Vanessa Feltz hails BBC Radio DJ Steve Wright as a 'pure genius':'I rated him so highly!'

14 February 2024

Vanessa Feltz has hailed Steve Wright as a "pure genius".

Vanessa Feltz has paid tribute to late BBC DJ Steve Wright

The BBC radio legend died at the age of 69 on Monday (12.02.24) after a glittering career in broadcast and now journalist and fellow presenter Vanessa, 61, has admitted that she thought "very highly" of Steve as she noted how his show remained unique throughout the decades he was on air.

She said: "I rated Steve Wright so highly just as everybody else in the country and beyond did as a pure radio genius, you know, an innovative creator, the presenter of a show that sounded nothing like anybody else’s show ever. A man who was at the absolute top of his game for decade after decade."

The former 'Strictly Come Dancing' contestant' thanked Steve for the long hours be put in and admitted she even loved to hear him sing along to classic tracks whilst he was on air.

She said: "Thank you Steve, for all the hours, all the music and especially the bit I used to like the best. I know he used to drive some people crazy, but when he used to sing along.used to love it when he sang along. It was hilarious. I'm still not sure whether he could actually sing or not but he didn’t seem to care. He would just blithely sing, come crashing in with his own chords and, you know, some people used to write to the BBC to complain. They regularly got complaints about it but I used to absolutely love it."

Vanessa is currently away on holiday from her regular role as a presenter on TalkTV but phoned into the channel when the news broke to pay tribute to Steve as a "multi-layered" radio star who always went the extra mile for his millions of listeners.

She said: "He took it with meticulous seriousness as if he was in a laboratory conducting a Nobel prize-winning experiment, with that attention to detail, research, all kinds of things. His show was multi-layered, he would do interviews in advance, prerecord them, edit things in, or take them out. Other people would just say 'Here's another [track]', but that wasn't Steve Wright at all.