Veteran DJ Dave Lee Travis told police after his arrest on suspicion of sexual offences that he would have reported fellow BBC broadcaster Jimmy Savile if he had known he was a paedophile.
Travis, who is on trial accused of indecently assaulting 10 women and sexually assaulting another, said he knew that Savile liked young girls and thought "good luck to him".
But he told police that he did not think the girls were under-age, jurors at London's Southwark Crown Court heard.
Reading extracts from interviews with police after Travis's arrest in November 2012, junior prosecutor Teresa Hay said that, although the defendant, known as DLT, denied the offences, he described such groping behaviour as the "norm" during the 1970s.
Hay told jurors: "He said if he had touched someone's breasts he would admit it as it was considered to be a bit flirtatious at the time and no-one thought that much about it.
"He said the allegations did not happen. If any of it had been true he would apologise and accept that this was the norm in that period.
"He said his reputation was everything to him - if it had happened he would happily own up."
Asked about his relationship with disgraced presenter Savile, Travis told the Operation Yewtree officers that he only knew him as a colleague and someone to say hello to if they passed in a corridor.
Ms Hay said he told police: "Like most people at the BBC I did not know him.
"He described Jimmy as having a 'verbal wall'. No-one got any sense out of him. He felt like he could not get through.
"He said he knew he liked young girls but, when all of this came out, most of them sat back in horror.
"He said he thought 'good luck to him'."
But she added that he said he not think the girls were under the age of consent and "would have reported him if he'd known he had been a paedophile".
"He was genuinely shocked at the allegations," Hay said.
Travis, 68, of Buckinghamshire, denies 13 indecent assaults and one sexual assault, dating back to 1976 and the height of his fame.
The alleged offending includes when he was working as a BBC DJ, as a broadcaster with Classic Gold radio, while appearing on Top Of The Pops, and when starring in panto.