'Revolutionary' LBC and BBC radio host Brian Hayes dies at 87

BBC

Brian Hayes, the influential LBC and BBC radio presenter, has died at the age of 87.

The Australian helped to transform radio phone-ins - from the 1970s onwards - with his conversational and at-times confrontational interview style, during a career that spanned five decades.

He once said that callers should be treated as "real people with something to say" and that the phone-in should be treated "like a conversation that matters".

His former LBC colleague Steve Allen broke the news of his death, posting on X: "Brian Hayes has passed away, what a legend RIP."

Another former colleague, Jonathan Perry, also paid tribute: "Very sad to hear the news that my friend and former LBC radio colleague Brian Hayes passed away in his sleep in the early hours of Saturday morning.

"Brian had been battling with increasing frailty for several years now, but up until this year was still able to get out and about with a bit of help and a taxi. RIP Brian."

Born in Perth, Australia, in 1937, Hayes worked in both newspapers and broadcasting before moving to the UK in the early 1970s.

He helped to launch Capital Radio in 1973, working as a producer before moving on air.

But it was as the morning interview and phone-in show host on LBC from 1976 that he properly began to make a name for himself.

Known for not suffering fools gladly while on air and giving many callers short shrift, he was once satirised in Private Eye.

He pioneered a style whereby callers had to be on their mettle - as he was known to treat them in the same way he'd treat a politician.

Speaking about his time on the station to the Guardian in 2003, he reflected: "In my years at the station I interviewed many heroes and villains, including political, trade union and business movers and shakers, the greatest writers, musicians, performers and, of course, the informed, loveable and infuriating Londoners who flooded the phone lines ready to tell the rest of us how the world should be organised.

"And they were even prepared for me to argue them into a corner. Sometimes there was a lot of heat in my kitchen and I loved it."

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In the 1990s, Hayes moved to BBC Radio 2 where he would present the breakfast programme, Good Morning UK! - where he was ultimately replaced by the returning Terry Wogan - and the Sony award-winning weekly phone-in, Hayes over Britain.

He went on to present Friday nights on BBC Radio 5 Live in the 2000s, as well as programmes such as Not Today, Thank You on Radio 4.

Hayes also later returned to the LBC airwaves on Sunday nights.

TalkTV broadcaster Mark Dolan noted how the man known as the "piranha of the airwaves" had "reinvented the phone-in format in the UK - with stunning success."

"Ruthlessly impatient with his callers, he treated them as equals to the prime minister."

Dance DJ Dave Pearce recalled how the "talented" broadcaster's LBC show "back in the day was must-listen radio".

Paying tribute, broadcaster and journalist Paul Rowley posted to say he had been "privileged to work with him" at LBC and the BBC, calling Hayes "the best phone-in presenter on British radio".

He added: "Blunt and forthright on air, but knowledgeable, fair and balanced whether talking to Cabinet Ministers or George from Hampstead. Modern day broadcasters take note."

"We were saddened to hear of the passing of the former Radio 2 presenter Brian Hayes," said Helen Thomas, head of BBC Radio 2.

"He was much loved by our listeners. We send our condolences to his family at this sad time."