Australian-born UK radio star Brian Hayes has died at age 87.
Known as a pioneer of ‘phone-in’ (talkback radio) in Britain, Hayes earned his fame as a sometimes combative host on London’s Capital Radio in the early 70s.
He later helmed a national program on the UK’s LBC news and talkback network, The Brian Hayes Show, which often featured news-breaking chats with A-listers.
According to Radio Today, Hayes died on November 30. No details have been released.
Hayes, who attracted scores of listeners with his no-nonsense style, won high praise for his probing interviews with stars like Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman.
Hayes’ show, which ran between 1976 and 1991, also drew many of the UK’s most prominent politicians, including Margaret Thatcher, the British PM from 1979-1990.
Australian-born UK radio star Brian Hayes (pictured) has died at age 87. No details of his passing on November 30 have been released
Known as a pioneer of ‘phone-in’ (talkback radio) in Britain, Hayes earned his fame as a sometimes combative host on London’s Capital Radio in the early 70s
Notoriously media-wary, Mrs Thatcher made her first-ever talk-back appearance on Hayes’ popular show.
Born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1937, Hayes, the son of a miner, ended up working in radio soon after leaving school at the age of 15.
After getting a series of gigs on regional stations out of Kalgoorlie as a newsreader, producer and presenter, Hayes re-launched his career in London in the early 70s.
Before earning fame – and some notoriety as a presenter – Hayes joined the London-based commercial station, Capital Radio, in 1973 as a producer.
He was later ‘recruited’ to host CR’s morning ‘phone-in’ (talkback) show, which debuted in 1976.
Hayes joined BBC Radio 2 after leaving his old station and later hosted the popular breakfast show ‘Good Morning UK!’ in 1992.
He lost the slot but recovered with his own weekly show, ‘Hayes Over Britain’.
The program later won Hayes the prize for Best Phone-in Show at the Sony Radio Awards.
He later helmed a national program on the UK’s LBC news and talkback network, The Brian Hayes Show, which often featured news-breaking chats with A-listers in politics and showbiz. Pictured: Hayes centre with British Labour Party politician Denis Heale and British Conservative politician Geoffrey Howe in 1979
Hayes also presented shows on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 4, and, later in his career, returned to LBC.
Discussing his distinctive style, Hayes said he wanted to treat listeners as ‘real’ people, reported Radio Today in an obituary on Monday.
The publication added that Hayes said previously that the talkback format worked only when listeners heard a conversation that sounded ‘like it mattered’.
In the 1990s, Hayes scored several ‘acting’ roles playing TV presenters in dramas like Prime Suspect (1991), Between The Lines (1992) and The Chief (1994).
Fans took to social media to celebrate his career and mourn his passing.
‘An unbelievable talent. Always compulsive listening. One of the very finest. May he RIP,’ posted one listener on Facebook.
Added another: ‘One of phone-in radio’s pioneers.’
‘Informed, abrupt and always entertaining – Brian Hayes set the bar in ‘phone-in radio,’ said a third fan.
Hayes was still working in radio in the mid-Naughties but had finally retired from the airwaves in recent years.
