Jeremy Vine has paid tribute to former BBC radio presenter Steve Wright, whose death was announced on Tuesday. Speaking on his Channel 5 show, Jeremy revealed he first met Steve at a Radio 1 Roadshow in 1981 when he was just 16-years-old, and says he changed many people’s lives for the better. Report by Chinnianl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 Good morning. It is a strange one this, I must say, coming on and doing a show which probably owes
00:05 quite a lot to Steve Wright, but he's not with us anymore. If you loved Steve, I'm guessing it's
00:10 because, like me, you grew up with him. I was 16 and on a family holiday in Newquay, Cornwall, when
00:17 he came down with the Radio One Roadshow in 1981. I got there early, got to the front of the crowd,
00:23 and I was chosen to play the quiz Bits and Pieces. So he quizzed me on air, and I was rubbish. Six
00:28 out of ten. Years later, I met him at Radio Two. We became friends. I did the show before his for
00:35 20 years, saw him every day. That's us at a Radio Two party with Fee Glover and Lulu. In all the
00:42 conversations I had, I never mentioned to him that first meeting on the beachfront in Cornwall,
00:46 because I thought he'd be uncomfortable if he knew what a fan I was. I always thought he was
00:52 somebody who wanted true friendship, not admiration. So I never mentioned Mr. Angry,
00:58 Gervais the hairdresser, Sid the manager, Happening Boy, the posse, the fish fileter.
01:04 They were his Radio One past. Those were the characters. That was the insane show that moved
01:10 Radio One beyond smashy and nicey. When he came to Radio Two in the 90s, it was in the doldrums,
01:16 with MPs saying it should be shut down. And he totally rebooted the station. But that's not
01:23 really what I wanted to say. I just wanted to tell you that however much you loved Steve on the radio,
01:29 you would have loved him more in real life. He was humble, gracious, kind, really quite shy,
01:36 not always that sociable in crowds, but hugely thoughtful when you became his friend. One of the
01:43 greatest, loudest voices in British radio was one of the most gentle, quietest souls in real life.
01:51 God bless you, Steve. You changed so many of our lives for the better.