BBC stars knew Steve Wright was “struggling with his health” but his death was still a “huge, huge shock”, insiders have said.
The veteran BBC radio broadcaster has passed away aged 69 as Sara Cox led emotional tributes to the star.
It has now emerged that colleagues viewed his death as “very, very sudden” and he had talked to bosses in the last few days.
“Steve had been talking to Radio 2 bosses just two or three days ago,” one BBC star told MailOnline.
“We were aware he was struggling with his health a bit but nothing that seemed this serious.
“It has come as a huge shock. Nobody can believe it. He was engaging with his colleagues so recently. It doesn’t seem at all real.”
It is not currently clear what the radio legend’s health battle was.
He was also due to be part of BBC Radio’s plans to launch four new stations over the airwaves.
Jo Whiley said it felt “very strange” to be doing a tribute show to Steve given she had seen him “only days ago”.
“(This is) a very strange show to be doing,” she said.
“It’s extremely hard to know what to say and to be talking about someone that you saw only days ago in this very studio where I am right now – doing a tribute show to that person just does not feel right.”
His friend and long-time BBC radio colleague Ken Bruce said he was “totally shocked” by the news as he revealed they were planning to celebrate Steve’s “richly deserved” MBE with a lunch in the near future.
“An outstanding and innovative broadcaster whose listeners loved him. What a loss to the world of radio,” he added.
Steve lost 20 per cent of the hearing in his right ear after prodding it with a birthday cake candle at the age of ten.
And he suffered from a hereditary inflammation of the eyelids, which gave the appearance that he was tired.
At school Steve faced cruel taunts about his appearance.
He once said: “In my teens I was known as Concorde, on account of my big hooter.”
Read more on the tragedy…
Steve joined the BBC in the 1970s, going on to host shows on BBC Radio 1 and 2 for more than four decades which attracted millions of listeners.
He was also a long-standing presenter of Top Of The Pops on BBC One.
A statement shared to the broadcaster by Steve’s family said: “It is with deep sorrow and profound regret that we announce the passing of our beloved Steve Wright.
“In addition to his son, Tom, and daughter, Lucy, Steve leaves behind his brother, Laurence and his father Richard.
“Also, much-loved close friends and colleagues, and millions of devoted radio listeners who had the good fortune and great pleasure of allowing Steve into their daily lives as one of the UK’s most enduring and popular radio personalities.
“As we all grieve, the family requests privacy at this immensely difficult time.”
The broadcaster joined BBC Radio 1 in 1980 to host a Saturday evening show before moving on to host Steve Wright In The Afternoon a year later until 1993.
Steve then fronted the Radio 1 Breakfast show for a year until 1995, and completed a stint at commercial radio stations before returning to BBC Radio 2 in 1996 to host Steve Wright’s Saturday Show and Sunday Love Songs.
In 1999, he recreated Steve Wright In The Afternoon every weekday on Radio 2, with celebrity interviews and entertaining trivia featured in his Factoids segment, before stepping down in September 2022.
Former BBC Radio 1 host Scott Mills took over the afternoon slot as part of the station’s schedule shake-up.
Steve continued to present Sunday Love Songs on BBC Radio 2 and since October last year, he presented the long-running show Pick Of The Pops, which had previously been fronted by Paul Gambaccini.
Steve appeared on air on Sunday, hosting a pre-recorded special Valentine’s Day edition of his Love Songs programme.
By Grant Rollings
He grew up in poverty — but went on to become the nation’s most loved radio presenter.
Steve was born in Greenwich, in South East London.
His dad Dick managed a Burton’s men’s clothing store in central London and the family did not have a proper bathroom in their New Cross home.
He and his brother washed in a tin bath — but Steve did not consider himself to be poor.
The greatest struggle in his early days was with asthma, which meant he was in and out of hospital until the age of 11.
Steve said: “At one stage they put me in an oxygen tent.
“I would sometimes be in Greenwich Hospital for three to four days.
“We used to live in New Cross and I think it was the heavy pollution of London that brought it on.”
The self-deprecating broadcaster has always been able to laugh off any barbs, though, saying he had a face for radio.
He left school with three O-Levels and went to work in marine insurance before joining the BBC to work as a clerk in the gramophone library.
That inspired him to chance his arm in broadcasting and he joined an independent radio station in Reading in 1976.
In 1994 Steve, who had drawn huge audiences with his afternoon show, took over Radio 1’s coveted breakfast show.
