boss Helen Thomas over her tribute following the death of DJ Steve Wright – when she was the woman who sacked him.

Even by the standards of Beeb executives, the hypocrisy is eye-watering. Thomas praised Wright, who died Tuesday at the age of 69, for “bringing brilliant stories to our listeners”: “He was a consummate professional whose attention to detail was always second to none.”

Then she revealed that he had been her mentor. “Steve was the first presenter I ever produced over twenty years ago, and I remember the sheer amazement I felt sitting across from this legendary broadcaster.”

No wonder Steve felt so betrayed and shattered when Thomas unceremoniously kicked him off the afternoon show that had been his home on the airwaves for more than 40 years in September 2022.

Although he rarely made public statements outside of his show, he said sadly to reporters that day, “Sometimes people want you, sometimes they don’t.” . . That’s how it goes.’

If he were the only star treated so callously, the public would find it difficult to forgive. But this has become a pattern at Radio 2, with much-loved presenters being shown the door or made to feel so unwelcome that they have little choice but to quit.

Not only are their careers damaged or destroyed, but the millions of people who have come to love and trust their voices are robbed of something irreplaceable.

Presenters like Steve Wright, whose conversations and gentle banter have brightened our days for years, become like old friends. And it seems as if they are summarily banished from our lives for the crime of being ‘pale, male and stale’.

We have no say in this. Neither did she.

Some of the most loved voices on the Beeb have been removed from Radio 2, including Simon Mayo.

Listeners are expected to tune in to their replacements, like Sara Cox, without noticing the difference. That’s a measure of the snobbery of executives, obsessed with diversity and “the youth demographic.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them don’t listen to the programs, because they regard Radio 2 as an ear filler for the elderly.

Well, we notice that.

Wright’s cheerful banter, cheesy jokes and passion for trivia have been part of the British soundscape since his afternoon show first aired on Radio 1 in 1981. His chatter made him great company.

It is painful to realize that more than six and a quarter million people who listened to him every day were deceived on the radio during the last eighteen months of his life. Although he got a Sunday morning service and a podcast as a consolation prize, he never broadcast in the afternoon again.

Paul O’Grady was similarly abused: he was suspended from Radio 2 in August 2022 after refusing to share his spot with comedian Rob Beckett. Never a diplomatic lull, O’Grady said: ‘I was disappointed because I’m a big believer in continuity. Radio 2 has changed, it is no longer what it was. They are trying to reach a much younger audience, which doesn’t make sense because you have Radio 1. Radio 2 was always for an older audience.’

He also died not long after being deposed. How much happier everyone would have been if he had been able to continue his beloved On The Wireless show to the end – everyone, except for a few overpaid suits on the top floor of Broadcasting House.

Ken Bruce, sensing which way the wind was blowing, chose his own time to go, much to the annoyance of the BBC bosses who probably didn’t want him anyway. When he announced his departure, they grumpily told him that they were about to offer him another three-year contract, although that had not been discussed before.

His parting gift was a small basket from Fortnum & Mason, a bottle of wine and a bouquet of flowers. You can be pretty sure that some executives at Broadcasting House, who earn six-figure salaries above the Prime Minister’s salary, give more extravagant gifts to their cleaners at Christmas.

This idiosyncratic attitude towards their stars is one of the reasons why staff have reacted so angrily to the BBC’s two-sided attitude. Any praise for people whose jobs have been cut is bound to sound cynical, but Helen Thomas has caused genuine disgust.

“It was completely disgraceful,” one employee told the Mail. “It really would have gone better if she hadn’t said anything at all.”

To add insult to injury, the BBC has announced digital ‘spin-off stations’ to complement Radio 1, 2 and 3. This includes a version of Radio 2 with ‘much-loved expert presenters’ presenting hits from the 1950s to the 1970s. to play. One of the beloved experts who would head the station, which will be broadcast via digital radio and online, would be Steve Wright.

The irony is breathtaking. Helen Thomas and her colleagues have destroyed Britain’s most popular radio station by dumping some of its favorite DJs and forcing the rest to play rubbish that listeners don’t want to hear.

Then they return, by trying to recreate what they ruined, and pretending that this is some kind of forward-looking ‘digital policy’.

All this is of course at the expense of you and me as permit payers.

Together with Simon Mayo, Ken Bruce has found a way to fight back. Both have moved into the commercial sector and joined Greatest Hits Radio (GHR). Mayo attracts a healthy 2.5 million listeners, but Bruce’s morning show is the big winner with 3.7 million, including many loyal fans of Radio 2, where ratings for Vernon Kay’s morning show have fallen.

When Bruce was in charge there, 8.2 million people tuned in. That figure has shrunk to 6.9 million. In total, the number of viewers of Radio 2 has fallen by a million in just one year.

Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s ‘Chief Content Officer’, claimed she was ‘delighted by the flying start Vernon Kay has made in mid-morning’. To be fair, if she were a passenger on a plane that lost altitude as quickly as Kay’s radio show, she wouldn’t call it “flying.” That looks more like a free fall.

Other presenters on the failing channel include Scott Mills, who replaced Wrightie, as well as Rylan Clark, Michelle Visage and DJ Spoony. They are not just against GHR. Amazon’s Alexa Radioplayer accounts for 14 percent of home listeners and uses algorithms to find music users might like.

At the other end of the technical scale are veteran ‘Diddy’ David Hamilton and his contemporaries on Boom Radio, 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 husky tones lending gravitas to his jingles.

My generation grew up listening to Tommy’s Friday Rock Show under the sheets on a transistor radio.

His annual countdown of the ten biggest heavy anthems was a national event, even though we all knew that Derek And The Dominos’ Layla, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird and Led Zep’s Stairway To Heaven were guaranteed to make the top three.

The thing is, Tommy died in 2005 at the age of 64. His voice has been imitated 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 should cherish its old troupers, not kick them out. Because if they continue to lose listeners, it will take more than AI to revive Radio 2.