{"id":692663,"date":"2026-07-15T08:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692663\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T08:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:42:08","slug":"ken-bruce-greatest-hits-doesnt-feel-the-need-to-chase-younger-listeners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692663\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Bruce: \u2018Greatest Hits doesn\u2019t feel the need to chase younger listeners\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing he does not miss is the attention heaped on BBC presenters. \u201cI enjoy being on this station, where I think the scrutiny is slightly less than it is at the BBC.\u201d No more annual high-pay-list drama for Bruce, which he describes as \u201cthe most annoying thing\u201d.<\/p>\n

While he listens to the Today programme most mornings and the \u201cexcellent\u201d audio dramas on Radio 4 Extra, Bruce does not tune in to Radio 2 much these days. \u201cNo, not really,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t avoid it, I just don\u2019t bother switching it on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is he worried that, if he did listen to the station with which he is most associated, he might pick things up in an almost osmotic way? \u201cIt\u2019s not that conscious, but I think there\u2019s probably something in that. I don\u2019t want to listen to that, because either I\u2019d think, \u2018Gosh, they\u2019re doing it really well\u2019 or I\u2019d think, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m glad I don\u2019t work there any more.\u2019 So it\u2019s probably not a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

One former Radio 2 colleague who has found himself out of work is Scott Mills<\/a>. Both Bruce and Mayo say that they \u201cdon\u2019t know\u201d the details of what led to his sacking in April. Ashton, for his part, says he is \u201cnot sure Scott would fit the format\u201d of GHR and that he is \u201creally focused on launching Zoe now\u201d.<\/p>\n

One of the surprising things about GHR is that what is in many ways an old-school radio station \u2013 the cameras filming what happens in the studios notwithstanding \u2013 has been able to thrive after launching at a point when most people have access to all the music to which they could ever want to listen, and more, easily available on their phones.<\/p>\n

It is part of a resilient radio industry that has defied the doubters. What\u2019s the secret? \u201cI\u2019ve always taken the view that radio somehow survives everything that\u2019s thrown at it: cinema, TV, podcasts,\u201d says Bruce.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started in the BBC, I was doing a news course, and the guy taking it said: \u2018It\u2019s going to happen. Radio will die. There\u2019s no future in radio. Television is going to be the way people consume everything. There\u2019s no future for radio.\u2019 Well, that was 1978 or something. And here we are 50-odd years later, and it\u2019s still going strong. And stronger than ever in some cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to Greatest Hits Radio at hellorayo.co.uk\/greatest-hits\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One thing he does not miss is the attention heaped on BBC presenters. \u201cI enjoy being on this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[243,6491,5343,168438,96,2186,5438,56,54,55,157732,230534,2853],"class_list":["post-692663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bbc","tag-celebrities","tag-culture","tag-culture-editors-choice","tag-entertainment","tag-radio","tag-standard","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-us-content","tag-what-to-listen-to","tag-zoe-ball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}