Brian Hayes (broadcaster)

Brian Hayes (born 17 December 1937, Perth, Western Australia) is a radio presenter who is known in the United Kingdom for his phone-in shows.

The son of a miner, he left school at age 15 and worked as a clerk for a mining company before obtaining a job as a newsreader for a radio station in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. He subsequently worked for various stations in Perth and Western Australia, in both presenting and producing roles.

He moved to the UK and joined Capital Radio at its inception in 1973, first as a producer of talk programmes, and then presenting Capital Open Line, before making his name as presenter of the morning interview and phone-in show on LBC Radio^[1] from 1976 to 1990. Here he adopted an often aggressive style with callers – making it clear he did not suffer fools gladly. Though this sometimes caused irritation it was a valuable asset to the station. (He was once satirised in Private Eye as ‘Brian Bastard').

Since 1990 Hayes has appeared on various stations, including presenting the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show Good Morning U.K. from January 1992 until the end of that year. He was replaced by the show's former host Terry Wogan.

Hayes presented the weekly phone-in Hayes over Britain on BBC Radio 2 in the 1990s, as well as sitting in for Jimmy Young and Jeremy Vine until the mid-2000s. He worked on BBC Radio Five Live until 2006, and BBC Radio 4, on various programmes including Not Today, Thank You. During the mid-2000s, he presented Friday nights on BBC Radio 5 Live and on Sunday nights he returned to LBC.

He is mentioned on the song Hello by The Beloved which is a song whose lyrics feature a list of names of (some fictional) people, "saints and sinners" who have supposedly inspired the group members.

References

1. Hayes, Brian (1 October 2003). "LBC: you could have been a contender". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). Retrieved 3 October 2010.