Radio legend Ken Bruce on why he left BBC to avoid becoming bitter
EXCLUSIVE: A year after he departed the BBC, with 2m of his loyal listeners having followed him, it’s clear he couldn’t be happier.
With his understated Glaswegian brogue and jocular delivery, Ken Bruce was a central part of the BBC’s fabric from the day he joined Radio 4 Scotland as a staff announcer in 1977, to the moment he left Broadcasting House for the final time on March 3, 2023
Despite attracting 8.7 million listeners with his genial mid-morning show – 1.2 million more than his more celebrated Radio 2 colleague Zoe Ball attracted to her breakfast show and, at that time, the largest audience on British radio – Ken felt increasingly frustrated and unenthusiastic about some of the new music he was having to play at the station. It left him with little alternative but to nurse his bruised ego and jump ship to rival commercial station, Greatest Hits Radio.
His departure ended on a slightly sour note after he was asked to leave before the end of his contract, reportedly because bosses feared he was using his time on air as “free advertising” for his new rival show.
But a year later, with nearly two million of his loyal listeners having followed him and his trademarked PopMaster contest to his new home – and the second series of the television version of his legendary music quiz due to return to More4 on Monday – it’s clear he couldn’t be happier.
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Despite having the same employers for nearly half a century, the twice-divorced father-of-six, who lives in Oxfordshire with his third wife Kerith Coldham, has taken his new role in his stride. “I’ve been at Greatest Hits Radio just over a year and it’s gone really, really, quickly and it actually feels like I’ve been here for years and years and years.
“It’s very comfortable. I seem to fit in with the rest of the station nicely and it just feels right to be here. It’s become a new home already. A home from home.
“And I have to say, I’ve surprised myself how easily I’ve slotted into a different station, but I suppose I’m doing much the same kind of programme. It’s in a different place, with a different audience and a slightly different style but it’s gone really well.” Bruce’s Radio 2 successor, Vernon Kay, a former male model and successful television presenter, and Mr Tess Daly, has lost since 1.3 million listeners, with some disgruntled listeners labelling him, “bland”, “irritating”, and “lacking any discernible talent”. While Bruce, ever the diplomat, refuses to denigrate Kay, he does admit that he hasn’t listened to his show.
“I’ve not heard his programme as we’re on at the same time,” he says. “But he’s a lovely guy. Of course, he’s a lovely guy.” So, what advice would Bruce, whose Greatest Hits Radio show gained 1.6 million listeners in the final quarter of 2023 to reach a daily audience of 3.8 million, give his younger radio pretender?
“I wouldn’t dare give advice to anybody, young or old,” he chuckles. “Nobody needs advice really, apart from just do the best you can. Vernon is an experienced broadcaster, and I certainly wouldn’t give any advice to any broadcaster, because they’re all doing what they do. Good broadcasting is all about being yourself.” Bruce may not listen to Vernon Kay’s show, but he does cross paths with him in person on a regular basis.
“I actually bump into Vernon quite often, because he gets the same train as I do in the morning. I see him on the platform in London and we have a quick chat – we chew the fat – and wish each other farewell then go off to our respective studios.”
One of Bruce’s bugbears, when his BBC adventure stuttered to a premature halt, was that the station’s bosses hadn’t fully acknowledged the scale of his success. Speaking earlier this year, he said: “I didn’t want any hoo-ha, so when my show became the biggest show on radio, I didn’t want to say anything about it, but I kind of thought the BBC should. I wasn’t expecting to be carried on a litter with people strewing palms in front of me, but I thought, ‘Surely that’s worth a mention?’”
Public acknowledgement came in October last year when he was awarded an MBE for services to broadcasting and charity, a day he’ll treasure forever.
“It’s very nice to have a little recognition,” says Bruce, of his day at Buckingham Palace, where he received his honour from the Princess Royal. “It was so great to meet Princess Anne, who did the investiture, and it was lovely because it came totally out of the blue, although my wife knew about it for a few weeks beforehand.
“I’ve always been a bit under the radar so it was a total surprise and there was a moment where I thought, ‘Should I accept this?’ but it was only a fleeting moment and I immediately said yes. And what was so impressive on the day was that the Princess knew all about me, all about Pop Master and me going to Greatest Hits Radio and all about my work with autism charities.
“She’d clearly been doing her homework on me, and on all the other people being honoured that day, and I thought it was really admirable.”
And as a fully-fledged national treasure, does Bruce now feel very much part of the establishment? “Not at all. I’ve always considered myself to be an outsider, and that hasn’t changed,” he smiles. “I always think about Groucho Marx’s quote about not wanting to be part of any club that would have him as a member and I feel that the best work I can do is from being slightly outside of everything and not part of any establishment. I like to be just a little on the outside of things.”
Away from broadcasting, Bruce is an active campaigner for autism charities, inspired by his 20-year-old son Murray, who has the condition. The pair appeared in a 2023 BBC documentary, Inside Our Autistic Minds, with wildlife presenter Chris Packham.
Bruce works tirelessly to raise awareness about the debilitating condition. He says: “Yesterday I hosted an awards ceremony for a charity called Dimensions, for people with disabilities – either learning disabilities or any kind of disability – who are going out in the community and doing inspirational things for other disabled people and helping them, but also demonstrating that it’s possible to do great things even though you have some disadvantages and also possible to still make a useful contribution to society.
“It’s really a heartwarming thing to be able to do and they are fantastic people. Everybody is so impressive, and it’s a privilege to be part of the community.”
The future for Bruce promises, perhaps unsurprisingly, more of the same.“People ask me how I’ve kept going so long and the truth is, I have no idea why. And no idea why what I do has remained in some way useful or popular. I don’t really know what I do or how I do it. I just know it seems to work.
“So, my aim is to stay in broadcasting as long as I can and not change a thing.”
So, 13 months on, how does the buoyant 73-year-old, who took over from Terry Wogan on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show in 1985, before assuming his customary mid-morning slot on the station in 1990, reflect on his much-debated exit?
“Well, all in all, I was at the BBC for 46 years, mostly doing the same thing and, yes, you do become institutionalised, but I’m a great believer in the BBC,” he says, gamely. “I think it’s a terrific organisation and we would be much poorer culturally in this country without it, but nobody needs to stay in the same place for 40-odd years.”
Bruce, it emerges, remains remarkably sanguine about his exit, even if it left fans gnashing their teeth in frustration at the corporation. “I was always really happy there, but when I got towards the end of those years, I was starting to think I’d been there too long,” he continues.
“I didn’t want to become embittered, or a little bit sour about the place and feel out of place and I was just getting that feeling in the back of my mind that I wasn’t as comfortable as I had been, say, five years before.
“So, I thought, ‘Maybe before any of that sourness or bitterness creeps in, get out, move on to something else’. I just didn’t want to go away from the place under a cloud or think, ‘You know what, my last years were not happy ones’. I wanted to remember everything as being a happy time, which it was, but I wanted to try something new.”
