Australian born, British broadcaster Brian Hayes who was a pioneer of talkback and phone in radio in the UK on Capital Radio, the BBC and LBC, has died at the age of 87.
Brian was born in Perth WA leaving school to work for a mining company like his father before getting a job as a radio newsreader in Kalgoorlie and later at other Western Australian stations.
In 1973 he moved to the UK and joined Capital Radio, one of London’s first commercial stations, at its inception in 1973, first as a producer then presenting the morning interview and phone in show Capital Open Line for 14 years, where his made his name and reputation.
In a tribute by the BBC, TalkTV broadcaster Mark Dolan said Brian was known as the “piranha of the airwaves” and had “reinvented the phone-in format in the UK – with stunning success”.
Fellow LBC presenter Clive Bull added:
“Brian took over and shocked people really by daring to actually ask them difficult questions like, ‘What do you mean?’, and questioning the logic and the facts. And he had great attention to detail.
I should say he was not a shock jock. It was very much about analysing people’s arguments and questioning. But that really did revolutionise phone-ins, because before that, it was just, ‘Have your say’.”
From the 1990s onwards, Hayes shifted to the BBC working on various stations and winning a Gold Sony Radio Award for ‘Best Phone-In’ for a programme on euthanasia. He later returned to the LBC on a Sunday night.
He would pop back to Australia occasionally, covering the referendum on the monarchy and had some forays on television, including Prime Suspect, where he played the role of a television presenter.