Steve Wright, who has died aged 69, helped to redefine the role of a disc jockey when he established his BBC Radio 1 afternoon show in the 1980s. To the usual formula of linking almost back-to-back music, he added gossip, trivia, guests from the world of entertainment such as Paul McCartney and Warren Beatty, and a general feeling of chaos that became known as the “zoo” format. It made him the most popular UK radio presenter of the era, with audiences of more than eight million.
“The show’s a little bit of everything you fancy,” he said. “I invented the format myself. It’s a tabloid newspaper of the airwaves – fast, fun and packed with info. Something for everyone.”
Some of the regular “guests” or “listeners” phoning in – including Mr Angry, Gervaise the hairdresser and Damian the social worker – were fictional spoof characters voiced by actors, while Phil Cornwell, whom Wright described as “a crazed, inspired genius”, provided impersonations of David Bowie, John Lennon, Robert De Niro, the Rolling Stones and others. Cornwell’s interactions with the DJ were improvised. A compulsive collector of information, Wright was particularly fond of the “factoids” and bizarre true stories he dug up to entertain his listeners.
Alongside the showbiz guests, Wright was also trusted by politicians, although things did not always go well. On one occasion he was waiting in the prime minister’s study at 10 Downing Street, preparing to conduct an interview with John Major, when he spotted two paracetamol tablets on a table. As he was suffering from a headache himself, he popped them into his mouth.
“When Mr Major walked in, I think he spotted the empty packets – because there was an immediate atmosphere,” recalled Wright. “He wouldn’t really loosen up. I asked him what clothes he liked to wear and he said, ‘Er, um, casual.’ I asked what sort of casual, but he wouldn’t be drawn.” However, Wright did elicit the revelation that the prime minister’s favourite record was the Marty Robbins western ballad El Paso. “A very strange song indeed,” observed the DJ.
Wright first took to the Radio 1 airwaves with a Saturday evening show in 1980 and, within weeks, was presenting Top of the Pops on BBC television. Then, he hosted the Saturday mid-morning show before switching to his long-running post-lunch weekday slot in a programme eventually titled Steve Wright in the Afternoon (1981-93).
At the beginning of 1994 he moved to the flagship Radio 1 breakfast show, titled Steve Wright in the Morning, in a bid by the BBC to halt declining ratings. He added 250,000 listeners within four months and kept a steady audience of seven million while audiences for other shows plummeted. Nevertheless, Wright walked out on his £165,0000-a-year job in 1995 – following differences with Matthew Bannister, the recently appointed controller of Radio 1 – and joined Talk Radio for an unhappy few months.
He was back at the BBC in 1996, switching to Radio 2 to present a Saturday show and launch Steve Wright’s Sunday Love Songs, a mix of classic songs, dedications and real-life romance stories, before returning to familiar territory in 1999 with Steve Wright in the Afternoon. When his departure from the afternoon slot was announced in 2022, he handed over typically graciously, saying “Now, I’ve been doing this programme for 24 years at Radio 2, and so how can I possibly complain? Really, I can’t hog the slot for ever, so let’s give somebody else a go.”
Wright was born in Greenwich, south-east London, and brought up in New Cross, the son of Richard Wright, who managed a Burton’s menswear store, and his wife, June (nee Saunders). Following the family’s move to Southend-on-Sea, Essex, Steve attended Eastwood high school, where he broadcast on school radio over a speaker system from the stock cupboard.
Leaving with three O-levels, he went through jobs as a shipping insurance company clerk, telephone engineer and backstage theatre worker, as well as running his own jingles business. He also had an unsuccessful stint singing on the club circuit, and worked in hospital radio in his spare time.
Joining the BBC in the early 70s, he spent three years working in its pop record library, digging out vinyl discs for DJs to play, followed by a period as a researcher in radio. He left in 1975 to host a show on Radio Atlantis in Belgium, then worked as a reporter and presenter on LBC in London.
In 1976, he moved to the newly launched commercial station Radio 210 in Reading, making promotional trailers and jingles before hosting his own show – he and a fellow 210 DJ, Mike Read, also contributed a pop column to the local newspaper, the Reading Chronicle. Wright switched to Radio Luxembourg three years later and returned to the BBC in 1980.
Radio fame brought Wright television appearances not just on Top of the Pops (1980-89), but also as a panellist on gameshows such as Blankety Blank (1987-89) and That’s Showbusiness (1990-93). He then became the presenter of Home Truths (1994), with celebrities answering general knowledge questions and revealing skeletons in their closet, and Steve Wright’s People Show (1994-95), featuring celebrity guests. From 1997 until 2009, he narrated the Top of the Pops archive footage programme TOTP2.
On radio, Wright’s other shows included Wright Around the World for the BBC World Service (1999-2003) and Radio 2’s Pick of the Pops (2022-24), and he continued to present Sunday Love Songs until his death.
He was appointed MBE in this year’s new year honours list.
In 1985, Wright married Cyndi Robinson; they divorced in 1999. He is survived by their children, Tom and Lucy, his father and his brother, Laurence.
• Steve (Stephen Richard) Wright, radio and television presenter, born 26 August 1954; died 12 February 2024
