Steve Wright’s former BBC colleague Liz Kershaw is accusing the corporation of dumping the late presenter “like a tin of beans”.
The veteran DJ, who died aged 69 and reportedly passed away on Monday (12.02.24) morning at his £2 million London flat after paramedics were called to an unspecified “incident”, was axed from his afternoon show slot on BBC Radio 2 in 2022 and was caught on video at the time saying: “Sometimes people want you, sometimes they don’t.”
He added in a clip shot at BBC Studios: “Sometimes there are changes and they give you another offer – and that’s OK. I understand that, I really understand that.”
Liz, 65, the second longest serving female national radio DJ in the UK after Annie Nightingale, and who celebrated 30 years on national BBC Radio in 2017, has blasted the BBC for what she called the “shabby” treatment of her old colleague.
She told GB News: “New management said, ‘We’re going to refresh the schedule’ – and they treat people like tins of beans on a shelf.
“I doubt that there was any follow-up, or any pastoral care, or any support for him.
“He didn’t need money as he has been one of the highest-paid people on air.
“But, you know, I wonder if they considered how it affected him.
“There are some people for whom fame and attention are their oxygen. And he was one of those; it was absolutely his life.”
Despite Liz’s blast, it’s been reported since Steve’s death was announced on Tuesday he was part of the BBC’s plan to launch four new stations on the airwaves.
One of the four new channels will be a BBC Radio 2 spin-off station, and, according to The Sun, Steve was set to be hosting a new version of his ‘Sunday Love Songs’ show.
The BBC had said the station would bring “heritage artist catalogues and stories to life in a much deeper and more richly textured manner than the main mixed-genre Radio 2 schedule can allow”.
