Former Radio 2 host Ken Bruce has admitted he felt a little taken for granted by the station prior to his exit.
Earlier this year, the broadcasting legend announced he was leaving the BBC after more than 40 years, and has now launched a new show over on Greatest Hits Radio.
Speaking to Radio Times about his motivation to leave, he explained that he wanted to take on new challenges, after feeling he’d achieved everything was going to at Radio 2.
However, he also admitted that his move to another station was partly fuelled by a hope to prove his “worth on Radio 2”.
“There were times when I felt I wasn’t really noticed by either the BBC itself or some listeners,” he added. “So I thought, ‘I’m going to make these people appreciate me’.
“And having done that to my satisfaction, I felt it was time to give myself a little challenge, try something different, rather than become stale and wait for the axe.”
He continued: “This is going back a few years, but there were times when all the publicity was about other presenters, people who were off the telly, and I wasn’t mentioned at all. I was just an afterthought.
“And I thought, ‘Well, I just want to make these people realise that I’m doing quite a good job.’ There was a certain amount of, ‘Oi, I’m over here!’”
When the outlet suggested he’d been taken for granted, Ken said: “You’re absolutely right. But I guess that applies to anybody who’s done a good job for a long time in any kind of situation.”
The BBC initially announced that Ken would be presenting his mid-morning Radio 2 show until the end of March, but this was later cut short, which the host made clear at the time was not his decision.
“I’m a little bit disappointed by that, I have to say,” he told the magazine. “Because I thought that, after 45 years, I could be trusted to do the right thing for the next few weeks. But obviously it’s up to them. It’s their choice.”
Ken claimed last month: “That was disappointing. I thought, ’Come on, you can trust me. I’m not going to do a Dave Lee Travis [and] start badmouthing everybody, because I had a lovely time at the BBC. So it was all a bit... unnecessary.”
While his days at Radio 2 are now behind him, Ken has taken a piece of his show with him to his new home – his popular quiz segment PopMaster.
In fact, it was revealed earlier this week that he is potentially turning it into a TV show, having trademarked the PopMaster brand himself while still at Radio 2.
Read Ken Bruce’s interview in full in the latest edition of Radio Times.
