Ken Bruce speaks on BBC exit, retirement and PopMaster
POPULAR radio presenter Ken Bruce, who lives in Oxfordshire, has spoken about his exit from the BBC, retirement and PopMaster.
At the age of 73, Mr Bruce is not ready to hang up his headphones just yet.
Speaking on his future retirement, he said: “Doing a daily programme is not a massive strain but it does require you to be on peak form.
“I don’t want to get to a Joe Biden stage. If I feel I’m not doing a job to my own satisfaction, then I probably will retire.
“At the moment I feel quite happy, but I’m aware of not going on too long.
“If I start to feel that people have had enough of me, then I’ll go.”
Mr Bruce left the BBC in March last year after almost 40 years – 31 of which were spent on his Radio 2 show – for a mid-morning slot at commercial station Greatest Hits Radio.
He took his legendary PopMaster quiz with him and has written the foreword to a new eponymous quiz book, has presented two series of the TV version on Channel 4 and hopes that it will be recommissioned.
The quiz book, PopMaster by Phil Swern and Neil Myners, is published in paperback by Bantam on August 15.
Speaking on him moving stations, he said: “It’s been fantastic. I’ve been really enjoying myself.
“It’s been about 16 months and it doesn’t feel like that. It feels like I’ve been here for years.”
He’s glad to no longer have his earnings declared to the public, unlike other high-earners at the corporation.
Mr Bruce said: “I don’t think anybody likes to see their private affairs plastered across the newspapers.
“The whole thing is a very handy BBC-bashing exercise. It’s a ridiculous thing, really.
“I don’t think it helps anybody on either side.
Asked if he thinks the BBC gave him the recognition he deserved when he left, he says: “Well, I don’t want a fuss, so when I decided to go it was my decision. I wanted to do something else.
“I just wanted to do my job, finish and slip away quietly and start a new one. I’ve been able to do that.
“I wasn’t fazed by what went on, I was just surprised by the amount of attention.”
Bruce doesn’t like to look back, he says, but is happy to contemplate his broadcasting longevity and why he is still so popular.
“Something happens, people get used to you being around, that’s an important thing,” He said.
“I think the regularity is important.”
Speaking on the success of PopMaster, for which he owns the rights, he said: “When we started it back in 98, we thought it would run for a few months,” he said.
“Any feature on a radio programme, you usually don’t expect it to run more than a few months, maybe a year, maybe two if you’re lucky.
“Everything has its sell-by date. PopMaster just kept going and gradually building and it just seems to have become part of the fabric of people’s day.”
Away from the studio, he lives in Oxfordshire with his third wife, Kerith Coldham, to whom he’s been married for 24 years.
