Steve Wright: DJs pay emotional tributes to ‘radio legend’

Tributes have poured in for Steve Wright, with fellow DJs remembering him as a broadcasting “legend” and a “radio genius”.

Nicki Chapman, who replaces Zoe Ball on Radio 2’s breakfast show this week, was moved to tears on air.

“I told myself I wasn’t going to cry and I did once,” she said as she read listeners’ messages.

Wright, who presented shows on BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 for more than four decades, died on Monday aged 69.

Liza Tarbuck will present a special Sunday Love Songs program this weekend as a tribute.

Another Radio 2 colleague, Jo Whiley, told Radio 4’s Today program on Wednesday that “he was a master of his craft”.

“He dedicated his entire life to radio and the only thing that mattered to him was making people happy,” he said.

Whiley presented a tribute show to the broadcasting “legend” on Radio 2 on Tuesday night and said it felt “very strange” to do so given he had seen Wright “just a few days ago”.

“We were all crying and we felt very sad. I hate talking about him in the past tense,” she said on the Today show.

Fellow former Radio 1 presenter Nicky Campbell told Today that Wright was “born to be in a studio”.

“His heart would race when he was on the air and that was contagious.”

Current Radio 1 breakfast presenter Greg James opened his show on Wednesday with a tribute to Wright, describing him as the “king of jingles”.

“I felt very lucky to be able to learn radio stuff from him. He did this show in the ’90s and it was amazing for 40 years, which is why there’s so much love for it.”

Mike Read, who co-presented a show called Read and Wright with the DJ on local radio before moving to Radio 1, told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday that he was a “floormaster” and “good at getting people in.” .

“He worked tirelessly, he was a radio man, not just someone who came in, did the show and went home. He was on his mind, always thinking of ideas.”

Tony Miles, known to listeners as Smiley Miley from the Radio 1 roadshow, added his tribute on BBC Breakfast, calling Wright a “radio genius”.

“Hundreds of thousands of people would come to see him on tour, he just had this way of communicating and bringing his characters to life,” he said.

Chris Evans, former Radio 1 breakfast show presenter shared a tribute on Instagramwriting that Wright was the “soundtrack to millions of our afternoons.”

“No one will ever come close to the length and breadth of the way he covered everything related to entertainment, in his very original and joyful style,” he wrote.

“He would go in the afternoons as Sir Terry (Wogan) would go to breakfast.”

Radio 2 colleagues Gary Davies and Tony Blackburn paid tribute to their friend on BBC Newsnight, calling him a “very generous broadcaster”.

“If you were a guest he wanted you to shine, it wasn’t about him,” Davies said.

Blackburn added: “He was a lovely man and delightfully crazy, that’s what I loved about him. Every time we saw each other we would burst out laughing.”

Blackburn also recalled how Wright was a “pioneer of zoo radio,” a format that featured his “group” on air, as well as celebrity interviews and entertaining trivia on his Factoids segment.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Blackburn shared more of his fondest memories.

“When I saw him, we never greeted each other, but used to sing jingles to each other,” he said.

He was “a unique character,” Blackburn continued. “He didn’t like going to the dentist, so he bought his own dental kit and used to do his own dental surgery and did quite well.

“I also remember he had a magic closet that was off-limits to everyone. He used to lock it and tape it up, and one day he left it open and I looked inside, and there was nothing in it.

“That was him, he was just a lovely person who was unique and there will never be anyone like him.”

His friend and long-time Radio 2 colleague Ken Bruce said he was “totally shocked” by the news, and revealed that they had been planning to celebrate Wright’s recent “well-deserved” MBE with a lunch in the near future.

“An outstanding and innovative broadcaster whose listeners loved him. What a loss to the world of radio,” Bruce added.

In a heartfelt video message shared on Instagram, Paul Gambaccini called Wright “one of the all-time greats.”

Sara Cox became emotional as she reacted to the news of Wright’s death during her Radio 2 slot on Tuesday. “We are all shocked, devastated and surprised by this news,” she said.

Wright’s cause of death has not been revealed.

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We were called at 10.07am on Monday 12 February to reports of an incident. We sent a number of resources to the scene. Very sadly, one person was pronounced dead at the scene.”

The Metropolitan Police said they were also called to an apartment on Monday morning after a man’s body was found. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

They said the death was unexpected but they were not treating it as suspicious. A report will be prepared for the coroner.