News

Irish broadcaster Terry Wogan voted BBC's greatest radio presenter of past 50 years

IRISH broadcaster Terry Wogan has been voted the BBC's greatest radio presenter of the past 50 years in a Radio Times poll.

The Limerick native, who passed away aged 77 in 2016, was chosen for the top spot by a panel of radio industry experts polled by the magazine.

Wogan first broadcast on the BBC in 1966 and went on the present the Radio 2 breakfast show for 28 years - across two stints.

Unlike many other BBC presenters, Wogan never went to university. Instead, he became a broadcaster by simply replying to an advertisement placed by RTÉ in a newspaper.

He worked with Ireland’s state broadcaster before moving to Britain, where over five decades he built a career as one of the country’s best-known faces and most recognised voices.

Second place in the Radio Times poll went to Radio 1 favourite John Peel, who joined the station a month before it launched in 1967 and continued to broadcast on the network until his death in 2004.

The Today programme and Woman’s Hour’s Sue MacGregor took third place. With McGregor, who also began her career at the BBC in 1967, noted as the highest placed female voice and current presenter on the list.

Fourth place went to Radio 1’s longest serving DJ, Annie Nightingale, while Alistair Cooke of Letter from America fame came fifth.

The poll was compiled to mark 50 years since the launch of BBC Radio 1, and the creation of BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4.

It asked leading radio broadcasters, industry figures and critics for their top 15 broadcasters of the last 50 years from which the names were then ranked.

Contributors included: former Heads of BBC radio, Jenny Abramsky and Helen Boaden, Ken Bruce, Paul Gambaccini, Bob Harris, Joh Humphrys, Shaun Keaveny, Bridget Kendall, Philip Pulman, Jenni Murray, Jeremy Vine, Steve Wright and Kirsty Young.