Who was the first presenter to be fired from BBC Radio?
While the BBC have been widely celebrated for their century-long dedication to varied and engaging broadcasting on radio, they also haven’t been short of a few controversies in their storied history.
The media giant was known in the early part of the 20th century for their national radio broadcasts, with the Light Programme being one of the first radio shows to incorporate music as a major feature, and several other broadcasts, such as the Home Service, being significant parts of their output. However, it was on September 30th, 1967, that they ushered in their most revolutionary advances, launching four new stations with different identities.
From this day forward, Radio 2 continued in the same vein as the Light Programme, Radio 3 played classical music much like the Third Programme had done before, and the Home Service morphed into Radio 4, but BBC Radio 1 was a completely new venture that focused on pop music – seemingly a bold new avenue for the company.
With it having such a focus on pop culture and bringing in a younger audience, there were bound to be teething problems regarding getting older generations on board with this new identity, and there was always going to be an increase in risk-taking that would be frowned upon by those who simply desired light entertainment rather than transgressive approaches.
This has always been one of the main selling points of Radio 1, and there have certainly been periods where it felt as though edgy content was something that every presenter on their flagship station was getting involved with. Between the late 1990s and early 2010s, Chris Moyles seemingly desired to push boundaries of what was acceptable at 7:30am on his Breakfast Show, and even on Radio 2, there was also a notable scandal following Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross’s lewd prank calls to actor David Sachs in 2008 that saw both figures dismissed.
But BBC Radio and controversy go back much further than this, and with many people having been ousted from their much-coveted positions on our airwaves in the past, that brings to mind the question of who was the first to be sacked as a BBC Radio presenter.
Who was the first BBC Radio presenter to be dismissed?
Having been part of the team since the station’s inception, Kenny Everett was the first to get the axe from the station, only three years into his tenure, and all it took for him to be deposed was a single off-the-cuff remark.
Beloved by many for his comedic style, his pithy remarks were what landed him in hot water with BBC executives when he made a risque comment about the then Conservative Transport Minister John Peyton’s wife, Mary, who he claimed had only passed her driving test because she was able to offer bribes – his gag caused a furore, and he was asked to step down with immediate effect in July 1970.
He later returned to the BBC for a show on Radio 2 in 1981, but his show also came to a controversial end two years later after he made a joke about Margaret Thatcher, which certainly tested the audience’s tolerance for blue humour, with him remarking: “When England was a kingdom, we had a king. When we were an empire, we had an emperor. Now we’re a country, and we have Margaret Thatcher.”
As witty as the quip was, BBC Radio opted not to employ him again, although the broadcasting giant retained The Kenny Everett Television Show until 1988, seemingly proving that Aunty Beeb has always been less tolerant of risque humour on the radio than on television. Since those days, however, the scrutiny has shifted from what is said on air towards the conduct of presenters outside of the studio.
As the Director General, Tim Davie put it when discussing this changing mentality around conduct, “From our side, it’s simple, we’re not going to tolerate behaviour that is not in line with our values. The industry needs to change, and we want to lead in the front, myself and the BBC leadership team will not tolerate people who are behaving inappropriately.”
He concluded, “There is no place in or on the BBC for those who are not prepared to live by our values, whoever they are.” And with that comes a new era for the corporation.
