Steve Wright
:
For other people named Steven Wright, see Steven Wright (disambiguation).Steve Wright (born
August 26 1949 in
Greenwich,
London) is a
radio broadcaster in the
United Kingdom. He currently presents the afternoon show on
BBC Radio 2. He rose to prominence in the early eighties while working with Peter Dickson on
BBC Radio 1.
Educated in
Southend on Sea, he started broadcasting in the 1970s on Reading's
Radio 210 alongside
Mike Read. In 1979 he joined Radio Luxembourg, and joined
BBC Radio 1 in 1980, presenting a Saturday Evening show, then presenting a Saturday morning show before moving on to present
Steve Wright in the Afternoon from 1981. In 1984 Steve also took over a Sunday morning show entitled
Steve Wright on Sunday, which meant he presented weekday afternoons Mondays–Thursdays only,
Mark Page &
Paul Jordan presenting Friday afternoon's show. In 1986 his Sunday Morning show ended, which meant he was heard 5 afternoons a week again.
His afternoon show had a "
zoo" format, with spoof guests, comedy sketches, a "posse" of producers and radio staff who would join in with the
DJ links and whoop and cheer every minor announcement. The show became best known for its cast of telephone characters which were created and performed by
Gavin McCoy,
Peter Dickson and
Richard Easter. The show went out of its way to be silly, including regular stories taken from the
Weekly World News. The success of the show even led to a hit single, "I'll Be Back", released under the name "
Arnee & The Terminators.British Rock Band
The Smiths apparently weren't fans of Wright who became the subject of their 1986 single "
Panic" with its chant of "Hang the DJ" and its lyric "Hang the blessed DJ/because the music that they constantly play says nothing to me about my life". The song came about after
Morrissey and guitarist
Johnny Marr were listening to Radio 1's Newsbeat and a report about the
Chernobyl disaster and were angered when Wright followed up that report by playing "
I'm Your Man" by
Wham!Wright moved to the Breakfast Show in
1994, but resigned in
1995 due to differences with the Radio 1 management after the station was restructured by new controller
Matthew Bannister, which led to many of the more established DJs leaving around this time. He was picked up by the new commercial station
Talk Radio, where he presented a Saturday morning show, but returned to the BBC in 1996, when he joined
BBC Radio 2, presenting
Steve Wright's Saturday Show Saturdays 10am-1pm &
Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs Sundays 9-11am. In 1999, Steve took over Radio 2's Weekday afternoon show (from DJ
Ed Stewart) and he was also the voice of the retro pop show on BBC television,
Top of the Pops 2 before it was axed.
Wright can currently be heard on
Radio 2 every weekday afternoon in
Steve Wright in the Afternoon from 2pm until 5pm, and on Sunday Mornings 9-11am presenting
Sunday Love Songs.
