To be pedantic, when Gloria left in 1995 (funnily enough I think on the same day Wrighty left Radio 1) she was replaced by Debbie Thrower, and during her tenure the show was moved half-an-hour earlier, so they ended up with a slightly awkward schedule of 11.30 Jimmy Young, 1.30 Debbie Thrower, 3.00 Ed Stewart. She left in 1998 which led to the tidying up of the schedule with Stewpot extended to run from 2-5.

Did Adrian Love do 3.30-5 then? I seem to recall David Hamilton did 4-6 and John Dunn 6-8?

Both correct. David and John moved to 3.30-5 and 5-7 respectively in 1986 as part of the schedule changes that saw Derek Jameson take over the breakfast show and Ken Bruce started his first stint in mid-mornings. Before long David left for commercial radio and was replaced by Adrian Love. After he left in 1990 Gloria was extended to 4pm for a while, with 4-5 becoming a slot for guest presenters, until Stewpot took over 3.30-5 in 1992.

I should point I was not listening to Radio 2 at all through any of this, this is all what have observed in old issues of Radio TImes!

Ah thanks for that. Yes it all got a bit messy for a while

Re: Mark Goodier, he still does cover for radio 2, he covered for Alex Lester on overnights last month.

I guess he is really busy during the day

An example of early Steve Wright can be found at http://www.aircheckdownloads.com/rad...right_1282.mp3

I agree with you.

What annoys me about Steve Wright is when he says things in fake accents and exaggerates it.

I don't like Vanessa Feltz as a presenter at all.

No, an example of early Steve Wright can be found on Radio 2 weekday afternoons.

I would never entertain the idea to listen to SW back in the day but after getting fed up with LBC in the afternoon found myself listening regularly to him.

I like his show. It is laid back and not intense like many other shows. As for Steve singing at the end of songs, I think it's funny. He's only doing what 90% of office workers do when they have the radio playing. You can't accuse him of not being a fan of musiic and then criticise him for joining in with the songs!

As for stand-ins being better. It can't be too hard to step in for two weeks and be dynamic! Do it day in, day out and still sound good...that is the challenge!

The show that Steve Wright does now is completely different to what he did on Radio 1 30 years ago. There were loads of amusing characters on the show in those days, Mr Angry, Gervais the Hairdresser and Sid the Manager to name three. There was nothing like on daytime radio anywhere, it was brilliant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_W...on_BBC_Radio_1

Whereas nowadays from what I have heard, there's only the Old Woman or whatever she is called, and Tim and Janey. Steve has adapted his act and ISN'T doing the same as he was.

Yup.... Steve Wrights show back in the 80's, was totally different to how it is now. It was unique compared to what else was around then. It was fresh and entertaining, whereas now its just stale.
Even in the early 90.s, wasn't he the first DJ to have a crowd of people in the studio with him, which he called his 'posse' ?

Simon Mayo's breakfast show had a zoo format from its inception in 1988 although I don't think the format name was known in the UK by then. I can remember hearing Steve Wright say on air that he had just come back from the USA where he had heard a new format-zoo radio- and was clearly excited by it, so it must be a toss-up whether he or Simon Mayo had the first zoo format in reality.

He was probably copying Howard Stern's WNBC New York afternoon show from the
mid 80s, obviously not the risqué content, but everything else, including that highly irritating off mic clapping

I remember Simon Mayo's breakfast show in the late 80's..... but the only other person I remember doing the show with him was Sybil Ruscoe. They had this sort of flirty rapport going on in between the records.

Surely Steve will have to move on soon. Most people I talk to say his show is stale with same features day in day out.

It needs a whole new format and maybe new co presenters perhaps more famous people would work.

Even better give the show full time to Jo Whiley or Patrick kielty also the whole Jeremy vine thing needs to go it's not designed for radio 2. Most people turn over during his show.

I find the factoids on his show

A) painfully uninteresting

B) rarely amusing.

His show is stuck in some weird mid 1980s time warp. And Tim Smith has the voice of a teenager but looks in his mid 50s. That is freaky deaky!

I've been listening to and enjoying Radio Two for years but I do get very miffed when the DJs, especially Steve Wright, don't introduce the next track by name/artist and/ or talk over the end of the song and still don't say who it was. Thank goodness for Shazam - I wouldn't be without it!!

There was Rod McKensie as well. Sybil Ruscoe was one of several female co-presenters at different times including Carol Dooley, Dianne Oberry, Jakki Brambles and Lynn Parsons.

I think it can therefore legitimately claim to have an early 'zoo' format.

I don't really remember Simon Mayo having a zoo format, and only really remember him just co presenting with one person at any time. Other DJ's did this around that time, I remember Bruno Brooks co presenting with Liz Kershaw. I've always thought of Steve Wright as being the first of a definitive zoo format radio show in the UK around that time.
But maybe you're right, it was 25 + years ago, hard for me to remember exactly when and who was doing what on R1.

A lot of people forget (no-one's mentioned it in this thread) that Steve Wright's foray into Radio 2 began on Saturdays.
When the ratings for this were more than favourable, he replaced Ed Stewart on weekday afternoons, with co-host Richard Easter, a comedy writer. The two presented mainly live, unlike now where Tim and Janey's contributions are recorded. Add Easter's observational wit to Wright's skills as a presenter and you had a formidable duo - very spontaneous and listenable.
After Easter left (and I don't know why) the show, for me, lost its way - but, of course, millions disagree. You cannot argue with ratings.

I left Radio 2 on, after JV the other day, just to give the BIG show another try, as I haven't listened for a long while and to be fair I thought it's worth another shot.

I'm afraid I agree with a lot of the posters on here, it's just simply dull.

What's with that 'Hands up if you are........' section clap clap clap clap clap. Also he repeated both 1) the upcoming R2 schedule, 2) the news headlines and 3) the weather about three times before 3 o clock. Music wasn't too bad though.

But I don't know about anyone else, but it sounds 'different' in some way. It's clearly not very live - but the sound was just odd compared to other shows can't really explain what I mean and some of the bits were really badly edited.

I always get the impression that this show lives in it's own 'bubble' within the R2 schedule, almost kind of like it's 'bought in'. Unlike other shows, the traffic lady never interacts with SW and (I'm not 100% sure of this) but it appears there are never any promos for other programmes played.

Plus, I like the way his pic is never shown on the website. Unlike pretty much ever other show on the network.

And why did he have to have his sidekick talking to Jo Whiley during her Sport Relief challenge, whereas every other presenter talked to her directly? Very strange, its almost like there are loads of contractual obligations the BBC have to honour, which seems ludicious if that is the case...

I don't know, it's just really not that BIG as far as I'm concerned....

Factoid: Steve Wright died 3 years ago during cosmetic surgery to make him look like Vernon Kay and the show is now compiled in South Korea from old clips.

Whiley or Kielty to replace Wrighty? You have to be joking.

I've long thought Steve Wright should take on a new challenge like a 4-7 drive show. Having read his Radio Times interview it seems the controller's view is that no-one gets moved while their audience stays high. But there's surely a case for freshening up a schedule every now and again.

BTW I think Jo Whiley will eventually take over one of the daytime slots.

Viz did a astrip about him a few years back. It was all his posse laughing at his jokes, and telling him how funny he was. Steve then did a big turd, and it turned out the turd was an ever bigger sycophant than he was, and ended up getting his job.

Ive never been able to take him seriously since