Ken Bruce reveals real reason he left Radio 2 for Greatest Hits Radio job branding BBC’s actions ‘a shame’

Radio legend Ken Bruce has revealed the true reason he left Radio 2 earlier in the year. Talking on the topic, Bruce expressed his disappointment in being asked to leave early by the BBC.

After 31 years in the mid morning slot, Bruce announced he was leaving the station in January. Two months later in March, he went, heading to rival, Greatest Hits Radio, taking 1.25 million listeners with him.

And now, just shy of six months later, Bruce has broken his silence and opened up about why he decided to leave a role he had held for over three decades, stating he didn’t like being forced to play new music.

Ken explained: “It was a long time and I thought ‘I’m doing the same thing every day’. There was a point of saying that I can’t enthuse over all the new music I’m having to play as much as I could over the old music. And I didn’t want to get to the stage where I was badmouthing some of the music [or] pretending to like it.”

The 72-year-old has made the comments  in an upcoming episode of ex-MP and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth’s new podcast, Rosebud, which was first revealed by Mail Online.

On the podcast, Ken continued to explain how he still felt he had more to offer in his career despite his age, and didn’t want to become “old bloke in the corner” or become more “bitter and entrenched”.

After starting his new job, Ken said he feels like he’s “rejuvenated” and despite loving his previous job at the BBC, he felt the time was right to ‘try something else’.

Following the decades of service at the BBC, his departure came rather abruptly when he was asked to leave early following his own announcement he would be departing the station.

Ken added: “I thought, ‘Come on, you can trust me, I’m not going to do a Dave Lee Travis [and] start badmouthing everybody’, because I had a lovely time at the BBC. So it was all a bit... unnecessary. It’s entirely within the BBC’s right to ask me to step away a little early. But for the sake of 17 days, it seems a shame.”