Jeremy Vine says he’ll be ‘cool’ when his time is up on Radio 2

Speaking on the How to be 60 podcast, Jeremy Vine says he’ll be ok when he’s eventually told he’s too old and his broadcasting days over.

This comes as the latest listening figures show BBC Radio 2 has lost one million listeners at a time the station appears to be shifting towards a younger audience. There’s been a lot of debate as some of the older presenters have been replaced by younger ones.

Speaking to hosts Kaye Adams and Karen MacKenzie on the podcast, Vine told them if he gets a tap on the shoulder from bosses telling him his time has come because there are new people coming through, he’ll be ok with it.

“We have to accept that, because what you cannot do is say ‘how unfair’ – the unfairness is we’ve done it for so long! So, I think I’ll be cool with it actually, I think I will,” he said.

He recalled when Sir Jimmy Young left his lunchtime show on Radio 2, he was so angry about it and Jeremy, who was taking over the show, asked if they could meet for lunch to talk about it. Jimmy sent back a note saying, “I do not have time for lunch” and Jeremy thought Jimmy was angry at him.

When asked what he thought when Ken Bruce left the station, Jeremy responded, referring to the daily schedule: “I’m the oldest one now, I was the youngest one for ages, but I don’t really go for public panic!”

He added: “I’m so uncomfortable talking about my own professional demise. I can’t quite factor it in, and I do think that we all have to be aware that it’s coming for all of us.”

The discussion around whether Radio 2 is trying to appeal to a younger audience has been going on for a long time, but its remit is to appeal to adults 35 and over, so at 58, Jeremy probably has quite a bit of time to go!