Some of your oldest friends, whose conversations and gentle banter have lightened your days for years, are being banned from your life.
You get no say in this. Neither do they.
Because those old friends are beloved radio presenters … and the controllers are senior BBC executives.
Some of the best-loved voices on the Beeb have been kicked off Radio 2, including Simon Mayo and the great Ken Bruce. Listeners are expected to tune in to their replacements, such as Vernon Kaye and Sara Cox, without noticing the difference.
The sheer injustice of this was highlighted yesterday by the sudden death of Steve Wright, aged 69. Wright’s cheerful banter, cheesy jokes and passion for trivia have been part of the British soundscape for more than 40 years. His afternoon show was first heard on Radio 1 in 1981.

Steve Wright’s cheerful banter, cheesy jokes and passion for trivia have been part of the British soundscape for more than 40 years
His death is a loss for millions like me who regarded him as a chum for much of our lives. We might never have met him – Wright was a private man, not given to public appearances – but his chatter made him wonderful company.
It’s hurtful to realise that more than six-and-a-quarter million people who tuned in daily to listen along have been cheated out of the last 18 months of his life.
Wright was ousted from his show in September 2022, and though he was allowed a Sunday morning shift and a podcast as a consolation prize, he never broadcast in the afternoons again.
Paul O’Grady was similarly mistreated – axed from Radio 2 in August 2022 after refusing to share his slot with comedian Rob Beckett.
Never one for diplomatic silence, O’Grady let rip: ‘I was disappointed, because I’m a great believer in continuity. Radio 2 has changed, it’s not what it was. They’re trying to aim for a much younger audience, which doesn’t make sense because you’ve got Radio 1. Radio 2 was always for an older audience.’
He too died not long after being dropped. How much happier everyone would have been if he could have kept on with his much-loved On The Wireless show until the end – everyone, that is, except a few overpaid suits on the top floor in Broadcasting House, who imagine listeners either don’t care or can’t tell the difference between O’Grady and Beckett.
That’s a measure of the snobbery of executives. Many of them don’t listen to the shows, because they regard Radio 2 as ear-filler for the superannuated.
Mayo and Bruce have found a way to fight back, at the expense of the BBC. They have switched to the commercial sector, joining Greatest Hits Radio [GHR]. Simon Mayo draws a healthy 2.5million listeners, but Bruce’s morning show is the big winner with 3.7million, many of them loyal fans from Radio 2 where Vernon Kay’s morning show has seen ratings plunge.

Ken Bruce has found a way to fight back at the expense of the BBC with a switch to the commercial sector, joining Greatest Hits Radio

Some of the best-loved voices on the Beeb have been kicked off Radio 2, including Simon Mayo, above
When Bruce was in charge there, 8.2million tuned in. That figure has dwindled to 6.9million. Overall, Radio 2’s audience has dropped by a million in just one year.
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s chief content officer, claimed she was ‘delighted with the flying start Vernon Kay has made to mid-mornings’. It’s fair to say that, if she was a passenger on an aeroplane losing altitude as fast as Kay’s radio show, she wouldn’t call it ‘flying’. That’s more like freefall.
Other presenters on the failing station include Scott Mills, who replaced Wrightie, as well as Rylan Clark, Michelle Visage and DJ Spoony. They aren’t only up against GHR. Amazon’s Alexa Radioplayer accounts for 14 per cent of listeners at home, using algorithms to find music users might like. At the other end of the technical scale, there’s the veteran David Hamilton and his contemporaries on Boom Radio, including Roger Day, Simon Bates and Nicky Horne – familiar voices all, whose presence can be a comfort.
The importance of a voice we know was underlined last week when the Boom Rock sister station launched, with the gravelly tones of Tommy Vance giving its jingles gravitas.
My generation grew up listening to Tommy’s Friday Night Rock Show under the bedclothes on a transistor radio. His annual countdown of the ten greatest heavy anthems was a national event, even if we did all know that Layla by Derek and the Dominos, Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zep’s Stairway to Heaven were guaranteed to comprise the top three.
The thing is, Tommy died in 2005, aged 64. His voice has been recreated by Artificial Intelligence, and it’s indistinguishable from the real thing. ‘Rock,’ he growls from beyond the grave. ‘That’s why we’re here.’
The BBC needs to cherish its old troupers, not kick them out of the door. Because if they keep losing listeners, it’ll take more than AI to revive Radio 2.