Thanks for the news on the late great Mr. Wright, I will miss him terribly. I felt so sorry for him that they just moved him on like he didn’t matter, and then the people responsible were the first to send out messages from the BBC! Talk about two-faced! Apparently, I heard, when they chucked Steve off his afternoon show, someone said the ratings went down by over a million. I was one of the million, I’ve never listened to the new guy since the day Steve left. I think probably his lifestyle had a lot to do with his untimely death, and had no idea he’d had a heart bypass, but having said that, I’m sure he suffered greatly when only working on a Sunday morning after having his week really busy for all those years. God bless you Steve, the best of the Best. Rest in peace. ❤
As soon as Steve's afternoon show finished and Ken Bruce was fired i was done, occasionally listen to Sara Cox but Scott Mills and the idiot that took over from KB are absolute dross.
Steve Wright and his team were always good to listen to they cheered people up with their light hearted banter and crazy humour, I personally haven’t listened to the show since the new person took over from him. Another person who they got rid of was Ken Bruce, again he was another person who was light hearted very funny and great to listen to in the morning. So my advice to the bbc would be, if it isn’t broken don’t fix it.
The problem with Radio 2 is that they wanted to aim their audience for the younger people which is why Ken Bruce left. Ken openly admitted that he didn't like playing the 'music of today' and feels at home now with Greatest Hits Radio. Personally Greatest Hits Radio missed a trick in not tapping up Steve Wright when he left the big show because after Ken's slot at 1pm not much goes on until Simon Mayo comes on at 4pm and he would have been perfect slotting into that timeslot. Radio 2 have made bad decisions for a few years now since they decided to pair Simon Mayo with Jo Wiley. His show instantly went downhill after that, she was like a spare part and that is the reason he left to work on Scala radio and then Greatest Hits Radio doing his original show. To summarise, they should have left Steve in his slot but they wanted someone younger who was fresh out of Radio 1 with Scott Mills to bring a new approach to the younger audience and listening ratings across the whole day have dropped as a result. Im confident that Steve losing his slot contributed to his death, because like you say he was around the studio from 9am til 5ish five days a week and losing that he was clearly piling on more weight in that 18 months he was now 'twiddling his thumbs'. I don't actually believe that they were offering Steve his old job back, not sure where his friend got that from but it's never been mentioned by anyone else and Radio 2 is not the type of company that would make a U- turn like that because of how it's been run. They would rather lose ratings than admit they made a mistake in my eyes.
I am now guessing it may of been the time time slot but on a digital version they may of run 2 shows ? like you say it would seen weird them firing off Steve's replacement 2 years after standing Steve down
Steve did not want to go to GHR because he would not have got the creative freedom he had at the BBC. He was happy doing what he was doing and gettign more time to look after his dad who has ill health.
@@neilogdenI didn't know that. Did he actually say that in an interview as I cannot find that info. I had looked regarding GHR but couldn't find feedback and thoughts from him
All the good ones have gone from Radio 2 the listener figures prove that & Radio 1 died many years ago as that used to be played at work until recently & none of the DJ's on there are talented these all sound like they come from "saaaf Lundun", thank goodness someone finally saw sense & moved it to another channel. I remember listening to Steve way back & I've listened to his shows over the years even when he switched to Radio 2 but I don't listen to Radio 2 anymore as most folk on there are former tv celebs rather than DJ's & most don't have a lot of talent if you ask me.
With you all the way there all I listen to now on R2 is Pick of the Pops GAMBO/WRIGHT and Sounds of the 70's WALKER all proper DJ's just really backing up what you said there.
Given his popularity and long term loyalty to the BBC, I always thought it was poor to just axe his show the way they did. They could have showed some respect for his outstanding loyalty and given him far more involvement in the long term planning. It could have been an easy conversation to start: "Hey Steve, you're around retirement age and currently you work full time, at some point you physically or mentally won't be able to maintain this level, or perhaps will decide to ease back on your workload. Have you thought about how far away that might be, and when that time comes, how you may want to transition to it?". If they'd taken this approach, it would have given him chance to think about other things he wants to do in life, and maybe he would have chosen a more gradual reduction in his workload rather than (as you point out!) suddenly finding himself with nothing to do and the mental health/possible unhealthy eating impact that potentially had. That's not to say there's no place on the BBC for older presenters; just recognition that statistically someone past 70 is going to be more susceptible to illness caused by the strain of a full time job than someone in their 20s/30s/40s/50s, so let the talented and able older presenters have a show, but not a 40+ working hour week. Have to say I'm not convinced on the claim about asking him back to his old show though. The BBC obviously need to plan long term, and even with his broadcasting skills an organisation as Conservative as the BBC is going to hesitate before opting for 69 year old who is clearly not in the best of health to be doing a full time job. All in my humble and generally uninteresting and unimportant opinion of course.
Your opinion is far from unimportand or uninteresting what I will say is loyalty in our day stood for something SADLY this doesnt seem to be the case of late
Always had him on the the radio when I worked Atlantic street in alti. Recall him swapping over too, but used to always have him on first in the mid eighties. 86,87. I think Gary Davis would be on before him then Steve Wright in the afternoon. Trying to think of the other radio 1 dj who was on through the day. Recall him going over too. Listening as I'm messaging, you just mentioned him, Simon Bates. And like you say they should get the right photo to the face after he passed It's hardly rocket science.
Steve Wright used to call Gary Davies 'Medallion man ' 😅 I loved Steve Wright and was a faithful listener after coming back from college. I have thought of him every day since he passed away and I feel so sad. RIP Steve and I hope you took the geese with you 😢😢😢
@@kellyyeomans7773 Good you were a faithful listener Kelly always enjoyed his show and sometimes he did really good heart felt stories about people's lives thag I enjoyed to get through the working day.
I listened to Steve's Pick of the Pops the other day and they were great. He'd made it his own already. So sad. Gambaccini said he and Steve's name had appealed in a press release just before he died and he and Steve were going to try and find out what they were supposedly involved in. There was a rumour about a sort of Radio 2 spin off for heritage music and it might be that where the "getting his show back" may have originated from. I don’t think they would have sacked Scott Mills. Of course now Steve's gone that might all have been canned.
Either way it looks like we were going to get him back for a Mon to Fri show - it just makes it harder to understand why they stood him down in the first place
When Steve informed the listeners he was going,he was typically stoic “I can’t hog the spot forever “ now I never met him, but could tell in his voice that he was numb crestfallen, just like his audience.I consider myself lucky to have had all those years with a giant of radio. The only R2 I have on now is m/cr Mike Sweeney .
Sadly there have been over the years quite a few anti Steve Wright groups online and I wonder if the BBC have been listening to the bile they spouted instead of looking at the audience they were getting. I've listened to Radio 2 since the 70's and this is probably the worst I can remember, even with the changes they made in the 80's and 90's. Really the only things worth listening to now are the "Sounds of....." and Pick of the pops.
I really didnt know about the online stuff and I too only listen to sounds of and pick of the pops PLUS I also listen to Desert Island Disks on 4 if it features someone that I like and that for me is radio now which is a shame - but all the great DJ's have now sadly departed
If Steve had a heart bypass eighteen months ago then that would be about August 2022. He announced the end of his daily afternoon show on Radio 2 on 1st July 2022, and continued to host it until 30th September 2022. Given the closeness of that timing it is at least possible that after learning he needed a bypass Steve himself either chose to step down from his daily afternoon show or was told by doctors that he ought to. It's worth adding that Pick Of The Pops switched to being pre-recorded when he took over, and it seems Love Songs was pre-recorded too given that his final show was widely stated to have been. People who knew him have said he was a very private man, so isn't it a possibility that he asked the controller of Radio 2 to make out it was her decision to end his show, in order to protect his privacy and keep his bypass and health issues from becoming known?
It is all poss I guess but I cant see him ever walking away from his show of his own volition as I feel it was his life BUT het who knows you may be on to something
@@bgog999I'm thinking that if it was a decision Steve reached for health reasons then it would have been a very reluctant and difficult decision for him to reach, and as such he wouldn't especially have wanted to have to repeatedly explain his decision to the media in interviews, so claiming it to be the station controller's decision would maybe have shifted the media heat away from him at that time. Like you say though who knows...
The BBC announced four new Radio national radio services the other week, and Gambo pointed out that the only two names referenced in the press release were Gambo and Wrighty. Gambo said that it must mean something about their future employment but they didn't know what. Last Tuesday Gambo had resolved to find out what and was thus due to have a lunch meeting with the high ups about it and then let Wrighty know what he learned, but the meeting was cancelled due to something urgent. There was then due to be a zoom meeting of all the Radio 2 DJs at 4pm, which again was cancellled due to an emergency. Gambo said that after both cancellations he emailed Wrighty to tell him, little suspecting that the urgent thing that had cancelled the meetings was Steve's passing. At 4:50pm all the Radio 2 DJs were messaged to inform them of Steve's passing, and Gambo discovered that the urgent thing that had cancelled the meetings was Wrighty's death. It was announced to the public at 5pm, so the DJs had just 10 minutes to process the news and figure out their response before the media began to deluge them with requests and questions.
yeah agree with kev harker ,, loved steve wright , loved Ken Bruce ,, and then they put dull as dishwater mills and that idiot vernon kaye absoulute garbish .. and that was me done with radio 2 only person left worth listening to is sarah cox ,, now listen to greatest hits wont ever go back to radio 2
so many good people died latley its a shame, only yesterday the man who invented the spell checker died .may he rust in piss ? and dave iam 5foot 8 and 17 stone so i have only got a stone to live thank,s for letting me know might as well join peter,s tipping groupe
