RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: With Ken's audience booming and Fiona's tanking...
did the BBC ditch the wrong Bruce? By Richard Littlejohn for the Daily Mail Published: 11:57 EDT, 11 July 2024 | Updated: 12:02 EDT, 11 July 2024 e-mail 3 View comments You know you're getting old when you find yourself listening to Radio 2 and you think it's Radio 1. That was the standing joke 50-odd years ago when disc jockeys like David ' Diddy ' Hamilton, Jimmy Young and Alan 'Fluff' Freeman were transferred from 'Won-der-ful Ray-de-O One!' to pipe-and-slippers Radio 2. Not 'arf.
Back then, the stalwarts at 2 were leftovers from the days when the station was known as the Light Programme — legendary broadcasters such as David 'Juke Box Jury' Jacobs and Jack Jackson, the 'Housewives' Choice', who joined the BBC in 1931. In the mid-1970s, the Beeb decided to get down wiv da kidz, as nobody said back then, and concentrate Radio 1 on attracting the Teens and Twenties, as they used to say on Radio Luxembourg 208. Ken Bruce on his last day on the BBC Radio 2 show in March last year Under Fiona Bruce, BBC 1's Question Time has become a noisy Jerry Springer-style bear-pit, often featuring unfunny left-wing comedians, writes Richard Littlejohn Radio 2 would appeal to the grown-ups, who had never heard of the Bay City Rollers and were treated to a playlist which ranged from Mantovani to Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
Bolstered by new arrivals such as Terry Wogan and Ken Bruce, Radio 2 soon became the go-to radio st.
